Question – “Well, what is the rule for concentration? Where should one concentrate?”
Sri Ramakrishna : “The heart is a splendid place. One can meditate there or in the Sahasrara. These are rules for meditation given in the scriptures. But you may meditate wherever you like. Every place is filled with Brahman-Consciousness. Is there any place where It does not exist? Narayana, in Vali’s presence, covered with two steps the heavens, the earth, and the interspaces.* Is there then any place left uncovered by God? A dirty place is as holy as Ae bank of the Ganges. It is said that the whole creation is the Virat, the Universal Form of God.
There are two kinds of meditation, one on the formless God and the other on God with form. But meditation on the formless God is extremely difficult. In that meditation you must wipe out all that you see or hear. You contemplate only the nature of your Inner Self. Meditating on His Inner Self, Siva dances about. He exclaims, ‘What am I! What am I!’ This is called the ‘Siva yoga’.
While practising this form of meditation, one directs one’s look to the forehead. It is meditation on the nature of one’s Inner Self after negating the world, following the Vedantic method of ‘Neti, neti’.
“There is another form of meditation known as the ‘Vishnu yoga’. The eyes are fixed on the tip of the nose. Half the look is directed inward and the other half outward. This is how one meditates on God with form. Sometimes Siva meditates on God with form, and dances. At that time he exclaims, ‘Rama! Rama!’ and dances about.”