Samarpan Meditation

Good morning.

This morning, I would like to talk about the Samarpan Meditation. I mention this meditation in each and every one of my videos, and sometimes, I talk about it a little bit, but in this video, I want to talk about the practical things. I want to explain to you how you do this meditation, and I want to tell you a few things which are interesting about it, so you can do it yourself. And at the end of this video, I would like to invite you to meditate together with me for 15 minutes, a short version so to speak, so you can try it out for yourself if you like.

The Samarpan Meditation is pretty young. It was about 20 years ago that Swamiji, my Indian Guru, brought this meditation from the Himalayas into society. And the special thing about this meditation is that it's totally simple. Everybody can do it. You can do it no matter which religion you belong to, no matter whether you're male or female, no matter in which part of the world you are living in, no matter what language you speak, no matter whether you are rich or poor. It is free of cost, it doesn't cost anything. Everybody can do this. You don't need anything to do it other than a half an hour of time every morning.

And the other special thing about this meditation is that it is a tool for normal people. It is a tool for those people who have a normal life, who live in society, who have a job, a family; who have obligations and friends and everything. Swamiji, my Guru, is also a human being from society. He lives with his wife, he has children, and yet he is such an amazing Guru. And what he brings is this meditation for you, for the normal people in society. So, you don't have to change your life. You don't have to change yourself to do this meditation. You just add it to your life, it's totally simple. And then, the benefits of this meditation will unfold in your life and in yourself, and it will change your life, all by itself.

Let me first tell you what the benefits of this meditation are. Why should you do it? Some people who are not familiar with meditation, they think: "Why should I waste half an hour of my time every day to do this? I can do better things!" This half hour is the best investment of time you can do in your life. When you meditate regularly, it will change your health, your body will be as healthy as it can be, and it will change your inner balance. It will make you quiet, fear and anxiety will disappear from your life, and you will enjoy life more and more and more. You don't even know how it's possible. You don't even know what's going on, but you just become more and more happy.

And it all happens by itself. It's not that you change something. It's not that you rearrange your life or rearrange yourself, which you couldn't do anyway. It happens all by itself. So, it's the best half hour you can spend of your entire day, this one-half hour in the morning.

So, let me tell you how this meditation is being done. You just sit down in a comfortable position, you close your eyes, and then you take your right hand and you put the palm of your hand on the highest spot of your head, the spot which the Indians call the crown chakra. And then you form three circles clockwise with your flat hand on that spot of your head.

And after this, you slowly take down your hand again... and during the meditation you would now keep your eyes closed, of course... and then, to start the meditation, you recite a very very simple and short mantra, the Soul Mantra. It's: "I am a Holy Soul, I am a Pure Soul." And that is being repeated three times.

And then you keep your eyes closed, and your attention remains here at this point of your head where your hand was resting just a moment before. Here on the crown chakra, you stay with your attention. It's the parking spot for your attention, so to speak. And then you sit there just like this, for half an hour, that's all.

There's no goal to achieve. You don't need to achieve a certain state. You don't need to reach a certain feeling. All this is not important. All this happens by itself. Your only job is to keep your attention here at this point. And you will notice that your attention will not stay there. Thoughts come, and your attention will wander to the thoughts. Or your body speaks up and it's itching or hurting somewhere, and your attention is being drawn to the body. And then, whenever something like this happens, you just take your attention back to the highest spot of your head, to this spot to the crown, that's all.

It's not important that you do it good or perfect. It's not that you should be there all the time. You can't! You just return with your attention to this spot whenever you notice that you are not with your attention at the crown anymore. That's all. It's very very simple. And there's no pressure, nothing to achieve. And that's all.

And I want to tell you a few things about this meditation now, a few practical things, a few of my experiences... I want to tell you how I do it. But before I start with this, I want to mention that Swamiji recommends that when you want to do this meditation, you attend an introduction. There are people who are working in Germany for Swamiji, they are here to bring this meditation into society, and they offer introductions where they speak about the meditation, just like I do now. But I am just Mikael. I tell you my experiences. I tell you whatever I remember about the meditation, but when you attend such an introduction, you listen to people who are very close to Swamiji, and it's a different thing. Maybe you hear the same things I'm saying, but maybe they say it differently, or maybe I forget things and they tell you the complete story.

And such an introduction is totally simple, it doesn't cost anything, you don't sign up for anything, there's no obligation involved. And you can do it on site, for instance once a month at the Place of Meditation near Frankfurt you can attend such an introduction, or if you live outside of Germany, in many many countries in the world there is a Samarpan Meditation group or organization which offers these introductions. But you can also attend these introductions online. Every week you can do this, and you just sit at home in front of your computer and you listen to the introduction. It takes usually about half an hour, and then you're covered, then you know everything you need to know. It's such a simple thing. I wanted to add this, because what I say is my own experience, but Swamiji, who brings this meditation, he says: "Attend an introduction, this is a good start for you to meditate."

And sometimes, he also recommends that when you do this meditation, when you start it, do it for at least 45 days. Make a contract with yourself. Say: "Okay, I will try this for 45 days and then I will see whether I like it." And it's good to do it this way, because it takes a while until you begin to notice the beautiful effects of this meditation. And at the same time, there are parts in you which will resist this. Your body will say: "Oh, I don't want to sit there for half an hour every morning, this is not nice. I want to do something else." Or your intellect doesn't like, it he doesn't like to sit there quiet and not being needed for half an hour every morning. So, it's totally normal that your body says: "I don't want to meditate", and it's totally normal that your intellect says: "I don't want to meditate, I have better things to do." And that's why it's helpful in the beginning to dedicate a certain amount of days for the start. It's like a challenge, a "meditation challenge". Do a challenge for 45 days, and then, then you decide whether you like it or not. But after 45 days, most people I know, they just stay with it, because it's such a blessing.

And then, the other thing to know about this meditation is that you should do it every day. You saw that it's really simple, there's nothing special about it seemingly, everybody can do it. You don't visualize anything, you don't have to do anything, you don't have to achieve anything. You just don't do anything. But it's important to do it every day. That's important for the benefits to unfold in your life. It's like your whole life is only about going outside, achieving, fulfilling expectations, doing your job. And this is the only time dedicated totally only to yourself, only to go inside. And you need to do it every day, that's important. Everything else you can do whatever you want. You can live the way you want; you don't have you to change your life, you don't have to suddenly give up things, you don't have to stop smoking or stop drinking, you don't have to become suddenly holy or good. Stay the way you are, but meditate!

I want to tell you a story from Swamiji about this. I really like this story. He was invited to speak at an event which was held at a clinic for addicts, for alcohol addicts. In this clinic, there were people who were severely addicted to alcohol. And there was an event where all kinds of doctors and specialists were talking to these people, trying to help them. And then, Swamiji came, and Swamiji told these people: "Don't try to change yourself. Don't try to not drink. Don't try to improve upon yourself." He even said: "If you drink one bottle of booze today, drink two bottles tomorrow. But meditate!"

And I find this so beautiful. It's not about you becoming better. It's not about you fulfilling some requirements so you can meditate. It's not required of you to be a good person, or holy, or anything like this. You are the way you are. Just stay the way you are. But meditate! And the meditation will take care of everything, you don't have to do anything. And I do this meditation now since six years, and I can attest: it works like this. This is true. Your whole life changes, you change, but by itself.

And these alcoholics who were listening to Swamiji, these were severe cases. And Swamiji invited them to do a 45 challenge. He said: "Stay the way you are, drink as much as you want, but meditate!" And after 45 days, most of these people, I forgot to exact number, 90 or 95 percent, had stopped drinking, all by itself. The doctors were shocked. They did not think that this is possible. They couldn't help the alcoholics, but it happened by itself through the meditation. So, this is important for you to know: you don't have to change yourself, there's no pressure involved, other than: take this half an hour every morning.

And then, one question which often comes up is: "When should I meditate?" The best time to meditate is early in the morning, as early as you can do. And here it's again important: no pressure. Don't make it difficult for yourself.

Before I go on, I want to tell you another short story about Swamiji. There was an event a while ago, a discourse Swamiji gave here in Germany, and he was asked about the meditation. Some people asked him: "How should we do this? What's important?" And he said: "You know, you only ask these questions because you don't want to meditate." And I found this answer fascinating. Our intellect, he wants to make it complicated. He doesn't want to meditate. He loses his power over you, the mind, the intellect, and if he can find reasons why it is too complicated or too difficult or too cumbersome, then he will convince you to stop meditating, and that's what Swamiji points to. Don't ask too many questions, just meditate! He said: "It doesn't matter how you meditate. The important thing is that you do meditate, no matter how."

So, when I now speak about some details, keep this in mind. It's not complicated. It's not about that you do it perfectly. These are all recommendations. I mean, since you meditate for half an hour every day, you might as well do it at a time where it's most beneficial, that's how I see it. If I take half an hour of my time, I want to use this half an hour as well as I can. But it's not to make it difficult. You need to do it in a way which is easy for you.

But the most beneficial time is early in the morning, right after you wake up. I do it like this: I wake up in the morning, I briefly go to the bathroom, I go to the toilet, and I immediately return and I sit down and I meditate for half an hour. When I started this meditation six years ago, after a while I started to... after I woke up, I started to freshen myself up, I took a shower. I thought I should be awake; I should be awake and clear when I sit down to meditate. But then Swamiji heard about this and he said: "Don't do this. It's better that you sit down and meditate while you are still half asleep", while you're totally unclear, you're just like ah... you don't even know where it's upside down. And he said: "This, this state right after waking up, this is precious. This half in-between state. Start meditating there." That's his recommendation.

And, as for the time, he said: "As early as possible. Everything after 3:30 h. Now, you might think: 3:30? Forget it!" I don't meditate at 3:30 h. I wake up when my body wakes up. But you can arrange your bedtime in such a way that you wake up early, and then you can meditate really early. I do this: I go to bed at 10 o'clock, and then I wake up at 5:30, because my body needs seven and a half hours of sleep to be rested and happy. And then, I wake up by myself at 5:30, and I meditate at that time. And Swamiji recommends to meditate early in the morning because it's so much easier then.

Maybe you can find this out for yourself. There are days where I wake up earlier. This morning, for instance. Yesterday I slept very long. Sometimes, my body just wants more sleep, and yesterday I slept one and a half hours longer than usual. But this night, I woke up much earlier. I woke up briefly before four o'clock, totally rested, and then I meditate very very early and it's a difference. The meditation is easier. It's much nicer. It goes so much deeper just by itself, and I like this. And the reason is that when it's earlier in the morning, the whole world is still asleep. There are no thoughts in the air yet, because people are asleep. Everything is quiet. And then, usually around six o'clock, the world starts getting active, and then the atmosphere changes, and then the meditation changes, you can notice this, just because other people around you now are awake, and they are thinking, they're busy in their heads, and that affects you and your meditation. But again: this is something which should be no reason for you to be stressed out or to put pressure on yourself or to make it difficult.

What does not work for me is when I deprive myself of sleep in order to meditate or in order to wake up earlier. That doesn't work. Everybody is different, but I'm sure you know how much sleep your body takes on average when you give it the time it needs, and that's the time you should sleep. And I just do it in such a way that I go to bed at such a time so I wake up in the morning at a good time for my meditation. Maybe in your life it is such that you have to be out of the house at a certain time for work or because you take care of the kids for instance, and then you just rearrange your evening so you go to bed half an hour earlier, and then you have half an hour more time in the morning. It's just about rearranging some things. It's like it's kind of about priorities: do I rather watch another movie on television at night, or do I go to bed a little bit earlier and I have this precious time in the morning for my meditation?

Another question which frequently is being asked is: "How should I sit?" The posture of meditation. And again, Swamiji says, this is totally unimportant. He recommends sitting with your spine upright, and he says this is helpful. Don't lay in bed. Laying down is not good for meditation. The energy is much better when you sit up with your spine somewhat vertical, but how you sit is up to you. You can sit on a chair. I like sitting in a way that I'm not leaning against something. I like to sit in a way that my back is free. Then my body has to support itself, and then I stay in a much better energy. The body stays awake and alert. If I lean against a chair or a wall, my body tends to slump down and I get sleepy and I fall asleep. So, I like to sit with a free back.

And I like to meditate with my legs crossed. Also here, in front of the camera... I don't sit on the floor, but I have this little table instead of a chair. When I work or when I make videos, I always sit on this little table and I usually sit with my legs crossed. And sometimes you see me moving around, that's when I change the position of my legs, or when I just put them down on the floor when my body gets uncomfortable. That's how I like to do it, but you can do it the way you want. Again: it's important that you make it easy for yourself. Make it comfortable for yourself. I meditate like this because I love it. It's the easiest for me to keep sitting in an upright position. I just like this. And so many people, they start putting pressure on themselves because they think they should do it this way, but it's hard for them, and they should meditate at this time, but it's hard for them, and then they stop meditating. And of course, this is not helpful. So, do it in a way which is fun for you, which is comfortable for you. But meditate!

I started meditating cross-legged because I heard Swamiji say years ago... at some point he said: "The best way to meditate is sitting on the floor." And he said: "Everybody can do this." And when I heard this... this body is 60 years old now. When I heard this, the body was probably 55 years old so, and my body has been stiff like a broomstick all my life. I was never a sports person. My body is very very stiff, and I was never able to sit on the ground as an adult. It wasn't possible for me. And when I heard Swamiji say this, it touched something in me. I thought: "I want to try this!" He said: "Everybody can do this, no matter how old." He said: "If you're 80 or 90 years old, you still can do it, and if you think you can't do this, it's just an excuse." And I heard this and I thought: "This is very interesting what he says there", and I wanted to try it out. It's not that I felt obliged to do it. I didn't think: "Oh, I can't do this, but I have to do it because my Guru says this." It wasn't like this for me. It was totally different. I heard him say this, and I felt energy for it. I felt lust to try it out.

Sometimes I thought, maybe in my past life I was sitting in meditation like this for my whole life, and I just know it and I just love it, and in this life, I have this stiff body but something inside of me still longs for this. So, I started trying this out, and in the beginning, it was incredibly difficult. This body is so stiff. It was incredibly difficult for me to sit down on the floor, trying to cross my legs. I was totally... it was an amazing challenge for me. And for a few weeks, it was really difficult. For a few months, I really had to practice this, but then it got totally easy. And now I enjoy it so much. And now, I sit like this when I work in front of the computer. I sit cross-legged. I don't have normal chairs in my office. I have this table and I sit cross-legged in front of the computer, because it's the best way to sit for me. I love it.

But I describe it so elaborate to tell you: "It's not about making it difficult for you. It's not about that you have to do this meditation in a certain posture. No. Do it the way you want. Make it easy for you." But sometimes we hear things and we know: "Ah, this is interesting, I want to try out." And then, you just try out. But keep meditating! Don't stop meditating because you can't sit in a position where you think you have to do this position, or not meditate at all. Just keep meditating.

Some people also ask about the clothing: what clothes should we wear when we meditate? Again, wear whatever you want, but Swamiji says: lose clothing is best, clothing which does not restrict the body in any way. Don't wear a belt or anything which restricts your breathing or your belly. And he says: "Meditating naked is really cool." I tried this; I love it. But mostly, I meditate with clothes on. And again: just do it the way you want.

And where should you meditate? Swamiji recommends that you meditate on the same spot every morning. When you meditate at a certain spot in your room, this spot takes on this meditative energy, slowly slowly, over time, and then it becomes easier for you to meditate when you sit at that spot. And that's also the reason why it is not recommended to meditate in bed, because in bed, the energy is of sleeping. That's where your body spends seven or eight or nine hours every night sleeping, and that place has the sleeping energy. You want to meditate at a different spot. I have a very small room, but I get out of bed and I sit about one and a half meters away from my bed, and that's where I sit and meditate.

And Swamiji also says: It's very very helpful to meditate... I mean... You do this meditation alone, but it's helpful if you have a certain distance to any other people around you. He recommends 7 meters, I don't know, I think something like this, seven meters, six meters... because it's an energetic thing: when you have a certain distance to other people, your aura, your energy body has more space to expand and become bigger during meditation, and you're not so much influenced by the energy and by the thoughts of the other people around you. So, if you can, meditate so you have a few meters distance between you and other people, 7 meters, 15 or 20 feet, this is good. And again: if it's not possible, it doesn't matter. You just meditate the way it's possible for you, that's the only thing that counts.

Now, I talked about meditating early in the morning every day, and then, additionally, you should meditate once a week together with other people in a group. Swamiji highly recommends this. He says it's easy to meditate alone, and it's more difficult to meditate in a group in some respects, because you're distracted by other people, you're distracted by their energy and by the noises, by the restlessness, by their coughing, but it helps you to become stronger in controlling your awareness and controlling your consciousness to stay here at this spot. It makes you stronger in this meditation. And the second thing which happens is that it creates a community, it creates a community of meditative people. It doesn't mean that you have to befriend all these people and meet them to have a cup of tea or coffee every day, no. But just by meditating together, it happens automatically.

And Swamiji says it's very important, this community, this group support, because you live in a world which is going in the totally opposite direction. Everybody in this world is going outside and more and more outside. Nobody goes inside. Nobody becomes quiet and still and turns inwards. And being connected with other people who do the same thing like you, who meditate, this is immensely helpful to support this meditative state in your life while you're living in this normal world.

And meditating together with other people can happen in a group. In many many cities there are meditation groups for the Samarpan Meditation, and if you feel like it, you can just join them once a week, and you meet and you meditate together. But in many places, there are no groups like this, then you can do it online. It's very very convenient. For instance, here where I live, there is no group anywhere close by, so I meditate once or twice a week online, when other people are meditating at the same time. And on my website, there's a page called "Meditation", and there I collected some information about the meditation and also about the possibility where you can join a meditation group or where you can join an online meditation. By the way, on that page I also added some information about where you can attend an introduction to the Samarpan Meditation which I mentioned earlier.

So, you meditate every morning for half an hour, and once a week, at a time which is convenient for you, you meditate with other people, for half an hour, and that's it, and all the benefits of the meditation, they come into your life then all by itself. It really happens like this. It's totally amazing. So, I think about whether I forgot anything important about this meditation. I think I covered everything. If you have questions, write to me. I'm totally happy to answer your questions or to direct you to somebody who can answer them if I don't know.

So, do you want to meditate together? Let's do this. Just sit in a comfortable position. And you can repeat it in Hindi if you like, but I will say it during this meditation now in English:

"I am Holy Soul, I am a pure Soul."

And during the meditation we now do, I will have Swamiji speak it in Hindi, and then I repeat it together with you in English if you like. And this is repeated three times. And then, we meditate for 15 minutes. Should we start?

So, close your eyes, and take your hand, take your right hand, bring it up to your head and put the palm of your hand onto your head and make three circles clockwise with your hand on the crown chakra. And now, slowly slowly, take your hand down again. And now, we repeat the Soul Mantra together with Swamiji for three times:

"Me ek povitra atma hu."
"I am a Holy Soul."

"Me ek shuddha atma hu."
"I am a Pure Soul."

"Me ek povitra atma hu."
“I am a Holy Soul.”

"Me ek shuddha atma hu."
"I am a Pure Soul."

"Me ek povitra atma hu."
"I am a Holy Soul."

"Me ek shuddha atma hu."
"I am a Pure Soul."

……………

And you can open your eyes now slowly again.

Thank you for being here. Thank you.

I love you.