Which method of meditation is correct? || On Vivekachudamani (2018)

Questioner (Q): I have a question on these four commonly quoted methods: śama (restraint), dama (taming, subduing), daṇḍ (chastising, punishment), and bheda (division, difference). None of these methods seem to work. What to do? How to understand these methods correctly?

Acharya Prashant (AP): There are an infinite variety of methods, and all methods are available to you. Intelligence naturally knows the methods to apply. It’s just that conditioning prevents you from applying methods. You take some methods as right, wrong, moral, immoral, applicable, inapplicable, whereas the rightness of any method in the spiritual domain is decided only by its ability to deliver the goods. If something takes you to the Truth, it cannot be evil. But because we have no affinity for the Truth, no longing for the Truth, so we start thinking too much about the method.

You have to go to meet your beloved, and you missed the flight, and now you have to travel in the general compartment of a train. Would you mind it too much? It depends, actually; it depends on your relationship with your beloved. If you are really hungry to meet, then it won’t matter how you are traveling; the method, the vehicle, would be of very little importance. And if you are absolutely bonkers, totally crazy, you may even decide to travel on foot—or even crawl. It depends on the longing, doesn’t it?

The love itself suggests the method; from no other place can the method arise. Love will suggest you the method, love will show the way. If you are not able to find a way, it just means you don’t love enough. Śama is alright, dama is alright, daṇḍ is also alright, and so is bheda