A Basic Handbook for Spiritual (Self Realization and Meditation)

What is the biggest impediment to learn anything new through books? It is the jargons. People usually get scared by the jargons. For example, the fundamental jargons used in economics are Currency, GDP, GNP, inflation, deflation etc. If one wishes to master economics, the easiest way is to have a strong understanding about the basic jargons of economics first. But if people find it difficult to understand the definition of the jargons, they will simply show no interest to explore further in that subject. Similarly, spirituality has evoked little interest among the masses because of the lack of down-to-earth explanations for the jargons used. Therefore, keeping those in mind who have very little time to explore the jargons on their own, this book contains very simple explanations for the spiritual jargons as well as very simple techniques to do meditation. So, anyone who goes through this book will develop a taste for spirituality and will learn to meditate quickly and easily. It is immaterial whether you are a believer in God or not, but, if you are someone who has the courage to question anything and everything, this book is for you.

Senthil Vellaichamy holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering and is working in the Information Technology sector. He has a strong passion for Spirituality, Psychology, Physical health, the Laws of the Universe and Arts. He is a keen practitioner of meditation for more than two decades. He also teaches meditation and now has a mission through his books, to make as many as people aware about the immense benefits of meditation to both the mind and the body. Senthil Vellaichamy lives in Chennai with his wife, daughter and Son.

At any given point in time, cutting across the nations, a good percentage of people have tried or will try to do meditation. As far as I know, among those who did try, only a minuscule fraction succeeded, while the rest gave up after their intense efforts failed. The reason is simple. Anyone who tries to meditate without knowing what exactly meditation is, is bound to fail in his/her attempts. The same can be said about those who are trying now or have a plan to try in the future. Among them, only those who are exposed to the real meaning of meditation are going to succeed, and those who are not will give up their attempts sooner or later.

I started my attempts to learn meditation in my early twenties. For the next eight years, I was trying but never able to maintain the peaceful state for even a minute. Initially, I wanted to learn meditation out of curiosity. But, with the passage of time, responsibilities started piling up, and so did stress. Therefore, learning to meditate became a necessity, but I was not able to make any headway at all. Often, I would try very intensely, dedicating a good amount of time and energy to stay calm inside, but results were frustrating. Every time my efforts went in vain, I would become more depressed. Still, desperately, I kept reading books and attending classes and discourses, to find out the means to enjoying the elusive inner peace. But nothing helped.

When I was about to give up my efforts once and for all, I went through Sri Ramana Maharshi's tiny booklet, named Who Am I, expecting nothing. I had known about the existence of this book for a very long time but never had the interest to go through it, because it was so tiny. At that time, I had this strong notion that tiny booklets could not possibly contain anything to explain complex concepts like meditation. So I never gave it the respect it deserved, but ultimately the loss was mine. A good eight years were lost by the time I went through it.

It took a couple of years of sustained effort to grasp the essence of Ramana Maharshi's teachings and realize that this simple booklet contained the answer I had been looking for the past several years-why I was not able to meditate. I realized that I had been doing it all wrong those years by equating something else with meditation, which in reality it was not.

This is exactly the reason people give up trying to meditate. We often confuse meditation with focus and concentration. So, when we keep on failing to keep our attention on something, like an object or a flame or breathing or our forehead, we lose the hope of doing it forever.

I am now in my early forties and I have written this book to assure the meditation practitioners that it is indeed easy to learn to meditate, if the real meaning of meditation is understood. So go through it, make it happen, and have fun. Cheers!