Practice of Antarmouna begins.Sit in a comfortable position with back straight and hands on thighs with palms facing upwards.Repeat in your mind: I am prepared for inner silence.Become aware of external sounds and sensations without treating them as disturbances.Do not struggle with any sensations or experiences, Become a spectator or observer.I am witnessing the experience of hearing, observing sounds and so on.I am the third thing in the proves. The ear is the first object, the sound or observation is the second and then I.The experiencer, the experience and the seer of bothThreefold awareness in the first stage of antarmouna.This is called drishta bhava
Become aware of your thoughts, the spontaneous thoughts.Thoughts come on their own and go away on their own accordYou do not have to bring in the thought flow.Be a silent witness of every thought that is going through your mind When a thought comes to your mind, say, I am having this thought.If there is no thought, become aware that there is no thoughtRemain alert and aware throughout.They may be good thoughts or bad thoughts. They are not coming from outside. They are expressions of yourself, your own personality
Remember you are practising dharanaRemember you are a practitioner of pratyaharaGood thoughts and bad thoughts will come. Allow them to come up. This is the second stage of antarmouna.Do not try to supress them. If you try to supress them, next time, they will come with greater force.Observe with absolute attention
Now, bring to your mind any thought that you want to thinkDo not let it come spontaneously, but bring it in by your own willThink over it for some time and then, dash it off.Do not let spontaneous thoughts to manifest at all, but create your own thought by your voluntary will.Maintain it for some time brood over it and then suddenly, with a jerk, dash it off.If any spontaneous or random thought wants to express itself, do not permit it, but tell it, I do not want you now. Go on creating and removing thoughts at will.It is not difficult to get rid of good thoughts, but more challenging to get rid of bad thoughts
You create a bad thought at will, brood it over for a while and then with a jerk, dash it off.
When this is practised for some time, you develop the habit of disposing off or throwing off bad thoughts from the depths of your subconscious.It is a great achievement for an aspirant or a beginner or any one for that matter to shake off bad thoughts at will as they appear in our mind.
The fourth stage of inner silence is to awaken spontaneous thoughts.Do not bring them at will as was done in stage 3.Just allow them to come and think of them for some time.When the time for disposal of the thought comes, dispose off the thought at will.The arrival is spontaneous, but disposal of the thought should depend on your will.
In this fourth stage, both good and bad thoughts from your subconscious mind should be allowed to come up simultaneously.It is not possible to meditate if you can not withdraw senses from the sense objects.Withdrawal is the process of pratyahara.Perfection of pratyahara leads to dharana.When dharana is perfect, dhyana begins
The fifth stage if the awareness of inner space or chidakasha.Be aware of the colourless and formless inner space of your psyche and be aware of your thoughts.Of any thought comes to your mind, dash it off, dispose it off immediately.Do not brood over any thought. Do not recognise any thought at all.As soon as a thought comes up, immediately push it down and out.This is the stage where thoughtlessness is practised.Thoughts will come, but they are to be dashed off.If in place of thoughts, forms and visions come into your conscious plane, employ a different method, and that is the method of dissolving the form into formlessness.
It could be the form of a bird, man, woman, tree or landscape. Immediately, dispose it off as if a drop of water is spilled over a canvas where you have painted a picture and the picture is dissolved.Become aware of your inner space, the chidakasha.Try to maintain the state of thoughtlessness.Maintain it by remaining of one thought and that is "I shall have no thought"
This is the complete practice of inner silence.Please gently open your eyes, relax the body.The practise is complete. Hari Om Tat Sat