The purpose of meditation is to help man attain a direct and immediate experience of his basic nature as Sat-chid-ananda. In our ordinary waking moments the mind is outward-going, through the portals of the senses and it gets a direct knowledge of external nature or the environment in which one’s bodily life is cast. Consciousness is like a line with two ends, A and B, A standing for the subject side which is aware of the other and B, which is forming itself continuously into various modes or images due to stimulations coming from outside through sensations or through the awakening of memories within.

Now in the ordinary functioning of the mind, the subject side is very weak, taken up as it is entirely with B, the form-taking end of consciousness. Consequently we are totally ignorant of the nature of A and its background and are entirely identified with the body-mind and the experiences that are had through them. Meditation is the process of stopping the image-forming tendency of B by shutting it off from the stimulations of external objects and of memory impressions and then making the undisturbed light of consciousness to look at itself (A) and its source.

To counteract the memory impression, the mind will have to be concentrated in the early stages on contrary thought-images, which will gradually wean the mind from its mode-taking tendencies and settle it in the ultimate subject. This analysis is specially meant to show that meditation is not indulging in some sweet imaginings and seeking formations of one’s own subjective impressions. On the other hand meditation seeks to overcome all the subjective impressions and until this is achieved, thought will never settle in its own background. In the experience that is gained through really successful meditation, there is no place for the subconscious mind and its impressions. It is what takes us to the bedrock of reality.