Q What is 'Dhyaana'? How should we undertake Dhyana? What are the rules to be followed during Dhyana?
Dhyana means constant thinking or contemplation. Usually, our thoughts do not stay on one object for a long time. The process of fixing the thought process on an idol or a candle light or a star or a mantra or music for an extended period of time is dhyaana. In other words, our thought should return to the same object repeatedly in very quick succession. By doing so, one can ensure that the object gets firmly imprinted in one's mind. The process by which an object or an idea becomes imprinted in the mind is Dhyaana.
How should one undertake Dhyaana? This is like asking 'How to swim?' To learn swimming, one should get in to the pool and start to move the legs and arms. Then one will gradually learn to swim. Dhyaana is also like that. One should start it and strive in that direction till it becomes a practice. One should not give up in the middle. To achieve this, one should take refuge in a Guru and practise under His supervision.
Q Even though I have been performing Pooja every day since many years, difficulties in life have not reduced. Sometimes I feel that nothing can change it and that performing Pooja is of no use.
Homoeopathic medicines have the tendency of first raking up old illnesses. For example, when a homoeopath gives a medicine against headache, it might actually bring out the disease which was suppressed many years ago. What should we think now? Should we think that the medicine is bad or should we think that the disease was in a dormant state within us for all these years? In a way, pooja and meditation act like homoeopathic medicine. When the Almighty decides that a person needs cleansing, He will first try to bring out all the impurities collected over many lives. The patient should be patient and continue the medicines as long as the physician has advised. Similarly, one should learn to tolerate the hardships.
Q Some people say that the sins committed by the father will be transferred to the son. Is it true? The scriptures mention that every individual should suffer his/her karma. Which is correct?
Sin is not transferable. Some people argue that certain disorders which run in families are examples to demonstrate that the sin committed by the ancestor has taken the form of a disease and has been running in his lineage. It should be understood here that if an individual is born in this family, it only means that this individual had committed such karmas in his/her past lives so as to take birth in this family.
There is another mechanism by which sins spread. It is common knowledge that if we stay with a person for a long time, we tend to imbibe the qualities of that person. This fact is accepted by the scriptures as well as by modern psychologists. We tend to cultivate the same tendencies of those whom we adore and admire. Their qualities are passed on to us. Similarly merits and sins are also passed on. Passing on does not mean that their sins leave them and attack us. The qualities of whom we follow remain with them only. It is only that we also develop such qualities. In this way, it is possible for the sins of the parents to flow to the children also.
Even here, your past karma is responsible to expose you to such environment. Because you had to commit sins, you had to take birth in that particular family. It is not proper to think that you are suffering the karmas of your parents.