Wisdom of Meditation
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March
Pranic Awareness:
This pranayama practice focuses on the Yogic breath—long, full, slow, conscious breaths. On the inhale, the mind’s attention is drawn from the crown of the head (Sahasrar chakra) down to the base of the spine, drawing sky-energy to descend and meet earth-energy at the Muladhar chakra.
Once the rhythm of yogic pranayam is established, Shikhaa introduces the mantra Amaram hum, Madhuram hum, repeated in rhythm with the breath as a powerful practice of concentration. Through conscious yogic breathing, mantra, and gentle suspension of the breath (kumbhak), the practice brings as one the grounding awareness in the body with a subtle attunement to space and stillness, allowing them to arise as one unified experience.
Mantra Meditation:
This guided meditation brings about a simple, yet immensely powerful shift: from being lost in thinking, to knowing I am the observer, the knower of thinking. Shikhaa explores how the thinking mind, complex and compelling, in its endless seeking, creates a sense of separation. Whereas, the true Self knows itself as ever free, whole, and complete. As the voice of the Self becomes clearer than the voice of the mind, fear of loss and the struggle for gain dissolve, just as a wave dissolves into what it has always been - the ocean. The meditation closes with the mantra Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum, heard as the inner voice of pure awareness—ever present, unmoved, complete, and free.
This audio was recorded during the morning meditation at Aoteraroa Kirtan Festival, January 2026. Inspired by the Pavman mantra from the Brhadaranyaka Upanishads, Shikhaa uses Om Asatoma Sat Gamaya as a clear guideline for meditation — leading the attention of the mind to discern between the changing experiences and the unchanging I - the source of all experience - OM. This is where effort is to be directed in meditation, and in this practice the tamas, the darkness, which is the burden of the human condition, is dispelled by the light Jyotir of knowing the unchanging I.
Through sound, silence, and observation, this meditation points to knowing oneself as pure being, pure consciousness, pure bliss.
The Pavman Mantra:
Om asato ma sadgamaya - lead the attention (gamaya) to discern the changing (asat) from the unchanging (sat)
Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya - and the light (jyoti) of this practice will dispel the darkness (tamas)
Mrityur ma amritam gamaya - and the fear of death (mrityur) will be released in the revelation of immortality and bliss (amritam)
Guided Meditation:
In this 17-minute guided meditation, we watch the phenomena of the experiencing person dissolve, just like the movement from waking to sleep. Shikhaa describes meditation as a conscious merging of experience into a state that is not waking, where there is no person in relation to a world, and where likes, dislikes, wants, and frustrations subside. The breath is used as a simple entry point, not to control, but to lead the attention back toward this state. With light, effortless breathing and gazing into the space behind the closed eyes, attention is repeatedly guided back to the source of all experience, where thinking is absorbed and pure consciousness remains.
This 15-minute meditation guides awareness out of its habitual absorption in thinking and back to its natural state. Shikhaa describes meditation as liberating awareness from its constant association with form. Using the natural rhythm of the breath as a bridge, attention is gently drawn out of the mental realm and back to pure awareness. Thoughts are not analyzed nor resisted; they are allowed to pass while awareness rests with the breath, and eventually with itself. This practice supports a direct return to clarity, stillness, and inner recharge, how beneficial it is to take time for meditation daily.
Satsang:
In response to a satsang participant’s reflection on “stepping on a family landmine,” Shikhaa opens the enquiry into how the waking-state world can appear as a snake when, in truth, it is only a rope. She exposes the instinctive urge to manage, fix, or defend against what seems threatening, and traces this impulse back to its root, which is the fear of our very sense of existence.
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She then reveals the nature of thinking itself, showing how thoughts lose their charge when they are no longer fed. What we take to be personal reactions and dramas are seen as waves arising within the One field of consciousness. Through meditation, it becomes clear that there is no poison and nothing truly to fear.
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In the clarity of meditation, the deeper realisation dawns: there is no ‘other’ who can harm, and no separate self that can be harmed. In this vision of oneness, the tension of opposites releases, and again and again the snake is recognised for what it has always been — a rope.
In this satsang, Shikhaa addresses the often misunderstood concept that knowing oneself as the witness (sakshee) means to disconnect or withdraw from life. She clarifies that being uninvolved does not mean disconnected, uncaring, or defunct, but fully engaged without being impacted. Using the example of the element space in contrast to the other four elements, she explains how the self is unaffected by form, words, and their meanings. Through this exploration, our attention is returned to realizing oneself as the undivided, formless, ever-present sakshee — completely involved and uninvolved at the same time — fully engaged, carrying the wisdom of Self, pure unaffected space.
Scriptures:
This audio recording is part 1 of 2 from the final Light of Knowledge Satsang 2025. Shikhaa explores the root of human struggle and the opening to freedom beyond it. Shikhaa traces suffering back to the assumed reality of “me in a world”—a divided consciousness shaped by identification with body, mind, and experience. Drawing from the scripture Yog Vasishth, she examines how the world we perceive as “other” arises through the senses and the thinking mind, creating the belief in a separate doer, experiencer, and sufferer. Meditation is the suspension of identification with this covering power of duality, allowing the recognition of the undivided reality in which no separate ‘I’ exists. In stillness, the imposed sense of self returns to the Pure Self, revealing the ever-present, pure consciousness that was never separate, never bound.
This interactive satsang is part 2 of the final Light of Knowledge satsang 2025. Shikhaa explores how the sense of a divided self is created through identification with the body, senses, and the roles we play. Self-realisation is often imagined as something distant or difficult, yet the truth is simple: we exist, we are aware, and we wish to be free from pain. Meditation is not about destroying the world or changing our experience, but about knowing oneself - I Am - prior to the doer and the experiencer. Shikhaa highlights the importance of meditation as the direct practice of not making any thought true, revealing the simplicity of ‘I Am’ - free from struggle, doubt and confusion.
Interactions:
In this 11-minute satsang, a retreat participant questions whether the mind, language, and personal labels can ever lead directly to truth, or whether true understanding requires the cessation of thought and the abandonment of words altogether.
Shikhaa responds by clarifying the difference between the thinking mind and the mind’s innate capacity to observe itself. She explains how the mind has the potential to become clear like a mirror, reflecting pure, non-personal awareness, and why rejecting words and concepts does not bring freedom; it merely replaces one limitation with another.
Shikhaa brings the liberating point, “You cannot plan for freedom.” To declare, “I will not use words,” or “I will use words and then I will be free,” is still to operate within strategy and control. The direct path is not achieved through method or intention, but revealed in the direct knowledge, ‘I am pure awareness, ever-present, pure and free’. From this state of freedom, Self-realisation is lived spontaneously, without rules, methods, or strategies.
Ordinarily, the mind moves toward differences and division, and this movement Shikhaa describes as the root to dissatisfaction, because there is no satisfaction in a divided state of consciousness. To realise a deeper state of consciousness beyond personal identification, the mind must be led out of division and back to its source. In this satsang, Shikhaa includes a reading from Meet Your True Self Through Meditation by Swami Shyam, which points to the natural attracting power of the source of consciousness. As we listen, the mind is not forced inward; it is drawn back by the source itself. Each satsang grooves this channel deeper and stronger, until the mind naturally turns toward its origin and rests in the undivided Self.
April
Pranic Awareness:
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Mantra Meditation:
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Guided Meditation:
This short guided meditation leads on from a satsang in which a participant shares their observation of people, how they rush to an imagined destination, and, being exhausted in the pursuit, remain with the sense of incompleteness. Shikha was recently listening to a folk song from a 60’s folk group, Moby Grape, 'It's a beautiful day today', and she reads the lyrics from this song as a lead into meditation, the main line being, “People in the streets, rushing everywhere, moving fast, they got to get somewhere.” We can become aware of the unconscious rush, the striving to reach that which does not exist, to stop and hear the birds sing, "It's a beautiful day today.”
From a question about how to help someone in a burdened state, Shikhaa guides a short but powerful meditation, pointing to the understanding that two minds cannot help each other. Meditation is described as the releasing of baggage and the surrender of ego identification. In contrast, Asmita is the sense of being the doer and carrier of burden. Through repeated practice of meditation, surrendering the ego, the mind relinquishes its struggle and the completeness of one’s being is revealed pure, ever free, ever complete, unchanging and ever present. From this state of knowing the Self, support is offered not through effort or words, but by emanating the knowledge of the inner being, drawing the attention of the mind to its highest state, free from the pain of ego identification.
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Satsang:
In this satsang, Shikhaa speaks of worry as a habitual movement of the thinking mind and clarifies that what appears to be the cause of worry is never the cause. She explains meditation as gamaya, the turning of attention from asat, the changing and unreal, back to sat, that which is unchanging, ever present. Using the Pavman mantra Asatoma Sat Gamaya, she guides a clear discernment between experience and truth, leading to the recognition of oneself as pure awareness, pure existence, pure bliss, beyond gain and loss, worry and fear.
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Scriptures:
Shikhaa reads from a research finding written by her Guru, Shyam, on how meditation becomes naturally accessible when attention is brought back to the essence of one’s true Self—pure awareness. Shyam opens the writing by stating, “The essential nature of a human being is unfolded through meditation, and the treasury of knowledge and happiness, which is every being’s birthright, is uncovered through this simple practice.”
He completes the teachings by writing, “The meditator knows the value of the human incarnation, and uses the powers made available through meditation to attend this source of the changing world of forms—‘I Am.’”
This 22-minute guided reading gives a lucid and direct orientation, culminating in the insight: “The master of meditation is the one who knows the pure and free ‘I’ and fully identifies with it as their own Self.”
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Satsang:
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