There are two important prerequisites before practice of meditation:
1. One should learn to train to pay attention and be aware of what he does,
2. One should learn to concentrate.
Due to mechanical life, our minds are restless and confused and because of ignorance we remain misdirected and far from realities. That is, in a single day we may experience unhappy emotions, like anxiety, tension, depression, disappointment, emotional reactions, sense of insecurity, fear, phobias, bout of anger, and frustration etc. We feel as if we are in a cage. We move from one position to the other controlled by the desires. We are a distracted lot and there seems to be no chance to find the rest, equilibrium, relaxation or renewal, which actually is the need.
Meditation is a practice, which sets in the liberation from restless desires, from the disturbing thoughts which normally come to our minds and also our reactive states. These disturbances are replaced by ever increasing peace, happiness, upliftment of emotional level and we experience sense of inner refreshment and joy, as we progress in meditation.
Through meditation all the strengths of the mind together with feelings, emotion, cognition, volition dissonance or conflict get unified and latent powers are awakened. So there is a total integration of the mind, which leads in the development of a dynamic personality. All the glorious deeds, inventions and human upliftment have been done by people of such integrated mind and concentrated Sankalpa or Determination. The western psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists and physiologists have realized the integration of mind through meditation, which begins with concentration. Through concentration mind becomes steady, focused i.e., one pointed and is then expanded to the Super-Conscious state. Thus meditation is the process though which the mind is first made one-pointed and then expanded to the state of enlightenment.
The one pointed mind thus is a tremendous force. It is capable of creating miracles in the world and can make others happy and joyful. Such a mind bestows immense physical, neural, mental and spiritual benefits.