Problems with Math Education

If you are interested in motivating kids to better in math (and science), I recommend that you watch this video by Dan Meyer. Dan's blog is here


He points to the following problems with kids math education:

• Lack of initiative
• Lack perseverance
• Lack of retention
• Aversion to word problems
• Eagerness for formula

Memorable birthday party!

>
> Dear family,
>
> Please join me in wishing Nitai C a happy birth day  --- his
> first birth day. Nitai is son of a very close friend of mine.
>
> Somehow this birthday party was very special and I write to you to
> share this.  I live in New Jersey.
>
> I describe a typical birthday party in America.  The host calls 20
> children and their parents.  The host orders food from a restaurant.
> The  food itself is typically in the mode of ignorance or is cooked in
> the mode of ignorance. For example, our family ate out two weeks ago
> after about two years and my wife and I found the experience toxic to
> my body and mind.  Which restaurant serves food cooked with love and
> compassion?
>
>
> The host orders order coke, sprite and other soft-drinks.  The host
> orders a clown to entertain the kids.  They do a karaooke singing
> meaningless lyrics. The parents discuss Sridevi, Obama, cars, sports
> and jewellery.  The children blow balloons and are quarrelsome.
> Sudhakar is typically stuck in these parties wondering whether these
> kids grow up to have environmental and social responsibility as
> guiding principle in their adult life.  How is the world a better
> place that we have had the party to celebrate the birthday?  Would the
> kids grow to be compassionate when they grow up?
>
> Please do not get me wrong.  I recognize the importance of celebrating
> birthday and all other occassions.    Now, I describe little Nitai's
> birth day party.
>
>
> The parents rented a hall in a place of worship.     I felt glad that
> the room was not probably contaminated with air-freshner to gloss over
> the smell from the smoking and indulgence of the last party in that
> hall.. During my college days, despite being a staunch atheist, I
> visited everyday a place of worship just to find the calmness and
> simplicity away from mundane.
>
> Then, they got the kids to do some wonderful bhajans.  They got hold
> of a 11 year old and 14 year old to do a wonderful Indian classical
> dance. They got an American monk with a degree in science aged 65 to
> come to share with us some tips on how to bring up children that they
> become socially responsible. Finally, they made all the adults do
> dance for the bhajans. It relieved the stress in my mind!    Finally, they
> home cooked the meals for 200 people with love --- completely avoiding
> restuarant food.  They even made nice fruit juice. This food was
> cooked carefully to be in the mode of goodness (sattvic) and
> spiritually sanctified by offering it to the Supreme. Somehow, love
> was reveberating in the room. As you all know, love is the most
> difficult to find object in this world.
>
>
> I somehow had a ball of a time at this party.  When the monk began
> speaking, as a mark of respect to his authority, I got up from the
> chairs, paid my strech obeisances on the floor to the monk and just
> sat on the front with my toddlers in the front seat.  I was wondering
> how to make my kids ideal citizens of the world.  My kids enjoyed the
> bhajans and  classical dances.  I enjoyed being with the kids to see
> if they had any interest in classical Indian music or dance.
>
>
> oh boy!  what a party.  I requested the parents to have the parties more often.
>
> I had overfilled my stomach with the delicious food and rasamalai and
> happily drive back home with contentment.
>
> sincerely,
> --sudhakar

Description of yogic trance

St. Augustine or St. Francis said "I die daily". Below is a description of what he meant.
*****
I post the following from a book I revere. I pray to the book to give me conviction to spend six months in Himalayas to search for these kind of people!  Excerpt:
One day, while in Dev Prayag, I was invited to a nearby ashram for a meal among sadhus. While there, a yogi emerged from the jungle. Nobody knew him. He advertised for the doctors of the town to assemble that evening. After several doctors arrived, the yogi made his appearance and then, with a thunderous voice, chalenged, "Materially infected, you have more faith in modern science than your own heritage. God has brought me out of the forest to crush your foolish pride. By yogic power I will shutdown all my life systems and die. You test me with your medical instruments. In exactly thirty minutes, I will rise from dead."
With his back erect, sitting in a lotus position, he exhaled and inhaled with great force about twenty times. Then, fully inhaling, he stopped breathing and sat motionless. Each doctor went to work with stetheoscopes and other devices, but no one could detct a heartbeat, breath or pulse. There were astonished. "He is clinically dead", one doctor announced. Skeptical, I also stepped forward and borrowed a stethoscope to check his pulse and heart beat, but there was none.
In New Delhi, Swami Rama had given me a spellbinding preview of the powers of yoga. During my time in the Himalayas, I had practiced Pranayam, or breathing excercies and asanas, physical postures and silent meditation to bettr attune my mind and body with the divine force of God. I had seen he incredible effects of these practices, the great benefits to health, and the ability of practioners to modulate their physical realities. But his scene was truly amazing.
Exactly thirty minutes later, to the second, the Yogi exhaled, opened his eyes, stood up, and marched back into the jungles. He didn't ask anything from anyone. He simply wanted to show these sceptics the power of yoga. Both the doctors and myself gazed in amazement at his departing form returning to the wilds.

Reviews of Ayurveda hospital Vaidyagrama

Dear all,

I share below a few excerpts from the "thank you" book at Vaidyagrama Ayurveda hospital in Coimbatore. It would be a worthy story for journalists to cover, provided they stay here for at least a week to rejuvenate and experience it themselves/

Mr. Mukunda Das, is a  God-brother of mine and he is a hermit --- Vaanaprastha. He writes:
My conception of medical treatment has changed for ever. Having worked in the marketing department of a top multinational pharmaceutical company for 27 years, I had the opportunity to visit numerous doctors, clinics and hospitals. Everywhere it was downright commercialism and where end does not justify the means.

Urged by my beloved Spiritual Master, His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami, I came to this place with very little expectations of my medical problems. However, after 15 days , I am carrying back lots of positive energy and the attitude to think differently about medicine and medical treatment.

The counselling and loving relationships of the doctors --- I have no words to describe. It is their warmth that I will cherish all my life. Also, all the persons who had come for treatment were all spiritually enlivened. It was an enchanting experience. I eagerly look forward to the experience at Vaidyagrama to reach out to thousands of people over the years. May with the blessings of all of you I can come again and renew my health and positive energy.

Thanking you all again.

****

Dr.  B. Shivakumar, M.D. (Ayurveda)    Ayurveda and yoga center, Udupi (Karnataka) writes
"I visited Vaidyagrama for a day. I a very much delighted by truly Ayurvedic healing environment where one can feel oneness with mother earth and nature."


*****
M. K. Rathindran, IPS (retd) writes:

The Vaidyagrama experiment  is a truly memorable one. This is our third visit to the holistic healing center which also teaches how humans should live in harmony with nature. We are amazed at the sincerity and dedication of the doctors and the staff and the efficient manner in which things are done.

.....

The Vaidyagrama experiment is a unique one and it is heartening to know that it has attracted so much of attention particularly from abroad in such a short time.  I wish the institution the very best and once again thank everyone for their efficiency, sincerity and devotion to duty.

*****************

Ann Holaday from Washington State USA:

At last, I have found a community which can be a model for sustainability, living in harmony with nature, mutually supportive  and self-sufficient with Ayurveda at the center.  This is a model with  which the modern world must follow...... Vaidyagrama is a true center of healing and rejuvenation...

*****

Reg. Mr. Mukunda Das is a vaanaprastha. It means he is trying to become a monk.  He is half-way there, in some sense.

How Nelson Mandela preserved his sanity through prison?

With the passing of Nelson Mandela, the world lost a very dear friend and statesman.  In Nelson Mandela was a world leader who respected Indian philosophy out  of love. We all know that Nelson Mandela was inspired by Gandhi.  There was another Indian, a spiritual master,  whom Nelson had held in  high regard that Nelson would bow down and pay stretch obeisances on  the floor ("dandavat pranaam") at his statue.

When a monk questioned how Nelson could complete the Sanskritic verses from Gita, "Nelson Mandela explained that he was imprisoned on Robbins Island along with some of his fellow leaders of their political party, the ANC. One of them was an Indian-bodied lawyer. The South African government tried to break them by giving them mindless labor and routine. Realizing that they needed to keep their minds actively engaged, the Indian lawyer taught Nelson Mandela Gita verses which they quoted and discussed back and forth to transcend their daily drudgery. Nelson Mandela told Maharaja that learning the Gita helped keep him sane and did much to infuse his view of the world and his strategies for bringing independence and a better future for the South African people.

  There was a temple in South Africa setup by this spiritual master or his disciples. "When Mr. Mandela visited our temple the first time (he came several times thereafter as well) he, with dignity and humility bowed before the spiritual master."  Mr. Mandela had participated in public road-shows of the temple while he was president of the nation.

This spiritual master was an ardent Indian nationalist in 1920's when he met his spiritual master who convinced him that preaching the philosophies born out of India to the world is a better service to India.


sincerely,
 --sudhakar

Ayurveda hospital review: Vaidyagrama

Hi

I have been spending the last two weeks at Vaidyagrama hospital in rural Coimbatore in South India. I write below about my experiences. Please consider this place for your next vacation. The appropriate way to describe life at Vaidyagrama is: simple living and high thinking.

The clientele is 60% international. A good number of foreigners are returning patients. I got here with my wife and two toddler kids two weeks ago. The hospital can accommodate 24 patients at a time. It is located 25 kms from city, in the midst of plaintain and coconut farms. Each block has four double rooms. Each patient family is given a double room. the rooms are very well ventilated, with no need for airconditioning. There is a plenty of air and light in the rooms and the verendas outside. 

The hospital is about 60% covered with greenery, wherein they maintain lots of medicinal herbs. I choose Ayurveda than modern medicine (Allopathy) as the only solution proposed by modern medicine for my ailment was a serious surgery that may have to be repeated every 10 years. The condition was caused by antibiotics used to cure another ailment. When I was making a choice between an Ayurvedic doctor in Bombay versus Vaidyagrama, I choose Vaidyagrama as I had a hunch that it offers a somewhat hands-on atmosphere. it turned out that I had made a right decision in coming to Vaidyagrama.

The doctors are very humble and down to earth with a focus on helping the patients. For example, one of the doctors was quite eager and happy to do patient room housekeeping duties which get pushed to "class 4" employees in regular hospitals. Another doctor helped me clean up when my son spilled a liquid on the floor. I somehow felt a level of humility and genuineness in the doctors. 

The day starts with an hour of prayer at 6.15am. They serve breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. They emphasize on eating sattvic food and eating less. I lost 15 pounds over 15 days. But, I lost them in a healthy way. Currently, due to the nature of the treatment, I am being given only rice broth.  There is no spice in food. Still, the food tastes good provided you eat it hot. The doctors insists on eating food within 3 hours of preparation. They do not allow patient to eat otherwise. I was kicked as that is what the Gita says on satvic food: one shall eat food in three hours of preparation.

At 1.30pm they hold a 30 minute yoga nidra session - essentially relieving all our body of stress and mind of though without sleeping. This is very effective in resting your mind and body.  At 2.15pm, they hold an hour long discussion session on Ayurveda, spirituality, meditation, etc. I have found them very valuable in getting an overview of Ayurveda.  This place is unique in the sense that they are sharing knowledge freely as opposed to keeping it close to one's chest. Each thing they say, they quote a Sanskrit sloka. It gives me confidence that they are following time tested practice as opposed to making up things on the fly.

When I asked the head doctor whether Ayurveda does work, he said yes and cited a paralytic patient who came on wheel chair walked back after a few weeks. I was surprised to see that Ayurveda has a cure for wide variety diseases modern medicine is struggling with: Spondylytis, Psoriasis, mental retardation, digestion problems, Asthma etc. (Interestingly Srimad Bhagavatam talks of curing mental retardation using Om meditation --- "divyanadam" --- I do not know how to learn more about it). The doctors have been able to manage cancer too; one of the patients has cancer for four years that they manage without surgery, chemo, radiation etc.

My (extended and near) family is suffering from a large number of different ailments with modern medicine showing little to offer. Somehow, my family is busy with day to day issues preventing them from thinking holistically and trying Ayurveda.  Presumably that is due to the difficulty of weeding out the quacks in Ayurveda. In the evening they hold an audio visual information session at 5pm for an hour. Then, an hour of prayers followed by Bhajans.  Dinner is served at 7.30pm.

There is wired internet in rooms. No television. Spotty mobile connectivity. Wifi is available in office for three hours a day. 

The environmental ethos of the place are outstanding. They do not use any plastic. The food is gotten in stainless steel hot packs. Patents are advised only to drink hot water that is served in stainless steel flasks. No plastic ware for cutlery.

Typically, patients are given a medical oil application and massage for an hour everyday. These massages themselves are very relaxing and rejuvenating. I hope I massage myself when I am back home. My kids are having a ball of time with all the greenery around us. They play with the banana trees and coconut trees. I am able to show them all the plants I knew about. I even managed to show them a trick to make coconut leaves fly. I showed them coconut tree things being used to light a chulha to cook food.   I had been wanting to let my kids play with mud to improve their immunity. But weather in New Jersey was not permitting. Here I managed to do that.

Some of the best things I treasure in my life was idling off in the trees in my grandfather's places. I am getting a chance those pleasures to my kids.

Vaidyagrama is being transited by highly intelligent people.I met an American who is trying to improve agriculture at grass roots in Karnataka. Some Englishwoman (of transcendental meditation) gave me some tips to improving my meditation. My own spiritual master will be here in April; he is probably among the top ten intelligent people in this planet.

In summary, I am having a good time in Vaidyagrama. It is simple living and high thinking.

Sincerely,
Sudhakar

PS: Starting September 2014, they are establishing a similar center in Ujjain, India.

Kirtan Retreat in Boone, NC

Dear All,


I write below to share experiences about a kirtan retreat that I had been to recently during the Memorial day weekend.  I am  hoping that this mail motivates a few people to try out spiritual retreats.Recently, I came across a few articles discussing how kirtan yoga helps in battling Alzhiemers. I was wondering about articles like this and this.


One of the most difficult things to find is association of people in mode of goodness.  As you know, there are three modes of people: goodness (knowledge, thoughtfulness and satisfaction), passion (cravings for pleasure, power and prestige) and  ignorance (laziness, intoxication and violence). These are called sattva, rajas, tamas in Sanskrit. So my wife ordered me to take the family to the kirtan retreat happening at the Art of Living Center at Boone, NC.   I am typically a person who does not like driving on the road.  But, I reluctantly agreed as I realized  that an American spiritual rockstar is attending it and I would like to get a glimpse of him.  After reading his autobiography, I am inspired that one day I should meditate for six hours a day.

What is the purpose of life? The purpose of life is to reach atleast goodness via Yoga and meditation (in elementary viewpoints). Honestly, I have come to the realization that the happiness from yoga and meditation beats all the other things I have seen in life --- including luxury, charity, public service, alcohol, research, math, hanging out, sex, good food, good travel, good adventure and money.  For instance, even the venerable Bhagavadgita says that  Yoga is better than scriptual study, sacrifices, charity, austerity.  (BG 8.28)
So, we set off on this 10.5 hours ride from New Jersey to Boone, NC, on Thursday evening with a sleep over at Washington DC. As I kept driving, I was softly sulking to my wife as to why I am made to go on these longish drives.   The view of the tulips on the roadside in NC was awesome. As we reached Boone, the hills were great.  There were a large number of Chirstmas tree farms that were like ornaments to the hills with their mind boggling layouts.  Finally, we reached the meditation center. I was in a pretty unhappy state as I kept sulking to my wife as to why I am wasting time away driving on the roads.

Somehow, all my spirits got uplifted instantaneously just by stepping out of my car to look at the attendees in the parking lot. These Americans have completely adopted Vedic culture and there was a unique magic in watching the attendees. Purity was oozing in these people! A good number of them were trying to wear dhothis and sarees! I was reminded that, after all, the verdict of all revealed scriptures is that by even a  moment’s association with a pure person (sadhu), one can attain all success.  So, finally I decided that I was glad to be at the retreat.

My wife's priority is kirtan singing; my priority is food.  I checked out the dinner hall and the organizing team cooked amazing sattvic food with love as opposed to just ordering from a restaurant. As you know, only God would know when the food in restaurant was cooked and what went into it; one can be assured that love and selfless service was not an ingredient.  After the dinner, we went to the kirtan hall.  This American spiritual rockstar started the kirtan slow, but slowly ramped up the tempo till the whole hall with 1500 people was dancing mad.  These guys are intoxicated with love for the Supreme.  I retired around 10.30pm to off-site hotel room; too bad I could not get onsite accommodation.

 The next day, I woke up at 5.30am and reached the retreat center at 6.15am to catch a glimpse of these Americans meditating in the morning. They had started at 5AM!  I sat down for my ritualistic Pranayama ritual, but these guys started singing wonderfully the glories of the saints of India.  While I doing my ritual; I was just telling myself that the perfection of spirituality is these guys who are singing the glories of Indian saints that are melting my heart. Then they sang "wake up sleeping soul! you have slept for too long!"   in melodious tunes.

The retreat started on Friday evening and went till 12pm Monday morning. The meditation session starts at 5am. We had Srimad Bhagavatam class at 7.45am. Then nice food. Then lots of kirtan all day almost continuously (except meal breaks) till 12am midnight.  The kirtans start slow, but then go crazy. The crowd was mad with ecstasy and rocking. The MC was a 70 year old American whom I am wowed by. He just rocked the stage and put me to shame on my lethargy. Interestingly, I am not aware of any music event going for two days for 17 hours a day. These guys are totally crazy (in a good way)!  We lifted a few guys in the dance; unfortunately we dropped one of them over a person in a wheel chair.

 It was a Ekadashi day on Saturday and they served wonderful food inline with the Vedic tradition of fasting atleast from grains and beans once in two weeks.

The meditation center is in very rustic hills with lots of cow farms, horse stables, trees, and such.  It is in a remote part of Boone.  Luckily, it is only 15 minutes away from the town so that you could fall back on the town for your supplies and also stay in a luxury hotel.   I estimate the total size to be about 200 acres. The food hall and the meditation hall can hold 3000 persons each.

There is so much strife (environmental degradation, terrorism, non-chalance) in the society today. If you think about it, civilization itself is at a risk of getting wiped out. There are noble people like Bill Gates trying. But does Bill understand that the fundamental shortage is of saintly people? We need more sadhu (peaceful) people in the world. One of the Srimad Bhagavatam classes delivered discusses this. I summarize it below. Srimad Bhagvatam 3.25.21: the symptoms if a sadhu are that he is tolerant, merciful and friend to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures and all his characteristics are sublime.  He is a well-wisher of all living entities. He is not only a well-wisher of human society, but a well-wisher of animal society as well.

I estimate that 80% of the 1600 attendees meditate for 2 hours a day and are by and large sattvic. I hope that one day I can say these things of the colleges I attended. Interestingly all the singers and leading personalities were Caucasian. Why are the Indian elite missing in action?  While they may have justified reasons, I hope the Indian elite take up the task of leading the society with a high vision. Indians should teach the world that whatever people are doing, the self must be completely satisfied.

Oh boy what a party! What an energy! What a world view! They will go on to change the world!  I postulated that this party was the greatest part in the East coast during the Memorial day weekend.

Sincerely,
Sudhakar

"Thou Shall Not Kill"

The last Saturday, I was selling books on Yoga at the Atlantic City boardwalk.  I ran into a gentleman Mark who was very much interested in spirituality. He told me that he follows Christianity; he even did missionary activity in Vietnam in his younger days.   We had a very interesting discussion that I share below.

Sudhakar: I have complete faith in Lord Jesus. I make an attempt to sincerely follow all His Ten Commandments. The unfortunate situation today is that hardly anyone follows him in Atlantic City.
Mark: Why do you say that?
Sudhakar: No one follows the Ten Commandments.  For example, if you take "Thou Shall Not Kill", we interpret it to mean "Thou Shall Not Kill Humans".  What Jesus really meant applies to animals also. Jesus was indeed preaching vegetarianism. Surely, Jesus was wise enough to know the difference between kill and murder.  Today's followers of Jesus accuse him of not understanding the difference between kill and murder.
Mark: But, the Old/New Testament allows meat eating.
Sudhakar: Well, it is easier to follow His direct instructions than to rely on an interpreted testament which is changing over time. A good portion of Jesus's original teachings are lost. Honestly, the bible of 100AD is very different from today's bible. Constantin changed it quite  a lot.

People who eat meat are taking an unnecessary spiritual risk.  We are asking mercy from Jesus.  Don't you think Jesus would hope that we are merciful towards beings lower than us?  Imagine yourself approaching Jesus who is holding a lamb. You tell Jesus, "may I have that lamb so I can eat it?".  Kindly ask Jesus if he would be pleased. If we cannot be merciful of beings lower to us, we are not being spiritual when we ask Jesus for mercy.

Mark: Well, Jesus might have eaten meat.

Sudhakar: Aha. So, Jesus was crucified for our sake.  Are you willing to crucify yourself?  There is little point in comparing ourselves to Jesus. He might have eaten meat in the deserts of Israel where there may have been very little eat.  But, in New York City, we have enough tomatoes and greens. Also, note that medically vegetarian diets are better. Even the environment benefits. Actually, Jesus was indeed preaching vegetarianism in the Holy Bible.

Mark: But, I have faith in Jesus.  He has already been crucified for us.  That should save me.
Sudhakar: The purpose of faith is to instill a discipline to follow instructions to purify oneself. If you have faith in instructions, but not follow them, do you really think there is much meaning? It is like a drunkard who knows he has to give up drinking to lead a better life, but does not give up drinking.
   Unfortunately, the church teaches that one is absolved of all sins if one goes to the confession box. What is the point if the confession ritual does not result in an elevation of consciousness to purify oneself.  Without a purification, if one is intending to use Jesus's suffering to protect oneself from his sins, it is actually exploitation, and not love.



******
Somehow, this person was moved by the argument. He agreed to buy the book  "Perfection of Yoga" --- which explains how . I was happy to sell two books at $1 each.

Taming the mind: your biggest friend and your biggest enemy

For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy. One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.  There are three gates leading to this hell – lust, anger and greed. Every sane man should give these up, for they lead to the degradation of the self.


So how does one control the mind? How does one free the mind from lust, fear, anger, greed, pride and jealousy?  The following important principles can be followed.

- The nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.  A person firmly fixed in perfect knowledge is is unaffected by whatever good or evil he may obtain.  Such a person should be able to withdraw his senses from sense object, like a tortoise withdrawing its limbs to its shell. But, even if one restricts sense enjoyment, the taste for sense objects remains. The real solution is to purify the senses via Yoga to experience a higher taste. After all, the senses are so strong and impetuous that they forcibly carry away the mind of even a man of discrimination endeavouring to control them. 


It is important to control senses through regulation and free oneself from all attachment and aversion. As one contemplates on the objects on the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust anger arises. From anger, delusion arises, leading to bewilderment of memory, leading to loss of intelligence.

******
The remedy to all eliminating all inauspicious things within the heart is association of saintly persons and reading Srimad Bhagavatam.
As soon as irrevocable loving service is established in the heart, the effects of nature’s modes of passion and ignorance, such as lust, desire and hankering, disappear from the heart. Then the person is established in goodness, and he becomes completely happy.


******
Sometimes, all the above instructions fails to help in taming the mind.  It is said the Lord Aniruddha is the God controlling the mind.  In these cases, just pray to Him and chant "om aniruddhaya namah" for about 20 minutes to get ride of my anger etc.

This post is inspired by chapters 2, 6 and 16 of Bhagavadgita; and chapter 2 of canto 1 of Srimad Bhagavatam.

How to meditate

I write an overview of diferent techniques of meditation below hoping that one of them appeals to you and works for you.

One of the great sages defines meditation as the art of concentration on God.  God is defined differently based on each person's level of understanding. An atheistic physicist could define God as the sum total of all the matter, dark matter, universe and the rules governing the universe.  But, this is not a complete Whole as it does not explain what happened before Big Bang.   The second definition God is the life giving principle of all living beings --- this is called the Super Soul. This is what the Yogis meditate on during trance. The third definition of God is a person who lives outside the universe and is responsible for the universe, and whatever happened to it prior to Big Bang. Srimad Bhagavatam summarizes these three forms in verse 1.2.11 and further expands them in canto 2.

Meditation is the art and science of concentrating on God and in the process removing all the less desirable dirt in our heart (lust, anger, pride, jealousy, greed, etc.). The sages conclude that after cleaning up, one will realize that one's consciousness, mind and the body are three distinct entities. For instance, we make this distinction when we say "my body is aching". I never heard anyone saying "I am aching".   The sages also conclude that one can see the super-soul (God) when he has cleaned up his heart enough and is devoted.

The best definition of meditation is  in Bhagvadgita 6.47 as the one who thinks of the speaker of the Bhagvadgita. This would include the speaker's words (which would include the Gita), His actions, His form, His pastimes, His devotees etc.   Now, when one thinks of something, the mind tends to wander everywere except the object of meditation. To solve this problem, it is actually recommended that one chooses a phrase ("a mantra") with a sublime meaning, chant it and hear it. So meditation is actually very simple: pick a mantra, chant it and hear it.   Now, all mantras are not the same. For example, if one chants "coke coke coke", one gets bored very soon. On the other hand, if one chants names such as "aum", "Krsna", "Rama", "Allah", "Siva", "Ganesh", "Christ", people have demonstrated that they can do it for days and weeks with no stopping.   After experimenting a lot, I have settled down on this manthra: Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

Other ways include reading revelations such as Bible, Quran, Bhagvadgita, Srimad Bhagavatam etc. Sometimes, these books are very heavy. For example, Einstein struggled with Bhagvadgita which is "only" 700 sentences. If one is disinclined to such heavy literature, one could start with reading historical accounts of great saints. One such book is "autobiography of a yogi". Or read a book written by a Self-realized person. These books convince you to try to come to mode of goodness, away from passion and ignorance. Technically, there are nine ways to meditate defined in Bhagavatam, which describes the highest meditation techniques.

There are people who practice concentrating on looking at a candle (trataka). Somehow, I never understood it to be sublime.

The typical distractions to meditation are our senses (eyes, ears, mouth, nose and touch). If your mouth is burning due to eating too much Jalapeno peppers and red chillies, it becomes difficult to meditate. So, one needs to eat food that is conducive to the meditation and mind. Milk is a good one. I have found high protein diets inconducive. I have found onion, garlic and sometimes even pizza (due to fermentation) distracting to meditation.

Even if one eats the right food, the body is still causing a lot of unrest to maintain the vital functions like excretion, breathing, pumping blood etc. These distract the practioner. To aid in reducing this unrest, one uses various breath control techniques, broadly called Pranayama (the fourth stage of eight fold ashtanga yoga system). Some people advocate watching the breath. The one I follow often is breath retention: take a deep breath with one nostril, retain and then exhale out with other nostril maintaing comfort and a time ratio of
1:4:2. One unit inhalation, 4 units retention and 2 units exhalation while mentally chanting a mantra. It is important not to stress the heart or lungs.  Slowly you will notice that your breathing slows down, your whole body slows down and your mind's unrest slows down, allowing it to focus. The meditation experience is deeper with breath control. Some people get these benefits from just watching breath.