Meditation has often been misunderstood as a mechanical process of forcing the mind upon some idea or object.*****

The meditation, meditator and the world are created out of single stuff. That single stuff is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. Knowledge of the single stuff leads to Advaitic Self-awareness.

Chandogya Upanishad:~ One who meditates upon and realizes the 'Self' discovers that everything in the cosmos-- energy and space, fire and water, name and form, birth and death, mind and will, word and deed, mantram and meditation--all come from the Self.- 

Meditation is progressive steps and there is no need to condemn them. The religion and yoga are not the end, for they can never directly lead to Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

All other teachings and practices other than self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana are for beginners only. There are stages in comprehending the truth. Meditation is not Advaitic wisdom.m

Ashtavakra says: ~ “This is your bondage, that you practice Samadhi or meditation.”

Meher Baba: ~ ‘Meditation has often been misunderstood as a mechanical process of forcing the mind upon some idea or object.

The meditation always means the critical analysis of the Self to get rid of ignorance. The ignorance will not vanish by remaining without the thoughts or focusing attention on some object.

Sage Sri, Sankara says: ~ “The exercise in discrimination between real and unreal and renunciation of the false is real meditation, then why you are indulging in other types of meditation.

Until a man is ripe to receive Self-knowledge, it is fatal to ask him to give up meditation.

The novice seekers must understand that yoga is all right in its places and that it is good at the beginning of the pursuit of truth, but when yoga is made ends in itself and not means to acquire the Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.

The yoga and meditation are not useless, they are useful to bring the restless ego under control. Yoga and meditation are not final. By indulging in yoga and meditation, it will lead not lead to the ultimate end of understanding. Yoga cannot remove ignorance. It is only a step. It removes obstructions.

For meditation, one need not sit and chant Gods name or concentrate on some object. Anything you do will not be meditation. If there is a doer then it is not meditation. As long as there is doing, there is ignorance. As long as the doer is present, the ego is present. If the ego is present the whole world is present. If the world is present the duality is present. If the duality is present then there is an illusion. If the illusion is present the birth, life, death, and the world is experienced as reality.

By realizing the world in which you exist is created out of single stuff. That single stuff is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. Knowledge of the single stuff is Self-knowledge. Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana leads to self-awareness.

In Self-awareness, the Soul, the innermost 'Self' remains in its own awareness in the midst of the form, time and space. Thus, Self-awareness is real meditation. Mediation is the nature of the Soul, the innermost Self.

Meditation is not a means to find the truth hidden by the form, time and space. Without realizing the ‘Self-is not you but the Self is the Soul all the effort used in the meditation leads to hallucinate thoughtlessness. The thoughtlessness is not wisdom. by ending the thoughts you may get peace, not Advaitic wisdom. :~ Santthosh Kumaar