Which method of meditation is correct?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, I have a question on these four commonly quoted methods- Sāma, Dāma, Daṇḍ, and Bheda. I applied Sāma but it’s not working. The other three I know nothing about, and are not working. No method seems to work. What to do?

Acharya Prashant (AP): There are an infinite variety of methods, and all methods are available to you. Intelligence naturally knows the methods to apply. It’s just that conditioning prevents you from applying methods. You take some methods as right, wrong, moral, immoral, applicable, inapplicable. Whereas, the rightness of any method in The Spiritual domain is decided only by its ability to deliver the goods.

If something takes you to the Truth, it cannot be evil. But, because we have no affinity for the Truth, no longing for the Truth, so we start thinking too much about the method. You have to go to meet your beloved, and you missed the flight and now you have to travel in the general compartment of a train. Would you mind it too much? It depends actually; it depends on your relationship with your beloved. If you are really hungry to meet, then it won’t matter how you are traveling. The method, the vehicle, would be of very little importance and if you are absolutely bonkers, totally crazy, you may even decide to travel on foot, or even crawl. It depends on the longing. Doesn’t it?

The love itself suggests the method. From no other place can the method arise. Love will suggest you the method, love will show the way. If you are not able to find a way, it just means you don’t love enough. Sāma is alright, Dāma is alright, Daṇḍ is also alright, and so is Bheda. And there is a world beyond these four methods. All these are alright and none of these are sufficient, try everything, because you love, or probably you do not. You have to answer.

Don’t be held back by notions. That which is worth attaining must be attained at any cost. No cost is big enough, no method is vile enough. No difficulty is too big, no sacrifice is too great, no tactic is too mean. If need be, deploy mean tactics and sacrifice your respectability. It’s a form of sacrifice, it’s a great sacrifice. One wants to remain respectable in his own eyes. Drop your…