Why does meditation not succeed?

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

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, while meditating I feel silence and joy for some time, but after that, I’m not able to continue it and start feeling uneasy and want to come out of the meditation soon. Why does this happen, and does it mean that I’m not reaching the meditative state?

Acharya Prashant (AP): What are you doing (addressing the questioner), and why are you trying to do that? You try several things in life for the sake of peace, don’t you? You have said while meditating you feel silence and joy for some time, which means silence and joy are your objectives. With these same objectives, you do many other things, and is the result not the same usually? Always?

You get into something, you pursue it and then you lose the motivation, then you come out of it. One visits a new place, the place seems attractive two days, four days, one week, one month, one year, the place loses its charm. You must have discarded, kept away, or donated old clothes. How did it feel when you were buying those same clothes? There was an attraction, a hope. There was a glimmer in the eye; you were looking forward to wearing new clothes. Then came a moment when you just put them aside, that’s the nature of all human activity. That’s the nature of everything in life. That’s the…