Preparing to meditate
A sacred place
When you meditate at home, you should have a comer of your room which is absolutely pure and sanctified - a sacred place which you use only for meditation.
It will also help if you burn incense and keep some fresh flowers on your shrine. When you smell the scent of incense, you get perhaps only an iota of inspiration and purification, but this iota can be added to your inner treasure. The physical flower on your shrine will remind you of the inner flower. Its colour, its fragrance and its pure consciousness will give you inspiration. From inspiration you get aspiration.
It is the same with using candles during meditation. The flame from a candle will not in itself give you aspiration, but when you see the outer flame immediately you feel that the flame of aspiration in your inner being is also climbing high, higher, highest.
Purifying the body
Before beginning to meditate, it is helpful if you can take a shower or proper bath. The cleanliness of the body is very helpful for the purification of the consciousness. If you are unable to take a shower or bath before sitting down to meditate, you should at least wash your face. It is also advisable to wear clean and light clothes.
Eating before meditation
If you want to have a deep meditation, a meditation of the highest order, you should not try to meditate just after eating a large meal. We have thousands of subtle nerves, spiritual nerves in our bodies. These nerves become heavy after a big meal and will not permit us to have the highest type of meditation.