The divine teacher
turns to the students
to promote ten kinds of purity.
However, these advices are universal, for everyone.
To develop one's moral and mental strength,
one should practice sadhana for disciplining the mind.
For this purpose, one has to
promote ten kinds of purity.
It is needful to remember
that the Lord cares for the purity
of the motive behind the act, not for the pomp and the show.
1. The first is purity of the place in which one lives.
It is necessary to fill the room in which one resides or studies with a sathwic atmosphere. The pictures or other objects you see should fill you with peace and pure thoughts. The room should be clean and free from anything that is impure.
2. In the family in which you live, there should be mutual understanding and cooperation, and a sense of harmony. A harmonious atmosphere will give you true peace of mind.
3. Using sathwic food. This means that none of the edible items should be excessively sour, bitter or hot. You should eschew rajasic food like fish or meat. Even good sathwic food should not be taken in excess. It is only sathwic when you sit for the meal with a light stomach and get up from it with a light stomach.
4. Whatever fluids you take should also be sathwic. You should not drink whatever water is available. It should be pure water. Alcoholic splits should be eschewed.
5. Sathwic thoughts and feelings are of great importance. Only if your thoughts and feelings are pure, can you get the full benefit of a clean room, a good family, and pure food.
6. If you want to develop sathwic feelings and thoughts, your vision must be pure. All Srishti (Creation) is based upon drishti (sight). When you have wrong vision, you have wrong thoughts. You should not commit the sort of offences, which you will not tolerate in others.
7. Whatever books you read or whatever you write should be pure. A good book makes for a good mind. Any book you may study about physics or chemistry or other subjects, does not affect your character. However, books, which are literary, are not always good literature. If improper books are prescribed for study, treat them as mere textbooks and do not attach any high value to them as guides for life.
8. Pure sathwic service. With regard to service, you have to decide what is sathwic and what is rajasic. We go and clean streets, build roads in villages or dig wells and do them all as a service to the community. However, the kind of service, which we do, should give real happiness to the people.
Narayana has two forms: one is 'Lakshmi Narayana', the other is 'Daridra Narayana'. This 'Lakshmi-Narayana' is full of wealth. He will be able to get many persons to serve him. But, for 'Daridra Narayana' there is nobody to serve him. It is to such persons that we should do sathwic service. (People today usually are eager to receive help from others, but have no desire to render help).
9. Sadhana. This is spiritual discipline. This must be sathwa. Some people do Hata Yoga. Some strive to develop the Kundalini Sakthi Some invoke evil spirits, to do harm to others. These forms of sadhana are not sadhana at all. The individual is Chith (Consciousness), God is Sath (The Eternal Absolute). When Sath and Chith combine, you have Ananda Sath-Chith-Ananda. Only the sadhana undertaken to realise Sath-Chith-Ananda is true sadhana.
Where is this Sath? This Sath is in everybody. You must perform sadhana in the spirit that the One pervades the many. In this process, you must cultivate the feeling of Love. By the way, there are two forms of Love. One binds you to God. The other binds you to the world. The mind is responsible for either of these states. It is like a lock. If you turn the key to the right, the lock opens. If you turn the key to the left, it gets locked. The heart is the key to the lock of the mind. If you turn the key towards the world, you have attachment (bondage).
10. Your occupation or profession. It should be work, which can benefit the nation, the community. You must ask yourself, "What is the service, what is the help I can do for the community?" You must see that there is no untruth in any work you do, no unfairness, no fraud, no evil motive. Absorb the teachings of all the great seers and prophets. Do not despise anyone. Everyone is entitled to accept what is good from any source. Differences of creed and caste are irrelevant. Swami's famous quotation declares,
"There is only one caste, the caste of humanity. There is only one religion, the religion of Love. There is only one language, the language of the heart. There is only one God, He is omnipresent." It is said that atom bombs will reduce the world to ashes. However, those who are promoting religious bigotry and hatred are doing worse damage than what the atom bombs can do.
They are destroying the love and compassion in human hearts. They are breaking up mankind into fragments. There is no greater sin than this. What the world needs today is the redeeming and unifying force of Love - Love that continually expands and embraces more and more people.
divinely sent
