Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.

I have been speaking for three days or so about the role of purity, the place and importance of purity in one’s life in general, and particularly in the religious, devotional or spiritual life.

Whenever we say purity, I don’t know what kind of a reaction people in general have and you in particular have.

Purity is actually a quality. It is the quality of a product. That product can be something material or solid; it can be something like a living plant, a herb, a creeper, a tree or even a bush. Suppose you look for a medicine. You would like to have the right medicine so that it will have all the properties of it.

Suppose you think of a human being, what is meant by his purity. He must be a being of a quality. His character should be good; his behavior should be good. He must be amiable. He should be one with whom people would like to interact and be benefited by. You can think of purity of any substance. We are looking for milk. We want to have pure milk, particularly cow’s milk. Not adulterated; either with water or with other substances. Suppose you look for gold. That gold also should become pure. Let anything be there. Think of stainless steel. When will the vessels made of stainless steel be good? When they are pure, they are able to stand whatever we want them to stand.

So purity is not an alien product or a repulsive element. On the other hand, it is a very endearing and an appeasing quality. Let us think of a trade centre. A trade centre also should be pure. Whatever articles they put up for sale, the articles should be good and qualitative. There can be different types of quality. But whatever quality is announced or identified, that should become true of the product.

What about purity of an industry? An industrial undertaking should also become pure so that it will serve its purpose, fulfill its role, sustain itself and last for a long time. Now these purity elements have to be gone into. The people who are working in the industrial unit, the type of material they deal in, and the finished product they are offering to the people as services or goods, All these will have to be pure.

The train should come to the railway station in time and should leave in time. All the beddings should be kept clean and they must be facile for people to use. Any bus should arrive in time and leave in time. It must have sufficient seats for people to sit. This is all purity. So never think in a jarring manner whenever I speak about purity.

So far as purity of the human being, the seeker, is concerned, understand it this way. You must have a mind that is pure, a body that is pure. What is a pure body? A healthy body. It should not court infection easily. And whatever infection comes, the body must be able to withstand it and cure or redress it. This is one thing that is important. So you must have pure blood, not contaminated blood, a type of healthy blood which will generate and release a lot of energy for you, which will also be raising sufficient immunity, tolerance level in the system.

When you go to the mind, the mind should be very qualitative. What does it mean? It is the mind that always employs the body and bodily parts for different types of activities and interactions. So you must have such a healthy, flexible and sensitive mind, that it will be able to employ the body and the bodily parts efficiently, sensitively, in time, in a very effective manner. So you must have a good memory, a good sensibility, sensitiveness, a good response. There should not be any laziness. The readiness and willingness to accept more, in order to function efficiently, should be there.

If you have a house, keep it well. It is not sufficient if the residents and the inmates of the house live comfortably there. The house should welcome guests. When the guests come, you should make them feel that it is their own home. Look after them well. When they go away, they should feel I have come to a better home, I would like to come back here any time. These people are good and hospitable. A degree further, the house should have a spirit and an atmosphere of holiness and piety. People should like to come to your house; if it can hold and host a satsang periodically, that becomes the best. Call your relatives and friends to the house and say “It is not our birthday or some other day, it is a satsang day, please come and we are having a discussion, may be somebody has been brought; I would like all of you to come here and be benefited by whatever they say with regard to your life, goals, values and enriching every one of you individually.” Ultimately, what is the purity of mind? The purity of the mind is three items; a mind not darkened, thickened and tensed up with desire and fervor offshoots.

Desire tenses the mind, constricts the mind, darkens the mind, poisons the mind. So, have no desire, equally no hatred, equally no undue fear, and the multiples of these!

Another point is that the mind should not have mineness always harming it and tormenting it. We think many things are ours. Because of this ourness and mineness, we suffer. Ultimately the ego should also be dropped. So, the first point is the desire free mind instantly becomes peaceful, joyful and exhilarated. The purity will be such that it will generate a very pleasant, spiritual, brilliant radiance in your body. You will feel something besides the body is there and its presence is very pleasant, beautiful, sweet, nourishing. That feeling will automatically come when the mind is pure. When is the purity of intelligence? The intelligence becomes pure, when it is given to probing into truth, probing into propriety, probing into Godliness, probing into freedom, the ecstasy that will come from within the body. Just like the intelligence is given to thinking about so many material objects and material propositions, you will find that it is equally given to spirituality and spiritual things, things concerning your mind, heart, and intelligence. Best way I can describe the purity is

विशुद्ध सत्वस्य गुणाः प्रसादः

स्वात्मानुभूतिः परमा प्रशान्तिः ।

तृप्तिः प्रहर्षः परमात्मनिष्ठा

यया सदानन्दरसं समृच्छति ।।

Visuddha satvasya Gunah prasaadaha

Swaatmaanubhutih paramaa prashaantihi

Triptih praharshah paramaatmanishtaa

Yayaa sadaanandarasam samricchati

Every one of you should learn this sloka! This is going to be a goal, value, practice, pursuit and verification for you. “Am I pure?”, if you ask a question, answer this sloka :

viśuddha sattvasya: the man who is sufficiently pure

guṇāḥ: he imbibes and displays and manifests qualities. What are they?

prasādaḥ: cheerfulness and placidity of the mind

svātmānubhūtiḥ: he starts having the Self as an experience. It is not hearing about the Self, reading about the Self, meditating upon the Self. It is only experiencing the presence called the Self. If you can experience your body, you can as well experience your Self, because Self is making it felt. The body is inert. Like a piece of charcoal the body becomes animate only because of the presence of the Self. So, if you can sense the animate body, how is it that you miss the power and presence of animation?

svātmānubhūtiḥ paramāḥ praśāntiḥ: He will have a supreme peacefulness. It is not shortterm or fleeting peacefulness, because you have said something, you have got something, some body has praised you. No!

tṛptiḥ: Contentment.

praharṣaḥ; Exhilaration, which can be experienced in the body also.

paramātmaniṣṭhā: There is a niṣṭhā where paramātmā becomes your constant thought,occupation, pursuit, contemplation, and realization.

tṛptiḥ praharṣaḥ paramātmaniṣṭhā, yayā sadānandarasaṁ samṛcchati: By virtue of all thesequalities, you become an abode of pleasantness and beatitude constantly, a pleasantness or a joy that arises from the supreme truth.

sadānandarasa: Ananda becomes a taste, it is delicious and it arises from the sat.

विशुद्ध सत्वस्य गुणाः प्रसादः

स्वात्मानुभूतिः परमा प्रशान्तिः ।

तृप्तिः प्रहर्षः परमात्मनिष्ठा

यया सदानन्दरसं समृच्छति ।।