Attention (śraddha) is the sole quality and virtue in spiritual seeking. It is sheerly due to lack of sufficient attention that the seeker fails to get at the Self present in the body, animating and activating the mind, intelligence and ego. The same attention you employ in any field of knowledge has to be focused in the spiritual search also to reveal the presence and glory of the Self. Seekers cannot afford to be inattentive or careless in anything that they do. Unkempt hair, unclean dress or unhygienic ways of living and the like do not the least become harmonious with spiritual wisdom or grace. Earlier this truth is understood, the better.
-- Swamiji