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Turn the outward mind INWARD. Focus to shift from external objects, events and situations to the Mind’s response to them. Look into the mind’s responses and practise Expansion, Transparence, and Evenness.

[“When you explain these spiritual concepts, Nutan Swamiji, we understand them very well. But later, at home, we are not sure how to apply them and benefit from them in our daily life….” – this has been the dilemma of many, including some serious s¡dhakas. Understanding the difficulties faced by them, at the conclusion of his afternoon classes “Intensifying Sādhanā in Daily Life” (during the Gurupoornima Retreat ’06), Nutan Swamiji summed up the fundamental concepts seekers need to remember and follow in their daily lives. A handout (presented below) containing these was distributed to participants to facilitate subsequent sādhanā. —Ed]

A. Spiritual Sādhanā

Step 1. Turn the outward mind INWARD.

Focus to shift from external objects, events and situations to the Mind’s response to them.

Step 2. Look into the mind’s responses and practise Expansion, Transparence, and Evenness.

Expansion: Ensuring that whatever we think, speak or do, results in a feeling of expansion within.

Transparence: Removing the opacity and grossness caused by false ego and stealth, by practising straightforwardness and openness in thoughts, words and actions.

Evenness: Not to cling to what we like and not to fear what we dislike.

B. Sādhanā of Bhāva śuddhiḥ

Mind is an expression of the Soul (Consciousness).

Bhāva is the causal substratum bringing forth the thoughts, words and actions.

If the bhāva is purified, then whatever expressions (thoughts, words or actions) arise from the mind, will also be pure.

If the bhāva is impure, it is impossible to correct our expressions individually. Wrong expressions come from wrong bhāva. Constricted expressions point out the sublimation to be brought in the bhāva. Once the bhāva is sublimated, the expressions automatically get corrected.

Bhāva śuddhiḥ means bringing in sublimation at this causal level of the mind. A pure mind itself is the Soul.

{So, shift the focus from the thoughts, words & actions to the bhāva
giving rise to them.}

C. How to Purify the Bhāva

Worldly interactions with gross and fragmented objects breed grossness and fragmentation in the mind. To annul these effects and take the mind to its pristine unfragmented evenness, interact as often as possible with the concept of the taintless singular Soul. Try to shift the identity ‘I’ from the small selfish constricted personality to the infinite universal One – the Brahman.

{Remember and Offer.
Remember your Real Universal Identity and offer your
small ego as an oblation to It.}

D. Test of Growth

1. Freedom from dependence on external objects and situations. The mind must remain prasanna (placid) irrespective of the objective circumstances.

2. Fearlessness. Freedom from the fear of losing what we like, and fear of facing what we dislike.

3. Bhāva śuddhiḥ should make Meditational absorption facile, even spontaneous. The after-effect of absorption also would remain longer, even throughout the day.

4. In a nutshell, the effect of Sādhanā is Vairāgya – a feeling of sky-like impersonality and impartiality growing within.

आकाशवल्लेप-विदूरगोऽहं आदित्यवद्भास्य-विलक्षणोऽहम् ।
अहार्यवन्नित्य-विनिश्चलोऽहं अम्भोधिवत्पार-विवर्जितोऽहम् ॥

Ākāśaval-lepavidūrago’haṃ āditya-vad-bhāsya-vilakṣaṇo’ham ।
Ahāryavan-nitya-viniścalo’haṃ ambhodhivat-pāra-vivarjito’ham ॥
(Vivekacūḍāmaṇi 499)

Like the sky, unstained am I. Like the sun, self-luminous am I.
I am ever poised and unshakeable like the mountain.
I am vast and unbounded like the ocean.

(Vicharasethu-Sep 2006)