SADHANA : TPPTSP | SEL0233 | SWAMI SIVANANDA

|| ASPECTS OF SPIRITUAL SADHANA | II ||

When you sit on an Asana for meditation you want to get up soon , not on account of pain in the legs but on account of impatience .

Conquer this undesirable negative quality by developing patience gradually . Then you will be able to sit for three or four hours at a stretch .

During meditation you will be frequently talking to somebody mentally . Stop this habit . Have a careful watch over the mind .

SADHANA : TPPTSP | SEL0234 | SWAMI SIVANANDA

|| ASPECTS OF SPIRITUAL SADHANA | II ||

When you are lying down in your bed , sometimes a big light will pass along your forehead .

As soon as you try to behold the light by meditating on the sitting posture it may disappear .

You may ask " How is it that I fail to catch the light by exertion , whereas it comes by itself when I am lying down without an effort ? "

The reason is you lost the concentration as soon as you sat for meditation by entry of Rajas .

SADHANA : TPPTSP | SEL0235 | SWAMI SIVANANDA

|| ASPECTS OF SPIRITUAL SADHANA | III ||

The moment you think during meditation ,

" I am pure now . I do not get any evil thoughts as before . "

a whole battalion of evil < : ignorant : > thoughts will enter the conscious surface of the mind . But they will pass off soon . You are in the struggling stage now .

A time will come when you will not entertain even a single evil thought .

Meditation is a powerful enemy of evil thoughts . The evil thoughts think " We will be quelled soon . Our host has started the meditation . Let us pounce once more " .

Continue your meditation vigorously . Mists and clouds cannot stand before the Sun .

SADHANA : TPPTSP | SEL0236 | SWAMI SIVANANDA

|| ASPECTS OF SPIRITUAL SADHANA | III ||

When you meditate with open eyes you may see a friend in front of you and hear the voice also ; but you may not be able to make out the person and the voice ; because the mind is not attached to the ears or the eyes .

If the mind is entirely withdrawn from the sensual objects , if the thoughts are annihilated , if likes and dislikes are destroyed , how can you perceive the world at all ? You will become mindless .

You will behold the Self only everywhere .
All names and forms will vanish .

SADHANA : TPPTSP | SEL0237 | SWAMI SIVANANDA

|| ASPECTS OF SPIRITUAL SADHANA | VI ||

The old vicious Samskaras can be changed and destroyed .

Fight with them bravely .
Fight bravely not for bread ,
nor for money , nor for name and fame ,
but for acquiring the Sovereignty of Self
or the vast domain of Eternal Peace ,
through destruction of worldly Samskaras .

Chivalrous soldier is one who fights in the Adhyatmic inner battlefield with one's old Samskaras with the sword of dispassion and armour of discrimination , but not one who fights in the battlefield with one's enemies with machine guns .

Fight with the Samskaras is more serious , more dangerous , more frightful than the external physical fight .

The undaunted aspirant armed with patience , perseverance , tranquillity , and courage slowly ascends peak after peak , subdues the Indriyas one by one , controls the thoughts one by one , eradicates the Vasanas one by one and eventually reaches the summit of Self-Realisation or Divine Glory .