The play of gunas in the mind: part 2

 Hari Aum.

As many of us spiritual seekers know, the gunas (qualities) of Prakriti (Nature) are sattva (goodness/ light/ positive qualities), rajas (activity/ passion/anger etc), and tamas (ignorance/ inertia/darkness). According to our scriptures, these three principles are present everywhere in the material realms.

Eleven years ago, I wrote a post on the manner in which these three gunas can influence the mind of the spiritual seeker. 

https://mantrayoga.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-play-of-gunas-in-our-minds.html

Today, I want to write a post on the expression of these gunas in the mind of a specific type of spiritual seeker-- known as the twin soul. There are a quite a few of us twin souls on this planet and, as this is not an easy soul journey, I feel like sharing my thoughts on this topic.

The tamasic mind has this approach to the twin flame journey:

-Run...run....keep running away from them and do not stop! 

-Denial. This cannot be happening to me! How can this happen to me?! What is the Divine doing!

-I am ruined

-This is a disaster! Poor me.

-Help! Somebody please help me-- all these dreams of the twin soul, of my Guru and the Divine make me very uneasy! 

-I just want to live a 'normal life' (mostly eating popcorn, watching movies, eating chocolate and sleeping!). I only want to do what everyone else does-- you know, 'normal' things (eating, sleeping, earning money, hanging out with family and friends). 

-I do not want to do any spiritual practices or walk the spiritual path. Material life all the way, I say!

The rajasic mind has this approach to the twin flame journey:

-Chase, chase...keep chasing them!

-The twin is really hot!

-Forget raising the kundalini to any higher chakras— my favourites are the lower two—that is the be-all and end-all of my existence!

-I want to live a happy, highly sensual and entirely mundane life! 

-All twin souls should basically marry and have kids—that is literally the only purpose of this experience, and nothing else! (Those who do not follow this formula are very foolish!)

-Spiritual life is total nonsense and this bond is not meant to be wasted on spirituality! 

The sattvic mind has this approach to the twin flame journey:

-It is becoming very clear that this is a significant milestone in the spiritual journey

-No running or chasing is needed please (as we cannot really be separated, and this would therefore make no sense)!

-The dreams of the Divine, of the twin soul, and the repeating angel numbers (will write another post on this sometime) definitely mean something-- they are not random. I must pay attention and learn what it is that the Divine wants from me here.

-I have faith in myself, in my ability to adhere to dharma and perform my duties, both material and spiritual. This faith is due to the grace of my Guru, of the Divine. 

-Equally, I have faith in my twin-- I have seen that they too, know the importance of dharma and karma. I intuitively feel that they are doing what they need to on this planet.

-Things are going to turn out ok. This path has involved a lot of karmic purging. I will not let this go to waste-- not for me, and not for my twin (for whom I do have a deep spiritual love that nobody except another twin soul, God and Guru can ever understand).

-The pain that my twin and I have gone through will pave the way for our spiritual progress. I will do my part in full to ensure this. And I have faith that they will do their part too.

-This entire experience has only increased my commitment to spiritual life further. I am stronger today than I was before I had this experience. 

-I am going to get through this, and I know my twin will too. We have our spiritual guides, our Gurus and the Divine. They are with us all the way. And we are going to walk our spiritual paths with full commitment.

-Every tear, every hurt, every moment of suffering that we have experienced on this journey will have been worth it when we achieve the spiritual goal—and we will certainly achieve this through our own efforts that will draw the grace of Guru and God. 

-The karmic purging that we have been through has lessened our karmic burden from past lifetimes-- this has been painful but is deeply valuable from a spiritual perspective. I know that the Divine cannot be attained unless karmic debts are cleared in full, and we have cleared many karmas and will continue to clear our spiritual debts.

-I am going to remain positive and keep walking the spiritual path. I am absolutely going to continue my spiritual practice and keep striving to attune myself to the will of the Divine. And, when my will is attuned in full to that of the Divine (and not my lower ego), success in life will be assured in all aspects -- in the way defined by the Divine. I know this because I have already felt a little of this in my life, and I will keep going, God-willing.

-I feel confident, happy and secure knowing that the Divine has my back. 

-I cannot wait to get started on the next mantra purascharana in the coming weeks! Bring it on I say!

Spiritual life all the way! :)

To summarise,

Tamas and rajas do not allow the twin soul seeker to benefit spiritually from this journey. They keep the spiritual energy/ the kundalini in the lower chakras.

Sattva allows the spiritual seeker to attune themselves to Divine will and progress rapidly on the spiritual path (the twin soul journey can significantly accelerate spiritual progress if approached the right way. It rapidly awakens the kundalini which can then be guided through sadhana to rise to the higher chakras). 

-Dharma and karma yoga are the foundation of this path along with bhakti.

-Faith in oneself, one's twin, Guru and God leads one forward on this spiritual journey.

I will conclude this post by expressing my gratitude to Guru, God, and all those twin souls (including my own) who have directly and indirectly provided me with significant help in my spiritual life. 

Om Namo Narayanaya. Om Sri Durgayai Namah. Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya.

Hari Aum Tat Sat.

P.S. A note to my twin:

Even in separation, I feel in union with you. Is this not strange? Or maybe not so strange!

Om Namo Narayanaya.

Tuning the sitar string just right

Hari Aum.

I will write about the importance of balance in spiritual life today. I will share my views on how to continue long-term spiritual practices based on my own experience of what works and the obstacles.

We all know that sadhana is only successful if one is willing to work for a long time. The light of our sadhana needs to be steady and regular like the sun which rises every day. It should not be like a comet, which flashes dramatically in the sky for a short time and then disappears.

But how to sustain sadhana for years and years like the great yogis so that we can experience the benefits?

The secret lies in balance. Sadhana must be intense but yet it should be enjoyable. Now this may sound like a paradox. When we say intense sadhana, we usually mean that this should involve some suffering. Like standing on one leg for years, or fasting for months or some other self-torture. Yes some suffering and penance is inevitable in spiritual life. But one's sadhana must never feel like a type of self-torture or one will not be able to do it for long.

One needs to feel one's sadhana is enjoyable, one must slowly develop a love for it- so much so, that one desperately wants to ensure it happens every day. This way, no matter what the life circumstances are, one will ensure that one can do sadhana regularly.

So how to do sadhana daily without it feeling like a punishment, a torture? The key is balance, a sattvic approach.

One must take great care in building up a daily practice. The rajas and tamas elements in the mind will always try to mislead one.

Let me give an example relating to the obstructive forces of rajas and tamas when it comes to building a daily practice.

About 14 years ago, I was in my first year at medical school and the first term was over. An end-of-term examination was coming up and six weeks were given beforehand to prepare for this. There was a lot of material to learn and I was determined to do well in the exam. I therefore made a very tough timetable and studied hard for long hours every day without allowing any proper breaks.

As a result, after about four weeks of working like this my mind felt burnt out. I felt I just could not face looking at a medical textbook. Due to this burn-out, the final two weeks of the holidays were wasted as my mind felt unable to study. Fortunately the exam still went okay, but I learnt a serious lesson from this experience.
The mind must be handled carefully to get work out of it. One must work hard with proper breaks to give the mind time to recover so it will work efficiently. Needless to say, for the rest of my medical school examinations, I ensured a careful balance between work and rest and performed well.

I have applied this same rule to my spiritual life. The same rajasic part of my mind, which made me overwork and burn out on that occasion in medical school, tries to make me burn out in spiritual life. This side of the mind says "Do more, do more"- basically do an unsustainable amount of daily sadhana.

We all have this rajasic component in our minds. This side of our mind promises everything and does nothing. It tells us the sadhana we are doing is a mere nothing, one must do huge amounts that are unsustainable to succeed. The moment one tries to do this, the rajasic mind turns tamasic.
Like a chameleon, it rapidly changes colour and says "Oh I am too tired, this sadhana is too tough, I cannot do it, it is torture, I want to give up and stop".

This way the mind tricks one in to committing to a huge amount of sadhana which it promises it will do, and later it rebels and stops everything.

Stopping sadhana is a very unfortunate situation which must be avoided for success in spiritual life. So how to handle the danger of this rajasic-tamasic mind?

The answer is the sattvic approach. The middle way. The path of balance. One has to tell the mind- "Look here, I want to do sadhana every day for years, understand? So I will work every day, and I will rest and recover everyday. I will neither overwork, nor underwork. I will take the balanced approach, the middle way. This way I can continue sadhana for a long time".

Yogis give the example of tuning the sitar. If the sitar string is made too tight, it will break and you cannot play music (this represents rajas- overdoing it and breaking in the process).  If the sitar string is too loose and slack, again you cannot play (this represents tamas- not doing enough).

If the sitar string is tuned just right, you can play beautiful music (this represents sattva, the balanced approach). Similarly the mind must be tuned just right to get proper sadhana out of it. It must be handled carefully like musical instrument.

One must take on only that much sadhana which feels comfortable and enjoyable to do. If one enjoys the sadhana, one will do it daily. If it feels like a terrible pain, a tremendous strain, our mind will give it up at the earliest opportunity. And then we will be nowhere.

As my third puraschanara comes to a close (will be completed in about three weeks), the rajasic component of my mind has been inciting me to increase the number of malas dramatically.

Over the past six years, I carefully built up a routine of doing on average 11 malas a day. (Before I started my purascharana practice, in 2011, I was doing just 1 mala twice a day- so 11 malas a day was a big step for me.) It took me some years to become comfortable doing 11 malas every day without a break.
In the past few months, after very careful consideration, I increased this to 15 malas a day. This was because 11 malas felt relatively easy-  and although 15 malas daily requires some effort, it is still not a huge strain- I should be able to manage this every day if I am disciplined.
I intend to do the fourth purascharana at 15 malas a day so this will take 1.5 years instead of 2 years to complete (and therefore gives me more time overall for future sadhana).

However my old friend, the rajasic mind, regularly tries to sabotage my sadhana efforts. It says "Come on, what is all this nonsense of just 15 malas a day? What kind of tapas is this? Why don't you do 21 malas daily, then you would finish a purascharana in a year! Why not do 24 malas a day, then you would complete it in just 10 months. That would be great!"

I know that my current situation will not permit  me to do 21-24 malas daily- this is due to my work as a doctor and other home-related responsibilities. I am a japa yogi but I combine japa with karma yoga (my work/home responsibilies). Furthermore, my Guru Sivanada, advised a balanced approach- japa, karma, jnana, hatha yoga (not just japa yoga).

Therefore the balanced aspect of my mind says- "Wait, wait. Go slow and steady. Don't jump too fast and break your legs. Don't burn out. You find 15 malas a day comfortable although this is still an effort- stick with this for now. Do not increase or decrease the number of malas for the present". I trust this balanced side of my mind, I feel this is the sattvic side that provides the recipe for continued regular steady sadhana. This balanced approach has always helped me in the past, both in spiritual and material life.

I therefore ignore the rajasic side of my mind which promises me it will do huge amounts of sadhana daily, and later rebels and turns tamasic, refusing to do anything at all. I have seen this rajas-tamas play of my mind plenty of times before and refuse to fall for its tricks this time. However it is not at all easy to always recognise the tricks of one's mind and this is where prayer to God to ask for His/Her grace becomes very necessary.

I pray to God to keep me on the spiritual path, no matter what happens in daily life and no matter what tricks my mind tries to play. I feel it is only because of the grace of God that I have been able to stay on this spiritual path so far.

Now it is coming up to Navaratri time and I have taken a week off from work to recharge spiritually. I plan to enjoy this week by doing kirtan, reading some spiritual books, visiting  a temple or two and just be happy. I want to express my thanks to the Divine Mother for helping me get this far in my sadhana and to request Her help to continue until I attain God.

Aside from reciting the navarna mantra during this time, I will chant the saptasloki Durga and other hymns to the Goddess - basically I will just do what comes spontaneously from the heart (I am disciplined with my daily mantra japa so I allow my mind to be spontaneous when it comes to other sadhanas including this).

Happy navaratri to all. I wish you all the best of luck in tuning the sitars of your minds, to enable regular daily sadhana and attainment of spiritual wisdom and bliss.

Hari Aum Tat Sat



P.S. I am writing a little conversation here between the sattva, rajas and tamas components of the mind. This is intended as a caricature to highlight the absurd conflicting thoughts that can arise in our mind when it comes to starting and doing sadhana.  You may or may not experience something similar at times.

Let's say a hypothetical sadhaka thinks "Hmmmm, let me start doing 5 malas of japa daily. This is a good start as unfortunately I have not been doing any sadhana at all for a while and I want to attain God in this lifetime".

Immediately the rajasic mind wakes up and says "What! A mere 5 malas a day! Don't make me laugh! You will get nowhere with just 5 malas a day. You must do at least 50-60 malas a day- that's more in line what all the past great yogis did. Don't doubt yourself, you are fully capable of this, O hero!"

Then the sadhaka thinks "Well, maybe I would be doing too little going from 0 malas to just 5. Maybe I should do 50 malas daily. As they say, no pain, no gain."

The sadhaka then does 50 malas a day but this takes around 4-6 hours daily, and there is not much time for anything else. If s/he is living in a cave with no other people, this is fine. But if s/he is living in an Ashram or a house with other people, there will be some work expected from the sadhaka. The sadhaka struggles with finding time for Ashram/home/office responsibilities as well as japa. S/he gets exhausted after 2-3 weeks of doing 50 malas a day. Sleep has been reduced because the malas are done late into the night (cannot finish all malas in the daytime due to work in the Ashram/home/office). The sadhaka feels tired and exhausted and unable to concentrate properly on the mantra- the sadhana is not enjoyable and feels like torture.

At this point, when the sadhaka is feeling tired and sad, the tamasic mind attacks him/her. "What are you doing? There is no time right now for this kind of sadhana. It is better you stop this  nonsense now. Your seva/service in the home/office/Ashram is quite enough to worship God. No need to take the name of the Lord for hours like this. Utterly ridiculous! Where do you get such foolish ideas?"

The exhausted sadhaka then gives up the sadhana with relief and some sadness. The rajasic mind now berates him/her severely for stopping the sadhana- "What a complete failure you are! Such a little sadhana you could not do. Look what great sadhana the great yogis can do, and look at you. Where is the comparison! No point worrying about yoga and attaining God. Just live your life as a normal person- you are not fit for any tapas".
Note how the same mind which said the sadhaka was a great hero who could do great tapas, now criticises him/her severely and makes him/her feel like a complete zero. The poor sadhaka shrinks away feeling like a failure and and sadly contemplates giving up the search for God altogether.

At this point the sattvic mind intervenes and says "Friend, don't lose heart. You did not listen to me earlier because the rajasic mind sounded more impressive, but listen to me now. Just start doing a little bit of sadhana daily, something you can manage comfortably. Little by little, as you gradually grow stronger with time, you can increase the sadhana steadily. You are not a failure, neither are you a hero. You need to set some simple achievable goals for sadhana and do it while taking care of your life as a whole. Just start with the 5 malas a day you were thinking about- you will be able to do this easily and this will be a definite improvement on your current 0 malas a day! The name of the Lord is all-powerful and auspicious. Every little bit of japa counts towards your spiritual progress. Come on, let's get started!"

The sadhaka feels renewed hope, and this time resolutely ignoring both rajasic and tamasic components of the mind, says "Yes, I can do a little every day!". In time the sadhaka begins to enjoy the sadhana and continues this steadily for a long while, thus reaping the rich reward of spiritual progress.

Let us therefore listen to the balanced sattvic side of our minds, and try to ignore as much as possible the unrealistic rajasic side and the lazy tamasic side. May God and Guru bless us all in our efforts.

Hari Aum Tat Sat

The play of Gunas in our minds

Hari Om.

It is well known in yoga philosophy that there are three Gunas or qualities present everywhere in the Cosmos, both externally and internally within ourselves. These are termed sattva, rajas and tamas in Sanskrit.

Let us analyse these gunas in terms of the human mind and then see how they interact within us to help or hinder our spiritual practice. Lord Krishna says in the Gita (Chapter 6)- Mind alone is friend, Mind alone is enemy, One should lift oneself with the help of one's mind and not allow it to pull us down. Yoga philosophy is very clear that we are not our minds. We say "my hat", "my clothes", "my body", "my mind"- in other words, mind also like the body, clothes and hat is a possession of ours- it belongs to us...but it is not us. No, yoga philosophy says clearly, you are the Immortal Self, ever pure, ever above the vagaries of your mind, Realise this and be free. And to realise this for ourselves of course, we have taken to the spiritual path.

So with regard to the mind, sattva refers to all qualities that help us live in harmony with others here on Earth and which help us to move onwards on our spiritual journey to realise God. This includes kindness, wisdom, determination, hard work, self-analysis, self-correction, non-judgementalness, compassion, forbearance, patience, humility and many other good qualities.
Rajas encompasses negativity such as anger, pride, lack of self-awareness, lack of self-control, rudeness, hate, impatience....these are hot bubbling emotions that consume a lot of energy.
Tamas is also a type of negativity but of a different sort. This involves apathy (the feeling that I don't care about myself or anything), laziness, dullness, foolishness, inertia. While rajas is about over-activity in the mind, tamas is about under-activity. Sattva is the golden middle way- the path of harmony and balance.

We know as sadhakas, we need to increase sattva in our minds to help us progress and reduce rajas and tamas. This is done in a variety of ways, including through diet, yogic exercises, karma yoga and of course practices such as mantra japa, puja and other devotional exercises.

Let us now examine our minds with regard to some attitudes to our sadhana that we may experience at different times.

The Sattvic mind has this attitude to sadhana:
I am a pure divine soul in reality, I have simply forgotten this, I must discover my essential nature, this is why I have been born as per my Guru and the scriptures (these are the words of God Him/Herself).
My Guru has said Yoga is about acceleration, about speeding up this spiritual evolution (what would take millions of years can take one or a few lifetimes).
I have faith in my Guru- he/she said I must try hard to achieve the spiritual goal of life in this lifetime so I must try.
Also I have faith in God- I may see a hundred flaws in my mind but I know God's Name is all-powerful as per my Guru and the scriptures, therefore I will not lose heart. I will carry on with japa even when the mind is as restless as a monkey, or even when it is as dull as can be. Under no circumstances will I stop my sadhana.
May God always help me to walk the spiritual path, without Him/Her, I would surely fall, but with Him/Her, success is the only option.
Come on, mind, let us do more and more sadhana. It may take one lifetime or a few, it does not matter. Let God do as He/She wishes with us, and He/She knows best. I am in good hands. All is well.

The Rajasic mind has this attitude to sadhana:
No no, no time for japa today, I have to cook, clean, check my emails, write a blog entry, go shopping, check facebook/twitter/whatever social media site, ring my friend, meet that person etc etc.
(If it decides to do sadhana)- Hurry up, hurry up and finish the japa, I've got many more things to do today for pity's sake!
Or at other times, it says, Yes sadhana is very important....but I can't keep doing this sadhana all my life, or even for a few lifetimes....it's too long, I simply don't have the patience......I want to attain God by the age of 40....quick quick, hurry up and attain God.....hurry up and come God...(it doesn't matter that I'm not yet fit to experience You.....just give me a short-cut pleaaaase?!)....

The Tamasic mind has this approach to sadhana:
Oh I'm so depressed.....my sadhana is taking me nowhere. Poor me. I know my Guru (and all Gurus) say you cannot measure the effects of sadhana with the ordinary mind that I have. I know they say the effects of japa, kirtan, karma yoga and other sadhanas are very great but not easily visible. But still, I am not able to really believe this. I don't really trust them.
I also don't really trust myself, or have any faith in myself. I am a very hopeless character. Look at me - I am soooo bad! Anger, lust, pride, jealousy and more nasty qualities all reside in me. I am a verrry depraved person.
 God would never like me. I will not get His/Her Darshan for at least a billion years. What is the use then of my few malas of japa a day. It's pitiful, simply pathetic.That too, my japa is done without any feeling, or real bhakti. I do not have any bhakti. I am just a good-for-nothing.
 Yes I know the story of Ajamila. How he said "Narayana" once without even intending to call for God, and all his sins were wiped out and he attained the Grace of God. But I am even lower than him. Ok it's true I have taken the Name of God a few times but I feel my sins are more powerful than the Name of God!  So poor me, alack-a-day, I am doomed...
 As the tamasic mind reflects in this way on an apparently miserable situation, it concludes that there is no point in continuing any sadhana. It says....my sincerity is all fake anyway....I am simply fooling myself, I am not a genuine seeker.....I may as well just give up now...I simply want to crawl away and do nothing except sigh over my very sad situation....
If one gently asks the tamasic mind, well, how about doing some sadhana to emulate the Gurus as they themselves command, it angrily says.....How dare I even think I can become like Sivananda, Ramanuja and other spirtual greats. How dare I? Yes these great Gurus may tell me a 1000 times that I am a divine being with divine potential like them. But no, I refuse to accept what they say. I like to keep these noble Gurus on a very high pedestal and consider myself very low. It is simply egoistic to want to be great like them! It is better to just accept that I am a lowly being and not bother doing any sadhana than be egositic and want to be like them.
No I refuse to listen to what they say (ironically, the tamasic mind doesn't consider this to be egoism!). Ok they may say "Obedience is better than reverence", they may say "For God's sake stop worshiping me, but instead do some sadhana and become like me!".....but I say, no Guruji....you are up there, you are very great...I cannot be like you, I cannot do sadhana like you.....no I shall not even try to obey you in this.....please save me Guruji, even though I am lazy and do not want to do any sadhana.....I know they say, God helps those who help themselves, but I can't help myself Guruji....I simply can't...help me please.....please ask God to make an exception in my case and grant me instant effortless Samadhi....(LOL :)

I don't know about you but I see all of the above types of thoughts in my mind. I witness this tussle between the sattva, rajas and tamas in my mind.
For example, my sattvic mind says cheerfully, Come let us do japa now, it is very good for us in every way. :)
 The rajasic mind says Ok fine, but hurry up and finish fast, I've got other things to do you know....and while you're at it, hurry up and attain God because this sadhana business is really exhausting.... :(
The tamasic mind says glumly, Ok, we can do japa, but what's the point, we've got sooooo far to go on the spiritual path, what's a few malas of japa gonna do (we're not Ajamila).... :(

(I do not literally talk to myself in this way (not always anyway! ;) ,  but such types of thoughts do arise....am writing them in this format to make it clearer).

Anyway, at present, I feel the sattvic mind by God's Grace has won a little ground over the other two minds to keep some form of sadhana going. It's very useful to monitor our states of mind and see what Guna is predominant.....

To summarise,
Rajas and Tamas are self-sabotage. Destroying oneself from within through doubt, lack of belief in oneself, Guru and God.
Rajas is about self-aggrandisement....feeling oneself to be very important....this will lead to utter destruction on the spiritual path....as it fattens the ego with a sense of superiority and creates separateness from God....
Tamas is self-denigration.....this will also lead to utter destruction on the spiritual path. It is harder to detect than rajas sometimes as it can be mistaken for humility at times....because of the difficulty in detecting this, it is a dangerous hidden enemy within us and is, in some ways even more dangerous than rajas (which is cruder and easier to see so can be recognised and dealt with sooner). Self-denigration subtly destroys our self-confidence under the pretext of humility, and thus erodes our motivation to continue on the spiritual path.....it prompts us to quit the spiritual path altogether or do sadhana dully at a snail's pace, thus not utilising this lifetime properly to realise God...

In the case of rajas, one feels superior to others, to the Gurus and to God...
In the case of tamas, one feels inferior to others, to the Gurus and to God.....
Both are a case of egoism, two sides of the same ego coin, that prevent us from experiencing a sense of oneness with others, with the Guru and with God.

Sattva is self-affirmation. It is absolutely based on trust and faith in God. Faith in God on three levels:
1. Faith in oneself, as a child of God. Yoga philosphy/Vedanta says all is God. The sattvic mind says I am a part of God. My true nature is one with God. My mind may manifest all sorts of rajasic and tamasic nonsense and try and convince me otherwise....but I will not believe these thoughts in my mind....I will believe my Guru who says I am a child of God, that I am divine, stainless, ever pure. I am beyond all the three Gunas in reality, my nature is was and ever will be one with God. Therefore to experience my true Reality, I will with confidence, take the Name of God, knowing this is the way to God....
2. Faith in Guru, as a manifestation of God. The Guru tells us to do sadhana and reveal our true nature which is that of God, like the Guru also did. To obey the Guru is to obey God, therefore the Guru is to be obeyed (not merely worshiped, though that is also good). The Guru/God wants our highest welfare and gives advice to achieve this.
3. Faith in God.....here one says, I will not take lightly stories from the Puranas about the extraordinary saving grace of the Name of God.
Stories such as that of Ajamila and others are not merely from a time long gone and now only for reading purposes....there is a deep spiritual meaning to these events, and a serious relevance to my own life today, living in this modern world.
God remains as accessible to me today, as He was to Ajamila and Gajendra a long time ago. I will with great seriousness therefore take the Name of God, knowing that as it removed Ajamila's burden of sins, it will destroy my negativity and sins too and bring me face to face with God.....

Let us therefore develop a 'gunas thermometer', a witnessing component of our mind that watches our thoughts. Let us regularly monitor our mental gunas temperature....and try our best to stay in the warm balanced sattvic zone, and as far as possible avoid the heated agitated rajasic and the cold dull apathetic tamasic modes of thinking.

Thus we ensure that we follow Lord Krishna's command in the Gita to lift ourselves to experience our real Self/God, through the help of our minds. 

Hari Aum Tat Sat.