Fill every act of yours with love. Let no one suffer the slightest pain as a result of your thoughts, word or deed. Let this be your spiritual discipline. It will surely help you to achieve the Goal. (Sens.SS, p. 45)

The Vedas teach you that which deserves to be learnt, the Scriptures, lay down disciplines that help to shape man into God: Spiritual discipline brings into you the awareness of that which will give a new and true meaning into every act of yours. I am eager that you must all get to know this and so, I am leading you into spiritual discipline. A mother cannot ignore the health and progress of the children. Though they may neglect her advice, she will be eager to correct them and lead them into proper habits. The main plank of the programme of Spiritual discipline is the overcoming of the ego, the feeling of ‘I’ and ‘Mine’. That, in a nutshell, is knowledge of the Self. (Sens.SS, p. 97)

Service in all its forms, all the world over, is primarily spiritual discipline - mental clean up! Without the inspiration given by the attitude, the urge is bound to ebb and grow dry, or, it may meander into pride and pomp. Just think for a moment: Are you serving God? Or, is God serving you?.... When you offer milk to a hungry child, or a blanket to a shivering brother on the pavement you are but placing a gift of God in a repository of the Divine Principle! God serves; He allows you to claim that you have served! Without His will, no single blade of grass can quiver in the breeze. Fill every moment with gratitude to the Giver and the Recipient of all gifts. (MBI, p. 171)

Love is God, God is love. Where there is love, there God is certainly evident. Love more and more people. Love them more and more intensely. Transform the love into service. Transform the service into worship. That is the highest spiritual discipline. (S&M, p. 122)

Devotees have to develop four types of spiritual discipline: Maitri (friendliness), Karuna (compassion), Mudita (rejoicing) and Upeksha (freedom from attachment and aversion). These appear to be simple terms, but they embody all human values. Each quality has to be cultivated in a spirit of devotion and dedication to the Divine. (SSS Vol.22, pp. 202-204)

Service is the highest spiritual discipline. Prayer and meditation, knowledge of Scriptures and of the Vedanta, cannot help you reach the goal as quickly as service can. Service has a double effect: it extinguishes the ego and gives bliss. (ACPMSB, p. 190)

You clear the field of thorny plants and bushes, you plough it and water it, you sow select seeds, you pluck out the weeds, you fence it to keep out cattle, you spray the crops with insecticides and at last, you reap the harvest for which all this struggle was undergone by you. But, you must get busy with another type of cultivation too, for the spirit. Consider the condition of the field of your heart; it is overgrown with the thorn and bush of lust, anger, greed and envy. Remove them, root and all. Do not allow the land to lie fallow. By continuous good works, plough the field and fill the field with the water of prema. Select the nama (Divine name) - seed that appeals to you---and sow it on the field; discipline is the fence which will guard the growing crop against cattle; virtue is the pesticide. Fostering the field with great care you can bring home the precious harvest of Ananda, in due course, provided you do not hurry or get desperate. (SSS Vol.5)

Cleanse your emotions, passions, impulses, attitudes, and reactions. That is the essence of Spiritual Discipline, as laid down in all faiths. Examine your mind, your thoughts; do not seek the fault-ridden person. See only purity. Speak ill of none; and if, you slip into slander, repent and resolve not to give vent to the habit another time. Do not humiliate any one; respect him for the good in him. Their grief at your behaviour will haunt you during your last moments.

Let every act of yours stand as your credential when you quit the world. Let no single act be a drag, or debit. Soak every moment in Love, that is it say, in God. Of what avail is it to spend hours in Dhyana, if, when you rise and move amongst men, you spread anger, inflict resentment by your words and deeds? The Gita asks you to be ‘Satatam yoginah’, ever controlled, ever restrained, ever yoked with the Divine. So, be vigilant, be steady, be earnest. The steady person earns wisdom. By vigilant care, a spark can be nursed into a huge conflagration; by the absence of careful tending, even a conflagration can be reduced to a splutter. (SSS Vol.8, p. 225)

For all types of spiritual discipline, congenial company is very necessary. Man is shaped by the company he keeps; so, be ever vigilant of the air you breathe; it is fouled by the foul thoughts of the men among whom you move. The pure water that falls as rain from the sky is changed into a hundred tastes and colours by the soil on which it falls. But, even the slimy slush of the gutter has some hope of turning into pure water again; for, when the Sun shines, it can rise as vapour into the clouds and regain its pristine nature. To cleanse the mind, prayer is the water and repentance is the soap. Mere water or Vim cannot do the job; repentance must be followed by resolute determination not to repeat the wrong. You must pray for help in Sadhana, through Grace. (SSS Vol.5)

You are judged by your spiritual discipline; not by the number of temples you have gone into or the quantity and cost of the offerings you have made in those shrines. Do not calculate the length of Time you have spent in the company of the Lord s name, and exult. Calculate rather the length of time you have wasted, away from that contact, and repent. Have that name ever in your thoughts and you can brave any calamity. Remember how Sita braved the taunts, insults and tortures of the aggressors in Lanka; what was it that gave her the mental stamina? It was Rama nama and nothing else. Kama and krodha cannot co-exist with Rama dhyana (meditation on Rama). (SSS Vol.5)

Bad karma will spoil sadhana

The action of Rama dhyana will remould your mind. The most tasty dish will become uneatable if a drop of kerosene falls on it. One bad karma will spoil the spiritual discipline. Siddhartha, who was kept long inside the palace grounds, away from the world of grief, asked for a chance to go into the city and when, during that ride through the carefully cleaned streets, he saw one after the other the harrowing scenes of illness, old age and death and the tonic sight of a monk, his buddhi (intellect) was corrected in a trice. Buddhih karmanusarini - intellect follows action - it is said. The efforts of his father to keep him isolated and happy were foiled; Truth dawned on him in a moment; and the train of events which his father dreaded for 22 years did happen. Siddhartha left his wife and child and sought to find the secret of Liberation for all mankind. (SSS Vol.5)

The five points of spiritual discipline

I am insisting on five points of discipline. They are:

1: Silence. This is the first step in sadhana; it makes the other steps easy. It promotes self-control; it lessens chances of anger, hate, malice, greed, pride. Besides, you can hear His Footsteps, only when silence reigns in the mind. (SSS Vol.10)

Silence is the beginning of the art of communication. Learn to live in silence for some moments everyday. Just sit in complete silence and listen for the voice of god. You may not physically hear a voice, because god can speak to you through the silence, and you will become aware of god’s message, even though you hear no voice. So, let your mind rest in god in those moments of silence and thoughts will come into your mind. But be patient and do not necessarily expect immediate results. Success will come provided you persevere. Know always I am with you, even when hear nothing. For, I am in you and you are in me; so how is it possible that we cannot communicate? Just think about those things and do not give up easily. (NNSG Vol.4, p. 118)

2: Cleanliness: It is the doorway to Godliness. Inner and outer cleanliness are essential, if you desire to install God in your heart. (SSS Vol.10)

Cleanse your hearts through pure habits. You sit before the idol and offer praise, the incense of worship, but you do not now try to grasp the significance of the Divine that you see in the idol. Inquire into the Will of God, discover the Commands of God, guess what will please Him most, and regulate your life accordingly. Let this be your New Year Resolution. Do not get caught in the sticky tangles of outer Nature. Do not harden your heart through greed and hate. Soften it with Love. Cleanse it through pure habits of living and thinking. Use it as the shrine, wherein you install your God

3: Service: Service saves you from the agony you get when another suffers; it broadens your vision, widens your awareness, deepens your compassion. All waves are on the same sea, from the same sea, merge in the same sea. Seva teaches you to be firm in this knowledge. (SSS Vol.10)

You have to transform your life through service. You should give no room for arrogance or self-interest to the slightest extent in your service activities. Install in your heart the feeling that the service you render to anyone is service to God. Only then does service to man become service to Madhava (God). (SSS Vol.22)

4: Love: Do not calculate or weigh the reaction, result or reward. Love calls; love responds. Love is God, live in Love.

Without love, your meditation will not achieve the desired result. Your love for God should be continuous through day and night. (SSS Vol.42, p. 66)

Adore man; the adoration reaches Me. Neglect man; you neglect Me. Of what avail is it to worship the Lord and to suppress man, His counterpart? Love for God must be manifested as Love for man, and Love must express itself as service. Through Love alone – Love acquired through sadhana, and shared with all as sadhana – can peace be attained, by the individual as well as by the nation. My Life is My Message and My Message is Love. That explains why you have gathered hither in hundreds of thousands. (SSS Vol.13, p. 55)

5: Hatelessness: Adhveshta Sarva Bhutanam - No being is to be looked down upon as secondary, inferior, unimportant, or expendable. Each has its allotted role in the drama designed by the Almighty. Do not slight, insult or injure any being; for, He is in every being and your slight becomes a sacrilege. (SSS Vol.10)

The seed grows slowly into a huge spreading tree; so, too, through tiny acts, soft words and kind deeds, man elevates himself into a Divine Being! The worst action is to do the opposite of what you preach to deny by the hand what you dole out of your mouth. If you cannot act up to your declarations, keep quiet; do not go about advising and advertise that you are hypocrites. Do not preach dharma (virtue) while decrying it in deed. Dharma is steady, unchanging; it can never decline. What happens is: those who have to practise dharma decline in faith and steadfastness. (SSS Vol.5)