To develop one’s moral and mental strength, one should practise sadhana for disciplining the mind. For this purpose, one has to promote ten kinds of purity (Sattva).

The first is purity of the place in which one lives. It is necessary to fill the room in which one resides or studies with a sattvika atmosphere. The pictures or other objects you see should fill you with peace and pure thoughts. Objects which arouse agitation and bad thoughts should have no place. The room should be clean and free from anything that is impure.

Second: In the family in which you live, there should be mutual understanding and cooperation, and a sense of harmony. There should be no discord in the family that will create a bad atmosphere. A harmonious atmosphere will give you true peace of mind.

The third need is sattvika food. This means that none of the edible items should be excessively sour, bitter or hot. You should eschew rajasika food like fish or meat. Even good sattvika food should not be taken in excess. Some people consume so much of sattvika food that even though it is sattvika, it develops rajasika qualities. It is only sattvika when you sit for the meal with a light stomach and get up from it with a light stomach! If you sit with a light stomach and get up with a weighty stomach, it becomes Tamasika.

Fourth: Whatever fluids you take should also be sattvika. You should not drink whatever water is available. It should be pure water. Alcoholic spirits should be eschewed.

Fifth: Sattvika thoughts and feelings are of great importance. Students tend to neglect this factor. Only if your thoughts and feelings are pure, can you get the full benefit of a clean room, a good family and pure food.

Sixth: If you want to develop sattvika feelings and thoughts, your vision must be pure. All Srishti (creation) is based upon drishti (sight). It is only when you have wrong vision that you have wrong thoughts. You must look upon every elderly woman as your mother and all women who are younger as your sisters. When you are filled with such pure thoughts, you will have pure feelings. It is because you are students, you have to be told this. Imagine how offended you will feel if someone looks at your mother or sister with an evil eye. Realising this, you have to entertain pure feelings towards other women. You should not commit the sort of offences, which you will not tolerate in others.

Seventh: Whatever books you read or whatever you write should be pure. This is the Sadhana relating to study-Sahitya Satwika. If you read or write that which is not pure, it warps your mind. A good book makes for a good mind. Any book you may study about Physics or Chemistry. But books, which are literary, are not always good literature. If improper books are prescribed for study, treat them as mere text-books and do not attach any high value to them as guides for life.

Eighth: Pure Sattvika service. With regard to service, you have to decide what sattvika is and what is rajasika. We go and clean streets, build roads in villages or dig wells and do them all as a service to the community. But the kind of service, which we do, should give real happiness to the people. In the name of ‘Social work’ you go to a hospital and approach a patient. This is not real service. Any person whom you wish to serve, you should regard as an embodiment of the Divine. Going to the help of the destitute and the neglected is rendering service to God.

Narayana has two forms: one is ‘Lakshmi Narayana’; the other is ‘Daridra Narayana’. This ‘Lakshmi-Narayana’ is full of wealth. He is able to help any number of people. He will be able to get many persons to serve him. But, for ‘Daridra Narayana’ there is nobody to serve him. It is to such persons that we should do sattvika service.

Ninth: Sadhana. This is spiritual discipline. This must be sattvika. Some people do Hata Yoga. Some strive to develop the Kundalini Shakti. Some invoke evil spirits, to do harm to others.

These forms of sadhana are not sadhana at all. The individual is Cit (Consciousness); God is Sat (The Eternal Absolute). When Sat and Cit combine, you have ananda-Sat-cit-ananda. Only the sadhana undertaken to realise Sat-cit-ananda is true sadhana. Where is this Sat? This Sat, the Divine, is in everybody. So, you must be prepared to serve everybody, regarding everyone as the Divine. You may have normal relationship with your kith and kin. There is nothing wrong in this. You must perform sadhana in the spirit that the One pervades the many. In this process, you must cultivate the feeling of Love. There is no higher sadhana than the cultivation of Love! Spiritual sadhana means to regard a mountain or a tree, or a flower, or the ocean, as a means of God-realization.

Tenth: Your occupation or profession. What is the kind of work you should take up? It should be work which can benefit the nation, the community. The nation enables you to earn a living. You must see what you can give to the nation, in return. you must ask yourself: ‘What is the service, what is the help I can do for the community?’ You must see that there is no untruth in any work you do, no unfairness, no fraud, no evil motive. (SSS Vol.18, pp. 197-202)