Creating Affluence - A–to-Z Steps to a Richer Life

A: All possibilities, absolute, authority, affluence, abundance.
B: Better and best.
C: Carefreeness and charity.
D: Demand and supply, dharma.
E: Exulting in the success of others, expecting the best.
F: Failure contains the seed of success.
G: Gratitude, generosity, God, gap, goal.
H: Happiness and humanity.
I : Intent or intention.
J: Judgment is unnecessary.
K: Knowledge contains organizing power.
L: Love and luxury.
M: Making money for others, motivating others.
N: Saying no to negativity.
O:Life is the coexistence of opposites, opportunity, open and honest communication.
P: Purpose in life, pure potentiality.
Q: To question.
R: Receiving is as necessary as giving.
S: Spending and service.
T: Transcendence, timeless awareness, talent bank, tithing.
U: Understanding the unity behind all diversity.
V: Values.
W: Wealth consciousness without worries.
X: Expressing honest appreciation and thanks to all who help us.
Y: Youthful vigor.
Z: Zest for life.

- Deepak Chopra
http://www.schooloffirstthought.com/a-z-steps/

The Real Self

Once upon a time, the son of an Indian king came to Rama in the mountains, and put this question, "Swami, Swami, What is God?" This is a deep question, a very difficult problem. This is the one subject which all the theologies and all the religions propose to investigate, and you want to know all about "it in a short time". He said, "Yes, sir yes, Swami. Where shall I go to have it explained? Explain it to me." The boy was asked, "Dear prince, you want to know what God is, you want to make acquaintance with God, but do you not know that the rule is, when a man wants to see a great personage, he will have to send his own card first, he will have to send to the chief his own address and name? Now you want to see God. You had better send to God your card; you had better let God know what you are. Give Him your card. Rama will place it in the hands of God directly and God will come to you, and you will see what God is." "Well", the boy said, "It is all right, it is reasonable. I will directly let you know what I am. I am the son of king so and so, living on the Himalayas in Northern India. This is my name." He wrote it out on a piece of paper. It was taken up by Rama and read. It was not put into the hands of God directly, but was given back to that prince and the prince was told, "O prince, you do not know what you are. You are like the illiterate, ignorant person who wants to see your father, the king and cannot write his own name. Will your father, the king receive him? Prince, you cannot write your name. How will God receive you? First tell us correctly what you are, and then will God come to you and receive you with open arms."

The boy reflected. He began to think and think over the subject. He said, "Swami, Swami, now I see, now I see. I made a mistake in writing my own name. I have given you the address of the body only, and I have not put upon the paper what I am."

There was an attendant of that prince standing by. The attendant could not understand it. Now the prince was asked to make his meaning clear to this attendant, and so the prince asked the attendant this question, "Mr. so and so, to whom does this card belong?" The man said, "To me." and taking up a stick from the hands of the attendant the prince asked him, "Mr. so and so, to whom does this stick belong?" The man said "To me." "Well, to whom does this turban of yours belong?" The man said, "To me." The prince said, "All right. If the turban belongs to you, there is a relation between the turban and you; the turban is your property, and you are the owner. Then you are not the turban, the turban is yours." He said, "Indeed, that is so plain." "Well, the pencil belongs to you, the pencil is yours, and you are not the pencil." He said, "I am not the pencil because the pencil is mine; that is my property, I am the owner." All right. Then the prince asked that attendant, taking hold of the ears of that attendant, "Whom do these ears belong to?" The attendant said, "To me." The prince said, "All right, the ears belong to you, the ears are yours. As such you are not the ears. Similarly the nose belongs to you. As the nose is yours, you are not the nose. Then, whose body is that?" (Just beckoning to the body of the attendant.) The attendant said, "The body is mine; this body is mine." "If the body is yours, Mr. attendant, then you are not the body; you cannot be the body because you say that the body is yours; you cannot be the body. The very statement—my body, my ears, my head, my hand proves that you are something else and the body together with the ears and hands and eyes, etc., is something else. This is your property, you are the owner, the master; the body is like your garment and you are the owner. The body is like your horse and you are the owner. Now, what are you?" The attendant understood it so far, and also concurred with the prince in saying that when the prince had put down on paper the address of the body and had meant that this address stood for himself, the prince had made a mistake. "You are not the body, not the ears, not the nose, not the eyes, nothing of the kind. What are you then?" Now the prince began to reflect, and said, "Well, well, I am the mind, I am the mind, I must be the mind."

"Is that so indeed?" The question was put to that prince. "Now, can you tell me how many bones you have got in your body? Can you tell where the food lies in your body that you took this morning?" The prince could make no answer, and these words escaped his lips, "Well, my intellect does not reach that. I have not read that. I have not yet read anything of physiology or anatomy. My brain does not catch it, my mind cannot comprehend it."

Now the prince was asked, "Dear prince, O good boy, you say your mind cannot comprehend it, your intellect cannot reach up to that, your brain cannot understand this. By making these remarks you confess and admit that the brain is yours, the mind is yours, the intellect is yours. Well, if the intellect is yours, you are not the intellect. If the mind is yours, you are not the mind. If the brain is yours, you are not the brain. These very words of yours show that you are the master of the intellect, the owner of the brain and the ruler of the mind. You are not the mind, the intellect or the brain. What are you? Think, think, please. Be more careful and let us know correctly what you are. Then will God be just brought to you, and you will see God, you will be introduced directly into the presence of God. Please tell us what you are."

The boy began to think, and thought and thought but could not go further. The body said, "My intellect, my mind cannot, reach further."

Oh, how true are these words! Indeed the mind or the intellect cannot reach the true Divinity or God within.

The real Atman, the true God is beyond the reach of words and minds.

The boy was asked to sit down for a while and meditate upon what his intellect had reached so far. "I am not the body; I am not the mind." If so, feel it, put it into practice, repeat it in the language of feeling, in the language of action; realize that you are not the body. If you live this thought only, if you work into practice even so much of the truth, if you are above the body and the mind, you become free from all anxiety, all fear. Fear leaves you when you raise yourself above the level of the body or the mind. All anxiety ceases, all sorrow is gone, when you realize even so much of the Truth that you are something beyond the body, beyond the mind.

After that, the boy was helped on a little to realize what he himself is, and he was asked, "Brother, prince, what have you done today? Will you please let us know the works or deeds that you have performed this morning?"

He began to relate, "I woke up early in the morning, took bath, and did this thing and that thing, took my breakfast, read a great deal, wrote some letters, visited some friends, received some friends, and came here to pay my respects to the Swami."

Now the prince was asked, "Is that all? Have you not done a great deal more? Is that all? Just see." He thought and thought; and then mentioned a few other things of the same sort. "That is not all; you have done thousands of things more; you have done hundreds, thousands, nay, millions of things more. Innumerable deeds you have done, and you refuse to make mention of them. This is not becoming. Please let us know what you have done. Tell us everything that you have done this morning."

The prince, hearing such strange words that he had done thousands of things besides the few that he had named, was startled. "I have not done anything more than what I have told you, sir, I have not done anything." "No, you have done millions, trillions, quadrillions of things more." How is that?

The boy was asked, "Who is looking at the Swami at this time?" He said, "I". "Are you seeing this face, this river Ganga that flows beside us?" He said, "Yes, indeed." "Well, you see the river and you see the face of the Swami, but who makes the six muscles in the eyes move? You know the six muscles in the eyes move, but who makes the muscles move? It cannot be anybody else; it cannot be anything extra. It must be your own Self that makes the muscles in the eyes move in the act of seeing."

The boy said, "Oh, indeed, it must be I; it cannot be anything else."

"Well, who is seeing just now, who is attending to this discourse?" The boy said, "I, it is I." "Well, if you are seeing, if you are attending to this discourse, who is making the oratory nerves vibrate? It must be you, it must be you. Nobody else. Who took the meals this morning." The boy said, "I, I." "Well, if you took the meals this morning and it is you that will go to the toilet and vacate, who is it that assimilates and digests the food? Who is it, please? Tell us if you eat and you throw it out, it must be you who digests, it must be yourself that assimilates, it cannot be anybody else. Those days are gone when outside causes were sought after to explain the phenomena in nature. If a man fell down, the cause of his fall was said to be some outside ghost. Science does not admit such solutions of the problem. Science and philosophy require you to seek the cause of a phenomenon in the phenomenon itself."

"Here you take the food, go into the toilet and throw it off. When it is digested, it must be digested by yourself, no outside power comes and digests it; it must be your own Self. The cause of digestion also must be sought within you and not without you."

Well, the boy admitted so far. Now he was asked, "Dear Prince, just reflect, just think for a while. The process of digestion implies hundreds of kinds of movements. In the process of digestion, in mastication, saliva is emitted from the glands in the mouth. Here is again the next process of oxidation going on. Here is blood being formed. There is the blood coursing through the veins, there is the same food being converted into carnatic muscles, bones, and hair; here is the process of growth going on in the body. Here are a great many processes going on, and all these processes in the body are connected with the process of assimilation and digestion."

"If you take the food, it is you yourself who are the cause of respiration; you yourself make the blood course through your veins; you yourself make the hair grow; you yourself make the body develop, and here mark how many processes there are; how many acts, how many deeds there are that you are performing every moment."

The boy began to think and said, "Indeed, indeed, sir, in my body, in this body, there are thousands of processes that the intellect does not know, about which the mind is unconscious, and still they are being performed, and it must be I that am the cause of all that, it must be I that am performing all that; and indeed it was a mistake I made when I said that I had done a few things, a few things only, and nothing more, a few things that were done through the agency of the intellect or mind."

It must be made further clear. In this body of yours there are two kinds of functions being discharged; there are two kinds of work being done, involuntary and voluntary. Voluntary acts are those that are performed through the agency of the intellect or mind; for instance, reading, writing, walking, talking and drinking. These are acts done through the agency of the intellect or mind. Besides these, there are thousands of acts or processes being performed directly, so to say, without the agency, or without the medium of mind or intellect, for instance, respiration, the coursing of blood through the veins, the growth of hair, etc.

People make this mistake, this glaring blunder that they admit only those acts to be performed by them which are performed through the agency of mind or intellect. All the other deeds, all the other acts which are being performed directly without the agency of intellect or mind, are disclaimed entirely. They are entirely cast aside, they are entirely neglected, and by this neglect and by this mistake, by this imprisoning the real Self in the little mind, identifying the Infinity with the small brain, people are making themselves miserable and wretched. People say, "Oh, God is within me." All right, the Kingdom of Heaven is within you, God is within you, but that kernel which is within you, that kernel is yourself and not the shell. Please think over it seriously. Reflect whether you are the kernel or the shell, whether you are He that is within you, or you are the shell that is without.

Some people say, "O sir, I eat and nature digests; O sir, I see but nature makes the muscles move; O sir, I hear but it is nature that makes the nerves vibrate." Mark, in the name of justice, in the name of truth, in the name of freedom, just mark, whether you are that nature or whether you are the mere body. Mark, you are that nature. You are the infinite God. If throwing aside all prejudice, waiving all preconceptions and casting off all superstitions, you reflect over the matter, discuss it, sift it, investigate it, examine it, you will become of the same mind as what you call Rama standing for. You will see that you are the kernel, the nature, the whole nature you are.

Most of you may have understood the drift of the argument; but that boy, that Indian prince, did not understand it thoroughly. "Well," he said, "Indeed, I have understood it so far that I am something beyond the intellect." At this time the attendant of the prince asked, "Sir, make it more clear to me, I have not quite comprehended it yet." Well, that attendant was asked, "Mr. so and so, when you go to bed, do you die or live?" The attendant said, "I live; I do not die." "And what about the intellect?" He said, "I go on dreaming, the intellect is still there." "And when you are in the deep sleep state (you know there is a state called the deep sleep state, in that state even no dreams are seen), where is the intellect, where is the mind?"

He began to think. "Well, it passes into nothingness; it is no longer there, the intellect is not there, the mind is not there." "But are you there or not?" He said, "Oh, indeed I must be there; I cannot die, I remain there." Well, mark here, even in the deep sleep state, where the intellect ceases, where the intellect is, as it were, like a garment hoisted on a peg, hoisted on a post, like an overcoat, the intellect is taken off and placed upon the post, you are still there, you do not die out. The boy said, "The intellect is not there, and I do not die out. This I do not quite comprehend."

Well, the boy was asked, "When you wake up after enjoying this deep sleep, when you wake up, do you not make such statements, ‘I enjoyed profound sleep tonight, I had no dreams tonight.’ Do you not make remarks of that kind?" He said, "Yes." Well. This point is very subtle. All of you will have to listen closely. When after waking up from the deep sleep state, this remark is made, "I slept so soundly that I saw no dreams, I saw no rivers, no mountains, in that state there was no father, no mother, no house, no family, nothing of the kind; all was dead and gone; there was nothing, nothing, nothing there. I slept and there was nothing there." This statement is like the statement made by the man who bore witness to the desolation of a place, and said, "At the dead of night, at such and such a place, there was not a single human being present." That man was asked to write out this statement. He put it on paper. The magistrate asked him, "Well, is this statement true?" He said, "Yes, sir." "Well, is this statement made on hearsay or founded upon your own evidence, are you an eyewitness?" He said, "Yes, sir, I am an eyewitness. This is not based on hearsay." "You are an eyewitness that at the time mentioned on the paper and at the place mentioned on the paper, there was not a single human being present?" He said, "Yes." "What are you? Are you a human being or not?" He said, "Yes, I am a human being." "Well, then, if this statement is true according to you, it must be wrong according to us, because, as you were present and you are a human being, the statement that there was not a single human being present is not literally true. You were present there. In order that this statement may be true according to you, it must be false according to us, because in order that there might be nobody, there must be somebody, must be some body, must be at least yourself, present at the time."

So when you wake up after enjoying the deep sleep state and make this remark, "I did not see anything in the dream;" well, we may say that you must have been present; there was no father, no mother, no husband, no wife, no house, no river, no family present in that state, but you must have been present; the very evidence that you give, the very witness that you bear proves that you did not sleep, that you did not go to sleep, for had you been asleep, who would have told us about the nothingness of that? You are something beyond the intellect; the intellect was asleep, the brain was at rest in a way, but you were not asleep. If you had been asleep, who would have made the blood run through the blood-vessels, who would have continued the process of digestion in the stomach? Who would have continued the process of the growth of your body, if you had really fallen into the deep sleep state? So you are something which is never asleep. The intellect sleeps, but not you. "I am something beyond the intellect, mind and body."

Now the boy said, "Sir, sir, I have understood it so far, and have come to know that I am a power Divine, that I am the Infinite power which never sleeps, never changes. In my youth, the body is different, in my childhood the mind was not the same as I have now, the body was not the same as I have now. In my childhood, my intellect, brain, body and mind were entirely different from what they are now." Doctors tell us that after seven years, the whole system undergoes a thorough change; every moment the body is changing, and every second the mind is changing, and the mental thoughts, the mental ideas which you entertained in your childhood, where are they now? In the days of childhood you looked upon the Sun as a beautiful cake which was eaten by the angels, the Moon was a beautiful piece of silver; the stars were as big as diamonds. Where are these ideas gone? The mind of yours, the intellect of yours has undergone a thorough, a whole-sale change. But you still say, "When I was a child, when I was a boy, when I shall grow up to the age of seventy." You still make such remark which show that you are something which was the same in childhood, which was the same in boyhood, which will be the same at the age of seventy. When you say, "I went to sleep, I went into the deep sleep state, etc,"; when you make remarks of that kind, it shows that there is the true ‘I’ in you, the real Self in you, which remains the same in the dreamland, which remains the same in the deep sleep state, which remains the same in the wakeful state. There is something within you which remains the same when you are in a swoon, which remains the same when you are bathing, when you are writing. Just think, reflect, just mark, please. Are you not something which remains the same under all circumstances, unchanging in its being, the same yesterday, today and for ever? If so, just reflect a little more, think a little more and you will be immediately brought face to face with God. You know the promise was, know your-self, put down your right address on paper, and God will be introduced to you immediately.

Now the boy, the prince, expected that as he knew about himself, he had come to know that he was something unchanging, something constant, something which was never asleep; so he wanted to know what God is. The prince was asked; "Brother, mark, here are these trees growing. Is the power that makes this tree grow different from the power that makes that tree grow?" He said, "No, no, it must be the same power certainly." "Now, is the power which makes all these trees grow different from the power that makes the bodies of animals grow?" He said, "No, No, it cannot be different, it must be the same." Now is the power, the force which makes the stars move, different from the power which makes these rivers flow? He said, "It cannot be different, it must be the same."

Well, now the power that makes these trees grow cannot be different from the power which makes your body grow, it cannot be different from the power which makes your hair grow. The same universal power of nature, the same universal Divinity or the Unknowable, which makes the stars shine, makes your eyes twinkle, the same power which is the cause of the growth of that body’s hair which you call mine, the same power makes the blood course through the veins of each and all. Indeed, and then what are you? Are you not that power which makes your hair grow, which makes your blood flow through your veins, which makes your food get digested? Are you not that power? That power which is beyond the intellect, the mind, indeed you are. If so, you are the same power which is governing the force of the whole Universe, you are the same Divinity, you are the same God, the same Unknowable, the same energy, force, substance anything you may call it, the same Divinity, the All which is present everywhere. The same, the same you are.

The boy was astonished and he said, "Really, really, I wanted to know God. I put the question what God is, and I find my own Self, my true Atman is God. What was I asking, what did I ask, what a silly question did I put! I had to know myself. I had to know what I am, and God was known." Thus was God known.

The only difficulty in the way of realizing this truth is that people play the part of children. You know, children sometimes take a fancy to a particular kind of plate and do not want to eat anything except when it is served to them in the plates which have their fancy. They will say, "I will eat in my plate, I will eat in my dish, I won’t have anything in any other plate." O children! see, it is not this particular plate alone which is yours; all the plates in the house are yours; all the golden dishes are yours. This is a mistake. If the people in this world know themselves, they will find the true Self to be God Almighty, to be the Infinite Power, but they have taken a fancy for this particular plate, this head, this brain. "What is done through this brain only, that is done by me. What is done through this mind or intellect, that is mine, and all else I won’t have; all else I disclaim. I will have only that which is served to me in this particular plate." Herein comes selfishness. They want to get everything done through this plate and to take credit for this plate, they want to have everything accumulated around this little plate, which they call particularly theirs, that with which they have identified themselves. This is the cause of all selfishness, all anxiety and misery. Get rid of this false notion; realize your true Self to be the All; rise above this selfish egoism, you are happy this moment, one with the whole universe you are. This is a mistake of the same character as that which the prince made. The prince was put a catch question. "Where is your place?" And he named the metropolis of the state. "That is my place." O boy, that metropolis of the state is not the only place you have got. The whole state, the whole country is yours. You live in that metropolis, that capital of the state, while that capital is not the only place that is yours, the whole state is yours, this magnificent landscape, these fairy scenes, this grand Himalayan scenery, all this belongs to you, and not only that particular small town.

This is the mistake made by the people. This intellect or brain may be called the metropolis or the capital of your real Self, the Atman. You have no right to claim this to yourself and deny everything else; this little metropolis of the brain, this metropolis of the mind or intellect is not the only place you have got. The wide world, the moons, the earths the planets, the milkyways, all these are yours. Realize that. Just regain your birthright; and all anxiety, all misery ceases.

People talk about freedom; people talk about salvation. What is it that has bound you first? If you want to be free, if you want to get salvation, you ought to know what is the cause of your bondage. It is just like a monkey in the fable. A monkey is caught in India in a very queer manner. A narrow-necked basin is fixed in the ground, and in that basin are put some nuts and other eatables which the monkeys like. The monkeys come up and thrust their hands into the narrow-necked basin and fill their hands with the nuts. The fist becomes thick, and it cannot be taken out. There the monkey is caught; he cannot come out. Queerly, strangely he is caught.

We ask what it is that binds you first. You yourself have brought you under thraldom and bondage. Here is the whole wide world, a grand magnificent forest; and in this grand magnificent wood of the whole universe, there is a narrow-necked vessel found. What is that narrow-necked vessel? It is your brain; this little brain, narrow-necked. Herein are some nuts and people have got hold of these nuts and all what is done through the agency of this brain or through the medium of this intellect, is owned as one’s own. "I am the mind," is what everybody says; everybody has practically identified himself with the mind, "I am the mind," "I am the intellect," and he takes a strong grip of these nuts of this narrow-necked vessel. That is what makes you slave, that is what makes you slave to anxiety, slave to fear, slave to temptations, slave to all sorts of troubles. That is what binds you; that is the cause of all the sufferings in this world. If you want salvation, if you want freedom only let go the hold, free your hand. The whole forest is yours, you can jump from tree to tree and eat all the nuts and eat all the walnuts and all the fruits in the wood, all being yours. The whole world is yours; just get rid of this selfish ignorance and you are free, you are your own saviour.

Making a famine where abundance lies,
(is it fair? No, it is not fair, it is not becoming.)
Making a famine where abundance lies,
This thy foe, to thy sweet self so cruel,
Should not be so, should not do this,
Within thine own but buriest thou content,
Thou makest waste and niggarding.
Be not niggardly, be not miserly.

It is niggardliness to give away all this property and confine thyself unto the few things in this little brain only.

You will see that this brain of yours will become of infinite power if you realize your oneness with the All. That is what puts you in perfect harmony with the whole world.

Sail on, march on to the real Self; get rid of all this superstition, this superstition of the body. Get rid of this hypnotism of this little body; you have hypnotized your-self into this brain or body. Get rid of that, sail on, march on to the eternity, the reality, the true Self; 

Rise above the body, and you become all these, you get a passage unto all these. All these you realize yourself to be.

-In Woods of God Realisation, Swami Rama Tirtha
http://www.ramatirtha.org/vol1/realself.htm

Expansion of Self

The wide world is my Self: the universe is the Self of this man: the wide world, the lowest creature, minerals, vegetable, the Self of all these becomes the Self of this man.

To a man who had reached this state of perfect freedom, there came a disciple who sat at his feet for a year or so. When the disciple was going to leave the master, he began to bow down at his feet, to kneel down before him, to prostrate himself before him, as the custom in India is. The master, smiling, raised him and said, "Dear, you have not yet learnt all that you could learn. You lack a great many things yet; stay for some while more." A few days more he stayed in the holy presence of the master, and got more and more of inspiration. His heart was converted into God-consciousness. He was full of the Holy Ghost. He left the presence of the master, knowing not whether he was the disciple or the master himself. He went away looking upon the whole universe, the wide world, as his real Self, and the whole universe being his real Self, where could he, the Self, go? When the Self fills and permeates every atom, every molecule, where can it go? The idea of going and coming becomes meaningless to him. You can go from one place to another, if you are not already at the place where you want to go. Here he found himself, he found his true Self, God within, God everywhere, and how could he think of going and coming? The idea of going and coming became absent for him. He was in the state of Self-realization. The going of body was a sort of reflex action. He was in himself; no going or coming for him. Then was the master satisfied. Thus did the master test him and prove him of sterling worth. The disciple paid no respects or thanks to the master, and rested in unity to such a degree that he rose above all idea of gratitude. Then did the master know that he had really understood his teachings. Here is the master-state, where if you honour the man, he says you are belittling him. "I am not confined in this body; I am not this little body only—I am the wide world, I am you, and honour me in you." Here is the state of a man who sells not anything to you. Here is the state of a man to whom honour and disgrace for the body have become meaningless, both shame and fame are nothing.

There came a man, a prince, to a monk in India, and he prostrated himself before him. The monk asked him as to the cause of homage that the prince was paying him. The prince said, "O sir, O holy sir, you are a monk, and you have adopted this order by giving up your kingdom which you ruled at one time. You are a man of great renunciation, and so I look upon you as God, I worship you." You know, in India, people are not honoured so much for the riches they possess. In India they are honoured for the degree of renunciation they display, and the chief principle of honour is essentially different there from what it is here. More trust is placed in God than in the almighty Dollar. The prince was offering homage to the man of renunciation. The monk replied to the prince, "If that is the reason why you honour me, I must wash your feet, I must kneel down before you, because, O king, you are a man of greater renunciation than all the monks in this world put together." That is very strange. How could that be? Then the monk began to explain, "Suppose, here is a man who possesses a magnificent palace, and this man casts out the dust and dirt of the house; he throws out or renounces only the dust or dirt of the house. Is that man a man  of renunciation?" The prince said, "No, no; he is not." Then the monk continued, "Here is a man who treasures up the dirt and the dust of the house and gives away the whole house, the magnificent palace. What do you think of this man?" The prince said, "This man who keeps only the dirt and dust, and resigns the palace, is a man of renunciation." Then the monk said, "Brother prince, you are then the man of renunciation, because the real Self, God, the real Atman, that which is the magnificent palace, the real home, the paradise, the Heaven of heavens, you have renounced, and only the dust and dirt of that palace, which is this body, this little selfishness, you have retained. I have renounced nothing. I am myself the God of gods—the Lord of the Universe."

In Woods of God Realisation Vol 1, Swami Rama Tirtha
http://www.ramatirtha.org/vol1/vol1.htm

Happiness Within

There is a beautiful story about a woman in India. She lost her needle in her house. She was too poor to afford a light in her house, so she went out of the house and was searching it in the streets. A gentleman inquired from her what she was doing. She said that she was searching for her needle? The gentleman asked, "Where did you lose the needle?" She said, "In the house." He said, "How unreasonable it is to search in the street a thing which was lost in the house!" She said that she could not afford a light in the house and there was a lantern in the street. She could not hunt in the house, she had to do something, so she must hunt in the street.

This is exactly the way with the people. You have the Heaven within you; and yet you are searching pleasures in the objects in the streets, searching that thing outside, outside in the objects of the senses.

How strange!

Conclusion
Realize the Heaven within you, and all at once all the desires are fulfilled, all the misery and suffering is put an end to. Seek Happiness not in the objects of sense; realize that Happiness is within yourself.

- In Woods of God Realisation Vol 1, Swami Rama Tirtha
http://www.ramatirtha.org/vol1/vol1.htm

The Infinite in the Finite

There was a small child that was never shown a looking glass. You know in Bharatvarsha, in Hindustan, small children are not shown looking glasses. This small baby once happened to crawl into the room of his father, and there was a looking glass lying on the floor, with one end of it lying against the wall and the other end resting upon the ground. This little baby crawled up to the looking glass, and lo! there he saw a baby, little child, dear little baby. You know children are always attracted by children. If you have a child and you go to your friend‟s house with him, there while talking with your friend, the child will at once make friends with the other children of the house. So this child saw in the looking glass a child of his own size. He went up to him and when he was moving up to the child in the mirror, the child in the mirror moved up to him also. He was delighted. He found that the child in the mirror was on friendly terms, liked him just as much as he liked the child in the mirror. Their noses met. He put his nose against the mirror and the child in the mirror also drew his nose up to his nose: their noses touched each other. Their lips touched. He put his hands on the mirror and the child in the mirror also put his hands to him, as if he were going to shake hands with him, but when the hands of this baby were on those in the mirror, the mirror fell flat on the ground and broke into two pieces. Now the child saw that instead of one child there were two children in the mirror. His mother, in the other room, heard this noise and came running to the room of her husband, and there saw that the husband was not there, but the child was making havoc with the articles in the room and had broken the mirror, she came up to him menacingly, in a threatening manner, as if she was about to strike him. But you know, children know better. They know that the threats and frowns and brow-beatings of their mothers mean nothing. They know it through experience. The child, instead of being frightened at the words of the mother, which were, "What have you done, what have you done, what are you doing here," took these words not in the sense of threat or frown, but in good sense. He said, "O, I have created two, I have made two." The child created two children out of one child. There was originally one child only that was talking to him and now this child made two children. A small child became the father of two children even before he was of age. He said, "I have made two; I have made two." The mother smiled, took the child up in her arms and took him to her own room.

Take up these two pieces of looking glass, break them, spare them not, you will get more looking glasses; break these pieces into four pieces and you will get four children. Now the small child by breaking these four pieces of glass into eight pieces could create eight children. Any number of children might be created that way. But we ask, does that real Divinity, does that real child increase or decrease by the breakage of the mirrors? It neither increases nor decreases. The increase and decrease take place only with looking glasses. There is no increase in the child that sees in the looking glass, that remains the same. How can the Infinite be increased? If the infinity increases, it is not infinity. How can infinity decrease? If it decreases, it is not infinity. Similarly the Vedantic explanation of the phenomenon of bisection of monad is that when you take up one insect, take up one small microscopic insect and bisect it, the body which is just like the mirror, just like the looking glass, that little body is divided into two, but the power, the real infinity within, the real monad, or the true spirit or energy, or any name you might give it, or the true God within it, is not bisected by the bisection of the bodies of the monad. When the bodies of the monad are multiplied, the power within the real monad, the true divinity inside does not multiply; that remains the same. That is like the real child and the bodies of the monad are like the pieces of the looking glass. When the bodies of the monad are divided and sub-divided and divided again, the Infinite power which is unchangeable, goes on reflecting itself, and showing itself, manifesting itself equally in all the thousandfold or millionfold bodies. That remains the same. That is only one, only one, only one, no duality, no plurality. O, what wonder of wonders! What joy! Bisect this body, cut this body and I die not. The real Self, the real „Me.‟ the true „I‟ dies not. Burn this body alive do any thing you like, no harm is done to „Me‟. Realize, realize that you are the Infinity within. Know that. The very moment that a person knows himself to be that, the very moment that a man realizes his true nature, he is free, above all danger, above all difficulty, above all suffering, above all tribulation and pain. Know that, be yourself! Oh, what wonder of wonders that it is one Infinite power that shows itself in all bodies, in all the apparent personalities, in all the apparent figures. Oh, it is the „I‟, the „I‟, the Infinite One, that is manifesting itself in the bodies of the greatest orators, in the bodies of the greatest men, in the bodies of the most wretched creatures! Oh, what joy! I am the Infinite One and not this body. Realize that and you are free. These are not mere words; this is not mere imaginary talk, this is the truest reality. Realize the truest reality, the real power, that you are; Infinite you are, above all danger and difficulty, you rise instantaneously. 

Here are, suppose, thousands of mirrors in the world. One mirror is black, another is white, another is red, another is yellow, another is green; one of the mirrors is convex, another is concave, another mirror is prismatic, another mirror has a lens, suppose. There are all sorts of mirrors. There is one person standing by the mirrors. He looks all around. He finds himself at one place red in the red glass, he finds himself white at another place, he  finds himself yellow at another place, he finds himself black in another glass; in the concave mirror he finds himself disfigured in a most ludicrous manner, in the convex mirror he finds himself again distorted in a most ridiculous way. He finds himself in all these multiplied shapes and forms, but in all these apparently different manifestations there is one indivisible, unchangeable, eternal, constant reality. Know that and free yourself. Know that and shake off all sorrow. All this distortion and disfigurement has nothing to do with the real Infinity, Divinity, which manifests and reveals itself in all these different mirrors or glasses. The differences lie in your bodies. The bodies, the minds are like the different glasses; one body may be like a lens, another prismatic, another a white glass, another a red glass, another concave, another convex. The bodies are different, but you are not the bodies only, the apparent unreal self. Through ignorance you call yourself the body you are not. You are the infinite power, the divinity, the constant, immutable, unchangeable One. That you are; know that and you find yourself inhabiting the whole world, inhabiting the whole universe.

In India we have mirror houses. In mirror houses we have all the walls and the roof bedecked with mirrors and looking glasses of all kinds. The owner of the house comes into the room and finds himself on all sides. Once there came into a mirror house of this kind a dog. The dog finds armies of dogs on his right coming up to him, and you know that dogs are very jealous, dogs do not wish any rival dogs to be present beside them. They are very jealous. When this dog saw thousands of dogs approaching him from the right, he turned to the left hand side, and again on that wall were fixed thousands of mirrors, and there he finds an army of dogs coming up to him about to devour him, tear him to pieces. He turned to the third wall and there he found again dogs of the same sort. He turned to the fourth wall and there the same thing. He turned his head upward to heaven and there from heaven he saw thousands of dogs coming down upon him to devour him and tear him to pieces. He was frightened. He jumped up, all the dogs  jumped on all sides; he was barking and he found all the dogs barking and opening their mouths at him. The sound re-echoed from the four walls, and he was afraid. He jumped and ran this way and that way. The poor fellow died exhausted on the spot. Exactly the same way, Vedanta tells you this world is like a mirror house, and all these bodies are like different mirrors, and your true Atman or real Self is reflected on all sides, just as the dog saw his figure reflected from the four wails. Just so does the One Infinite Atman, the One Infinite Divinity, the Infinite Power reflect itself in different mirrors. It is the One infinite Rama that is being reflected through all these bodies. Ignorant people come like dogs in this world and say; "That man will eat me up, that man will tear me to pieces, destroy me." O, how much of jealousy and fear in this world! To what are this jealousy and fear due? To the ignorance of the dog, to doglike ignorance is all this jealousy and fear of the world due. Please turn the table. Come into this world like the master of the house of looking glasses and mirror pieces. Come into the world not as d-o-g but as G-O-D, and you will be the master of the mirror house, you will be the owner of the whole universe; it will give you pleasure when you see your rivals and your brothers and your enemies advance; it will give you joy when you find any glory anywhere. You will make a heaven of this world. 

We come now to man. You have seen the Infinite in the finite in the case of the seed. That was an illustration taken from the vegetable kingdom. The Infinite in the finite was shown to you in the monad; that was an instance taken from the animal kingdom. You have seen the Infinite in the finite in the case of the glass. This was an instance taken from the mineral kingdom. Now we come to man. Just as the original seed dies and gives rise to thousands of seeds, but in reality the real seed does not multiply, does not decrease, remains the same, and just as the original monad dies and gives rise to thousands of monads, while the real monad remains the same, and just as the glass breaks, the mirror is broken, but the real child does not break; just in the same way when a man dies, there come up his sons, two or more, sometimes dozens. Some of the Englishmen, Anglo-Indians in Hindustan have scores of children. When the parents die, in their place come up dozens and scores; these again die in their turn and leave behind a fourfold progeny. They die and leave behind a larger number. Here is again the same thing. Just as the original monad died and two came up instead, and out of these two, four came up, and out of these eight came up; the original seed died and out of that thousands came up in time, similarly out of any pair of man and woman come scores, nay, thousands, millions of pairs of the same sort, the pair goes on multiplying. 

There is no time to enter into detail; only an outline can be given in one lecture. 

Vedanta tells you that just as the case was with the seed, monad or glass, so is the case with you. The primitive pair of man and woman died, and out of that, out of the Adam and Eve of the Christian Bible sprang up billions of inhabitants of the world.

Here again Vedanta tells you that this apparent multiplication, this apparent increase, implies no increase in the true, real man that you are. The real man does not increase. The real man in you is the Infinite All. Man is the infinite individual, you might call it. Let all the people die and any one pair remain. Out of this pair we can have millions of population in due time. The infinite capability, the infinite power, the infinite potentiality which was concealed or latent in the primitive pair is found in each pair today undiminished, unimpaired. This Infinity you are. This infinite power you are, and this infinite power is the same in all these bodies. These bodies may multiply like glass, but the man, the real Infinity is only one. You may multiply like glass, but the man, the real Infinity is only one. You may make much of these bodies, you may think of them whatever you please, but these you are not. You are the infinite power which is only One, One indivisible, the same you are yesterday, today, and for ever. It might be made more clear by a popular illustration. 

Who are you sir? I am Mr. So and so. Yes. Are you not man? Oh, man I am, of course. Who are you? I am Mrs. so and so. Are you not man? Man (human species) I am, of course. Go to anybody, take an unphilosophical man, ask him and he will never tell you that he is man. He will always say, I am Mr. so and so, and I am Mrs. so and so. Oh, but man also you are. Then he may admit that he is man.

Now we ask, have you ever seen man, the unadulterated, unspecified, unparticularized man? Have you ever seen that? Wherever, we chance to meet, there appears Mr. or Mrs., there appears lord or lady, but the real man, the concrete man you cannot find anywhere, and still we know that this concrete man is in all of them, the highest thing. That species, a man in itself, you cannot lay your hands on, a man divested of his Smithness, Johnness, or divested of his misterness or mrs.-ness. Man per se divested of these properties we cannot see anywhere, and yet this man is present in all these bodies. Bring before you Mr. so and so. Take away the man-part of him, diminish man, the concrete man, and what remains? Nothing. All gone, all gone. Take away Mr.-, remove all the misterhood and the other things and we cannot find anything but the real Man is still there. The real man, Rama takes in the sense of the underlying power, or the infinity within you. Be not misled by the words of Berkeley. Weigh and examine his words thoroughly and you will see that there is indeed something, the infinity within, which cannot be seen, cannot be heard, cannot be tasted, and yet it is the fountainhead of all that you see, it is the cause of all sight, it is the cause of all sound, it is the reality in all your taste. It is the reality, the divinity, the one power in all that you sense, see, touch or hear. It is there and yet it is indescribable. Thus we see that the Infinite within the finite is incapable of being seen, incapable of being heard, incapable of being thought, of being imagined, and yet all that you see is through it, all that you hear is through it, all that you smell is through it. It is indescribable and yet the fountainhead, the essence of all that is described. 

In conclusion, Rama simply asks you to do one favour, favour to yourself. Be man! All these bodies are like dewdrops and the real man is like the ray of Sun which passes through and threads all these beads of dew. All these bodies are like the beads on a rosary and the real man is like the string that passes through them all. If you once sit still for a second and feel, feel that you are the Universal Man, you are the Infinite Power, you will see that all this you are. Being man I am everything, being that indefinite man or species-man, I am everything. You are all one. Just rise above this misterness and mrs.-ness, rise above that and you become one with the All. What a grand idea! You become one with the All. Then you become one with the whole universe.

Here is a translation of one piece of an Upanishad verse, but it is not a perfect translation.

I am the Unseen Spirit which informs
All subtle essence! I flame in fire,
I shine in Sun and Moon, planets and stars!
I blow with the winds, roll with the waves!
I am the man and woman, youth and maid!
The babe newborn, the withered ancient, propped
Upon his staff! I am Whatever is—
The black bee and the tiger and the fish,
The green birds with red eyes, the tree, the grass,
The cloud that hath the lightning in its womb,
The seasons and the seas! In Me they are,
In Me begin and end."
(Upanishad, Sir Edwin Arnold‟s translation)

Infinite you are, that Infinity you are, and as that Infinity, as it were, have created these imaginary, false illusory bodies; you have made this world like a mirror house for yourself. Take care of the One Infinite, Universal God and the same you are, that dwells and permeates this world. 

In Woods of God Realisation Vol 1, Swami Rama Tirtha
http://www.ramatirtha.org/vol1/vol1.htm

Vedic Guru Puja

aatma shuddhi (PURIFICATION)

apavitraHpavitro va sarvaavasthaa.n gato.api vaa .
yaH smaretpu.nDariikaakShaM sabaahyaabhya.ntaraH shuchiH ..

Whether all places are permeated with purity or with impurity,
whosoever remembers the lotus-eyed Lord (Vishnu, Rama, Krishna) gains inner and outer purity.

aavaahanaM –( INVOCATION)

naaraayaNaMpadmabhavaM vasishhThaM shaktiM cha tatputraparaasharaM cha .
vyaasaM shukaM gauDapadaM mahaantaM govindayogiindramathaasya shishhyam ..

To Narayana, to lotus-born Brahma, to Vasishtha, to Shakti and his son, Parashara,
to Vyasa, to Shukadeva, to the great Gaudapada, to Govinda, to Yogindra his disciple.

shrii shaMkaraachaaryamathaasya padmapaadaM chahastaamalakaM cha shishhyam .
taM troTakaM vaarttikakaaramanyaan asmataguruun santatamaanatosmi ..

To his disciple Shri Shankaracharya, to his disciples Padmapada, Hastamalaka,
to him Trotakacharya, to Sureshwara (the writer of famous vaarttika's), to others, to our tradition of gurus, I bow down.

shrutismR^itipuraaNaanaaM aalayaM karuNaalayaM .
namaami bhagavatpaadaM sha~NkaraM lokasha~Nkaram .

To the shruti ('that which is heard'), smR^iti ('that which is remembered) and puraaNaanaM ('ancients' [stories]) - the abode of kindness,
I bow down to the feet of the Lord Shankar, emancipator of the world.

sha~NkaraM sha~Nkaraachaarya keshavaM baadaraayaNam .
suutrabhaashhyakR^itauvande bhagavantau punaH punaH ..

To Shankar Shankaracharya (Shiva), Keshava (Vishnu, Krishna), Badarayana (Veda Vyasa),
to the commentator of the suutrabhaashya (Brahma Sutras), at the feet of the lord I bow down again and again.

yaddvaare nikhilaanilimpaparishhadsiddhiM vidhatte.anisham shriimatshriilasitaM jagadgurupadaMnatvaatmatripti~NgataaH .
lokaaGYaanapayodapaaTanadhuraM shriisha~NkaraM sharmadaMbrahmaanandasarasvatiiM guruvaraM dhyaayaami jyotirmayam ..

At whose door the whole galaxy of gods pray for perfection day and night.
Adorned by immeasurable glory, preceptor of the whole world, having bowed down at His feet, we gain fulfilment.
Skilled in dispelling the cloud of ignorance of the people, the gentle emancipator,
Brahmananda Saraswati, the supreme teacher, full of brilliance, on Him we meditate.

aavaahanaM samarpayaami shriigurucharaNa kamalebhyo Hamah

Offering invocation to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

aasanaM samarpayaami shriiguru charaNakamalebhyo Hamah

Offering a seat to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

snaanaM samarpayaami shriiguru charaNakamalebhyo Hamah

Offering a bath to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

vastraM samarpayaami shriiguru charaNakamalebhyo Hamah

Offering a cloth to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

cha.ndanaM samarpayaami shriigurucharaNa kamalebhyo Hamah

Offering sandal paste to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

akshataan samarpayaami shriigurucharaNa kamalebhyo Hamah

Offering full unbroken rice to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

pushhpaM samarpayaami shriiguru charaNa kamalebhyo Hamah

Offering a flower to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

dhuupaM samarpayaami shriiguru charaNa kamalebhyo namaH

Offering incense to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

diipaM samarpayaami shriiguru charaNa kamalebhyo namaH

Offering light to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

achmaniyam samarpayaami shriiguru charaNa kamalebhyo namaH

Offering water to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

naivedyaM samarpayaami shriiguru charaNa kamalebhyo namaH

Offering fruit to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

aachmaniiyaM samarpayaami shriiguru charaNa kamalebhyo namaH

Offering water to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

taambuulaM samarpayaami shriiguru charaNa kamalebhyo namaH

Offering betel leaf to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

shrii phalaM samarpayaami shriiguru charaNa kamalebhyo namaH

Offering coconut to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

aaraatrikyaM – (ARATI - OFFERING CAMPHOR FLAME)

karpuuragauram karuNaavataaram saMsaarasaaraMbhujagendrahaaram .
sadaavasantaM hR^idayaaravinde bhavaM bhavaanii sahitaM namaami

White as camphor, the incarnation of kindness, the essence of the world, the one who is garlanded by the Serpent King,
ever dwelling in the lotus of my heart, bhavaM (Shiva) together with bhavaanii (Parvati), I bow down.

aaraatrikyaM samarpayaami shriiguru charaNa kamalebhyo namaH
aachmaniiyaM samarpayaami shriiguru charaNa kamalebhyo namaH

Offering light to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

Offering water to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.


pushhpaaJNjaliM - 'OFFERING FLOWERS WITH FOLDEDHANDS'

gururbrahmaa gururvishhNur gururdevo maheshvaraH .
guruHsaakShaat parambrahma tasmai shrii gurave namaH ..

guru is Brahma, guru is Vishnu, guru is the god Maheshwara (Shiva),
in the presence of the guru, the infinite brahma, to him the blessed guru, I bow down.

akhandamandalakaram vyaaptam yena characharam .
tatpadam darshitam yena tasmai shrii gurave namaH ..

The one who has made it possible to realise Him who pervades this entire infinite
universe of animate and inanimate existence, I bow to the blessed guru.

shrii brahmanandam paramasukhadam kevalam GYaanmurtim .
vishvaatiitaM gagana sadrisham tattvamasyaadi lakshyam ..

Blessed brahmanandam (Absolute Bliss), the giver of greatest happiness, who is only knowledge personified,
beyond the universe [of opposites], one who is like the sky, the goal of 'That Thou art' etc.

ekam nityam vimalam achalam sarvadhiisaakShibhutam .
bhaavaatiitam trigunasahitam sadgurumtvam namaami ..

The one, the eternal, steady without impurity, the one who exists as the witness of all intellect,
the transcendent without the three gunas, the true guru, to him I bow down.

aaGYaana timiraandhasya GYaanaajana shalakayaa .
chakShuruunmiilitam yena tasmai shrii gurave namaH .

With the application of the ointment of knowledge,
by whom the eyes are opened, to him I bow down to the blessed guru

pushhpaaJNjaliM samarpayaami shrii guru charaNa kamalebhyonamaH

Offering a handful of flowers to the lotus feet of the blessed guru, I bow down.

http://www.paulmason.info/gurudev/TMpuja.htm

Can God be achieved by invoking Him?

Explaining this question of one of His devotees Yogiraj expounded — Name and form belong to the body or any object, by what name will you invoke God? He is beyond name and form. The body is destructible, hence name and form are also destructible. But the One Who is God is devoid of origin and is imperishable. Is God a distant object? Is He without you that you have to loudly invoke Him? Distant objects are beckoned by their names. Who else is nearer to you than Him? He dwells within you, therefore how can you loudly invoke Him? For instance, if you have to invoke the name God, Prana must be dynamic in the body. If Prana is non-existent in the body-temple in a dynamic form, the lips and tongue are rendered incapable to invoke God. Therefore to invoke Him it is necessary for Prana to exist in the vibratory form in the body. But there is no action in the still Prana. 

The word 'God' does not connote God, similarly the words 'Hari' and 'water' do not connote Hari and  water. If the word water comprises the attributes of water then thirst would be quenched by crying  aloud for water. But this does not occur. Thus by loudly invoking Hari, response from Him cannot be derived. Hari means One Who seizes everything, where there is a complete absence of the sensory attachment. When Prana attains stillness or after the extinction of the dynamic state everything is seized, the living state of a living being is eliminated, a state of cessation of all types of senses is achieved, therefore still state is termed to be Hari. Thus Yogiraj has remarked — Darpanke bhitar jo nadi usse piyas nahi jata, meaning  thirst is never quenched by merely observing the reflection of the river through a mirror.

Does any person call himself by his own name? It is not necessary. When Prana Himself is God, then how will Prana invoke Prana? What is the necessity for invocation? Because He is the Master of invocation, again One Whom He will invoke is He Himself only. Thus where is duality? This Prana-God is prevalent in all living beings in a still state. But a living being deriving vibration has deviated from his consciousness and forgotten his own self. Therefore it is imperative for everyone to eliminate dynamism through Pranakarma and again achieve the still Pranalike self-consciousness or else bring a transformation from the present vibratory state to the still state.

When everyone pays obeisance to God they fold their hands and place them on the forehead between the eyebrows. Due to ignorance being unaware  of it, everyone actually pays obeisance to the Kutastha. As a matter of fact none pay obeisance to the external deities because the place of settlement of all gods and goddesses is that Kutastha. There is no alternative other than paying obeisance to the Kutastha, paying obeisance to Him results in obeisance being paid to all deities. Therefore it is observed that Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesvara are all rapt in dhyana, they also pay obeisance to Kutastha.

http://www.speakingtree.in/spiritual-blogs/masters/god-and-i/Can-God-be-achieved-by-invoking-Him
http://www.scribd.com/doc/150714177/Purana-Purusha

20 Spiritual Instructions by Swami Sivananda

20 Spiritual Instructions by Swami Sivananda Essence of all Yoga Sadhana – Karma, Bhakti, Jnana, Yoga
1.	BRAHMAMUHURTHA	Get up at 4 a.m. daily and do all your spiritual Sadhana from 4 a.m. to 6:30 or 7 a.m. Such Sadhana gives quick and maximum progress.
2.	ASANA	Sit facing East or North in Padmasana (Lotus pose), Siddhasana, Sukhasana (or any pose you like) for your Japa and Meditation. Take light physical exercises as walking, etc., regularly. Do twenty rounds of easy, comfortable Pranayama (breathing exercises).
3.	JAPA	Repeat any mantra, such as Pure OM or Om Namo Narayana, Hari Om or Gayatri from 108 times to 21,600 times daily.
4.	DIETIC DISCIPLINE	Eat simple Sattvic food. Give up chillies, tamarind, garlic, onion, sour articles, oil, mustard, asafoetida. Observe moderation in diet (Mitahara). Take food as medicine to keep the life going. Give up salt and sugar for a week or a fortnight.
5.	MEDITATION	Have a separate Meditation room under lock and key.  If this is not possible then a corner of the room should be set apart with a small cloth screen or curtain drawn across. Keep it spotlessly clean.
6.	SVADHAYA	Study Scriptures systematically from half an hour to one hour daily and have Suddha Vichara (Pure thoughts).
7.	ELEVATE THE MIND	Get by heart some prayer verses (Slokas) or hymns (Stotras) and repeat them as soon as you sit in the Asana before starting Japa or meditation. This will elevate the mind quickly.
8.	BRAHMACHARYA	Preserve Vital Force. This instruction is not for bachelors only. Householders also must follow it as far as possible. They must be extremely moderate in their marital connections with their spouse.
9.	CHARITY	Forego some personal wants to keep up this charity regularly
10.	SATSANG	Give up bad company. Associate with holy people.
11.	FAST or Live on Milk & Fruits	Fast  or live on milk and fruits only, on Ekadasi (11th day of the Hindu lunar fortnight) or on a suitable day every fortnight.
12.	JAPA MALA	Have a Japa Mala around the neck or in your pocket to remind you of God. Repeat the Name at all times, whatever task you may be engaged in.
13.	OBSERVE MOUNA	Vow of Silence for a couple of hours daily. Do not make gestures and inarticulate noises during the period of silence.
14.	DISCIPLINE OF SPEECH	Speak the truth at all cost. Speak little, Speak sweetly, Utter encouraging words, Do not raise your voice, Never condemn, criticize or discourage.
15.	BE CONTENT	Reduce your wants. Lead a happy, contented life. Avoid unnecessary worry. Be mentally detached. Have plain living and high thinking. Think of those who do not possess even one-tenth of what you have.  Share with others.
16.	PRACTICE LOVE	Control anger by love, Kshama (forgiveness) and Daya (compassion). Serve the sick and the poor with love and affection. This is service of God.
17.	BE SELF RELIANT	Do not depend upon servants. Self-reliance is the highest of all virtues.
18.	HAVE SELF-ANALYSIS	Keep a spiritual diary, maintain daily routines. Do not brood over past mistakes.
19.	DO YOUR DUTY	Remember that death is waiting for you at every moment. Never fail to fulfill your duties. Have pure conduct (Sadachara)
20.	REMEMBER GOD	Repeat his name always. Surrender yourself completely to God (Saranagati)

http://dlsusa.blogspot.in/2013/03/20-spiritual-instructions-by-swami.html