80. Your spiritual practice needs support🔗

Sri Ramakrishna says very beautifully, 'If you drink one liter of alcohol, you need to drink at least a quarter liter of rice water to get out of the effect and become sober again.' Same way, we have accumulated so much of negative abhyasa in our life, we have spent so many hours in negative abhyasa, that it is essential to at least spend few hours in positive abhyasa just to get out of that effect! Spiritual practice is no longer a luxury in modern life; it is a critical necessity!

When you spend time in a place here the positive abhyasa is continuously happening, the great truth enter inside you even without you knowing. That is why, when someone comes to me for healing, I tell them to spend some time in the ashram also. Because this is the place where, constantly, Truth is spoken. Truth is lived. Truth is radiating in various ways, again and again and again. These will resonate in your being; even if you don't want, you have to listen! In a few days, you will see the tremendous transformation, the positive abhyasa happening inside you.

That is why Buddha says, 'I've created the sangha so that these truths will be kept alive continuously and transmitted to the next generation.' When you are starting your spiritual practice – or even till the end of your spiritual practice! – you need a space that supports you, takes care of you when you face some impossibility, aligns you back to the goal.

Many people come and tell me, 'Swamiji, please tell me what meditation I should do. I'll do it at home.' I tell them, 'At home, you will never start!' At home, there will always be something else as the first priority; something else will be more important for you. But if you learn at a meditation workshop, when you are doing as part of the whole group, naturally you will do it! Even if your mind tells you that you are tired, even if you have knee pain, even if you are feeling lazy – nothing can be done! You have to do it. So doing the meditation in a group helps you come out of the initial struggles you will have with your mind.

Have you noticed fitness instructors? They don't bother, they don't even look at your face when you express your tiredness. They just say, 'Up down, up down, up down! Do one-two-three, thirty second, thirty second, thirty second!' Only at the end they ask, 'Are you alright?' I also do the same thing! Only at the end I ask, 'Did you enjoy?' The whole day, I know I have to create the positive abhyasa in you; I cannot listen to your laziness talking, I cannot listen to your boredom talking; I cannot stop the process for which you have come. Abhyasa is nothing but continuously and consciously creating positive habits

inside you so that it can go from your conscious to your unconscious mind, and from your unconscious mind to your body.

Many times, when you listen to all this words, you get completely inspired. You will buy all possible books, CDs, DVDs, and all kinds of things. Everything is ready - except you. Except you. The big problem is, your body is completely unconscious; it has learnt so many unconscious habits for so many years. So even when you suddenly glimpse the Truth or have a strong spiritual experience, your brain grooves are not habituated to hold on to that experience, to hold on to that high state of consciousness. Your brain grooves are created only in the usual unconscious way. So what happens? Because you came down, I came down! It is my job to see that you are continuously moved out of negative abhyasa into positive abhyasa. Making all the good things as part of your life is what I call abhyasa.

CONTEMPLATION

We have accumulated so much of negative abhyasa in our life that it is essential to at least spend few hours in positive abhyasa just to get out of that effect!