November 11th 2025

The motto for Vedantic leadership training is ‘Leading oneself to love all’. The way to do this is to nurture 16 divine qualities. One of these divine qualities is ‘Krtajnata’, which means to be grateful (grateful for all that has been done to us, for us). For every virtue, there is a sign to check whether one is actually nurturing that virtue or not. A sign of someone who is nurturing Krtajnata is that they are ‘useful’. For example those who are grateful for a gym membership use that gym membership, those who are grateful for food use it and not waste it. Bringing this back to our course on purity of mind, our mind is not the most important part of who we are. Our intellect is more meaningful and our ego is more powerful, so our mind is not the most important but is definitely important. If we try to bring this to our physicality, if we try to feel that the intellect is our brain, the ego is our heart, then the mind is our stomach in this example. The stomach is as valuable as the brain and heart. This is why we are working with the mind!

Class 9 was on Verse 5, and the teaching was on ‘Absolute’. There is an absolute, and the proof of that is the ‘relative’ that we are living in. Then why are we not experiencing the absolute? The mind has separated or divided the absolute and the relative and is not allowing us to merge or unite the relative with the absolute. This dividing is not just in the abstract but we experience this through stress, anger. This is why the impurities of our mind are called ‘shatru’. Shatru means enemy.  But philosophically, a ‘shatru’ is one who engages in ‘shaatanat’, which means one who is always bothering you. If we think of the human beings in our life, they certainly bother us, but they don’t always bother us. It is only the mind who can always bother us. We should invest in fighting inside more towards this ‘shatru’ who is always bothering us. 

Verse 5, Quarters 3 and 4:

nishthābhāvāt parānandah, jeevanmuktasya yoginah;

sādhakaih na anubhooyeta, viphalam tarhi sādhanam.

In quarter 3, Pujya Swami Tejomayananda is sharing with us that as long as we take the science of oneness (I am awareness) only at an intellectual level, then we will never try to be awareness (divinity). We are very strong in intellectualizing and that is why we don’t try to personalize it and so we don’t get established in it. So we don’t feel there is an absolute. So faith is very important! Faith is when we just try because someone who we respect asked us to try it. 

In quarter 4, we engage in practices but our practices are not backed by passion and so they are viphala (they don’t create the feeling that we hope they would). If we are not understanding the utility of being passionate about self-development then we should be clear about the consequences of lacking passion when it comes to self-discipline/self-development. This is why Vivekji had told us to visualize that the next time we get angry we may die, or that if we give into jealousy then we may get cancer. If we don’t understand the utility/benefits then we should atleast understand the consequences! In doing so, our spiritual practices and efforts to purify the mind would be more intense. 

Verse 6:

dṛḍha-niṣṭhaika-siddhyarthaṁ manaś-śuddhirapekṣitā,

tadarthaṁ sādhakāḥ sarve yatantāṁ dṛḍha-niścayāḥ

The broad teaching of verse 6 is ‘resolve’. 

Quarter 1:

Nishtha – to be established. 

Drdha – firmly or deeply

Ekasidhhyartham – there is only one way for this to become your reality and be deeply established, ‘siddhi’ means to develop this and ‘artham’ is methodology

The word abide is used again and again in Manah Shodhanam. Abide is synonymous with ‘naturalize’. When we don’t feel a certain experience is natural but we want it to be natural, then the way to nurture this is to prioritize. If we prioritize to be less body conscious then we naturally will be less body conscious. A sign of what we are prioritizing is where our time is going and where our thoughts are going. Pujya Swami Tejomayananda has shared that spirituality is not an action, it is the attitude behind all actions. So we need not be so concerned about the ‘verb’, but we should be more concerned about the ‘why’ and ‘intention’ of the verb.

Quarter 2: 

Manah- mind

shuddiH – purity of the mind

Apekshita – it is a requirement , only when the mind is pure enough then we can be naturally established in joy, awareness and fearlessness. 

As we go about our day, we should try to ask ourselves – how what we are doing is affecting our mind. Is it making it more lazy, more aggressive or more quiet. If the answer is that the mind is becoming less pure, then we should adapt and be more careful and intentional. If the mind is becoming more pure, then do more of it! 

Quarter 3:

Tat – everything that was just taught 

Artham – for the sake of purifying the mind 

sadhakaaH sarve – a seeker brings in all, their seeking encompasses everything that they do. ‘Sarve’ means all and no conditionings. 

When someone asked Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda how long one should meditate, Gurudev said ‘only 24 hours a day, seven days a week’ ! A sadhaka is one who engages in sadhana (seeker is one who engages in seeking). How do we know that our mind is becoming pure enough to be established? What are the three distinct signs or trajectories of someone who is applying themselves in all circumstances through all verbs? 

Shuddha – the mind is more balanced

Shikha –  mind is pointed or focused

Sukshma – reflective 

Quarter 4:

Yatantam – yatin comes from the root yati , one who works so hard, smart and saathvik. 

drdha-nishchayaH – one should exert with resolve. Nishchaya means to make a resolution.

In Drg Drshya Viveka , there is a verse that describes what the nature of the mind is , which is ‘samshaya’ (shady). The implication of a shady mind is that it doubts. In contrast, there is a verse that describes the nature of the intellect which is ‘nishchaya’ (determined and decision oriented). We should understand that it is the intellect that sets the ideals, so if we set the right ideals – then we will doubt ourselves lesser.