Cleansing the Inner Vessel

My spiritual journey began almost 7 years back when the doctor told me -“Congratulations, You are pregnant!”. Back then, I used to think I am one of the kindest soul born on this earth. Okay, this is an exaggeration but we can say I kept myself in the bucket of so called “nice people”. As I went to bed that night, suddenly all that was bad, ugly and hideous came forth. The old saintly image was shattered and  for the first time in my life, I realized the need of inner purification. Little did I know that what I found about my habits and tendencies was just tip of the iceberg and this is going to be the lifelong process.

Although the dirt covering my inner equipment seems to be taller than Mount Everest, I now see few of my twisted habits and tendencies getting straighten out a bit. I owe this little bit of change in me to the Supreme, scriptural guidance, and Guru’s support. Today, I would like to share the process that helped me thinning out old vasanas ,quietening the usual reactive and judging mind and ultimately creating new habits and patterns that are conducive to spiritual growth. 

Let’s say a person said something that I did not agree with-

The Old Process of building vasanas:

Step 1) Repeating the statement in the mind.

Step 2) Recalling the name of person who said the above statement.

Step 3) The hidden bias about the person comes out.

Step 4) My mind assuming a reason why he/she said the above statement.

Step 5) Justfying the reason why he/she is not correct .

Step 6) The strengthening of emotions/view/ assumptions I already had about the person ( This results into the development of  new bonds of already hidden vasanas  layer in the mind). 

The New Process of thinning old vasanas:

Step 1) Turning the mind inward.

Step 2) Identifying my own bias about the situation .

Step 3) Identifying my own bias about the person.

Step 4) Remove these bias for a moment.

Step 5) Repeat the statement in my mind.

Step 6) Trying to reassess if I still disagree with what is being said keeping aside the inherent bias. ( The beauty of becoming aware of our own inherent bias is that they start to lose their grip once we become aware. This process really helps us break our old habits and see things in new light).

Most of the times, we can see that our disagreement with particular person or idea comes from our own inherent bias and background and we understand the other’s point of view as well.

Step 7) My intellect still disagreeing with what is being said.

Step 8) Try to understand the other person’s bias about the situation .Recognize the limitation of my mind and intellect and offer my opinion about what is being said to Supreme .

I  hope it will be helpful to someone who just started the journey and would be happy to hear from experienced sadhakas as how to improve this process to make them better tuned for inner transformation.

Jai Shree Hari 🙏