Each one of us in the spiritual life have our own idea of what our goal is. But, generally speaking, it might be said that our common understanding is that we are meant to do spiritual practices for the purification of the mind, until a certain stage is reached when something happens that is beyond our mind and which is up to God. We are taken beyond the mind and all our latent tendencies are burned up.

There are many ways of describing it, but in that state we are forever established or forever awakened into the knowledge of who we really are. And in that there is the discovery that we have always been That; and even when we thought we were an individual, we never were. At no time, either past, present or future has there been or will there be anything except That and That alone.

Interestingly enough, we assume that this discovery comes at the end of our sadhana when the mind has been perfectly purified; and, no doubt, this is what is reasonable to expect. But the fact is that we see many cases of awakening before the mind has been purified, sometimes before a person has even started their sadhana. The explanation given is that the person has done their sadhana in a previous birth.

This may be correct, but why then, if this awakening comes early, do they still seem to go through a period of sadhana, a period of purification of the mind? Even in a case like Ramana Maharshi who had an awakening in his teens, it is said that it took about 30 years for that realisation to settle. We can then perhaps assume that whether realisation comes early, in the middle, or at the end of our sadhana, the sadhana or the purification of the mind is as much a necessity as the realisation itself.

Therefore, nothing is wasted. No matter how long we go on with our sadhana in the spiritual life, it all counts, for the mind has to be purified. It is not just realisation that counts, but also the purification of the mind.

And, there is one thing about this purification that we must realise. Purification of the mind is not just doing our spiritual practices; it is not just learning more about Brahman and about the spiritual life; purification of the mine comes through practice, through applying what we know. That is why they say that the test of our spiritual life is how much we worry, how much we complain, how angry we get. Because if all this is Brahman, and individuals don’t exist, and everything is under the control of the Lord, then were is the room for worry, where is the room for complaint? Therefore, there is the necessity of making our spiritual life real, of making our spiritual practices real here and now. We have been talking about austerities or tapas at evening satsang. Perhaps the greatest austerity we can undergo is to make our spiritual life real right now, to no longer postpone, to act now in the light of the truth. If all this is Brahman and I am Brahman, then I should be believing that right now, I should be trusting that right now, I should be living my life in the light of that right now.

Everything should be right now. Every spiritual resource that we have should be applied today. If that is done, then the purification of the mind will be real, and it will be quick.