Practical Sadhana (Relentless Repetition)

Seen quite a few posts asking questions about how to rise above acquired/primitive tendencies such as lust, anger, gluttony or various other kinds of negative thoughts and habits, which are the hurdles we will need to overcome in the process of cleansing our mind and attaining Chitta Shuddhi. So sharing my 2 cents on this topic, and also what Sadhana in real life means to me, personally. Firstly, subduing these thoughts is never going to help, it will only make things worse. This is coming from someone who’s tried it for many years and realized this, not just from the word of the Shastras, but also having the realization solidify after trying and failing miserably in subduing negative emotions/thoughts. The ideal approach to winning over such a powerful, intense desire or proclivity for anything is to firstly accept its existence, I mean, *truly* accept its presence for what it is, acknowledge that this is who you are right now and then practice what I call **constant refocus**. Let’s say you had a negative emotion such as lust/anger/despondency or any of the likes. You might act on these emotions or have these negative thoughts for a few minutes or hours even. Once you’re through with it, you’ll say, “Okay. This was done, it’s totally okay. Now let me switch my focus to something else.” And then you take a bath/wash your face/do whatever you need to start a different activity and shift focus. The more number of times you do this each day, the more you strengthen your ability to get back from this negative situation your mind put you in. Every single attempt at refocus is another vote for the person you are going to become. The more you do this, the more you weaken these impulses. Slowly, but surely, this will yield mastery over the mind. The greatest of men are those who also go through these negative thoughts and emotions, just like the rest of us, but recover from them and refocus as quickly as possible. This comes with years, decades, multiple lifetimes of incessant, relentless practice, aka Sadhana.