2. INTRODUCTION
A country may appear to be prosperous and
advanced in every possible way, but if
people of character, people of noble
qualities, people with kind hearts are not
present in large numbers, the decline and fall
of that county is sure to come.
If the people are strong and dynamic, the
country is powerful, if the people are
cultured, the nation is civilized. Likewise,
when people are weak and uncultured the
nation will also be the same.
So, we understand that the strength and
glory of a nation depends on the sum total of
the character of each individual constituting
that nation.
Now, what does it mean when we say a
person has a powerful character or powerful
personality? When we analyse this point, we
find that a comprehensive, powerful
personality comprises of four important
aspects.
4. 1. PHYSICAL STRENGTH
To make the body strong we must give attention to 4 main aspects-
Food- A nutritious, balanced and regulated diet is necessary for
proper physical growth. There is a golden rule regarding eating
habits:
Hitabhuka- Bhuka means eating and hita means pleasing. The food
must be pleasing to the mind.
Mitabhuka- Mita means moderation. Avoid extremes in all respects.
One should avoid overeating.
Tritubhuka- Tritu means timely. Food should be consumed at proper
fixed time.
Exercise- Exercise is mandatory for physical well-being, to remain
alert and enthusiastic throughout the day. Yogasanas contribute to
not only physical but mental and spiritual development also.
Cleanliness- When there is no cleanliness, the body becomes prone
to diseases and mind gets disturbed and distracted. Taking bath
regularly and wearing clean clothes contributes to well-being of
body and confidence in mind.
Worrylessness- The state of our mind affects our physical strength
to a very large extent. Worry is the misuse of imagination
***
5. 2. INTELLECTUAL STRENGTH
Technique to develop intellect has 4 major aspects to it-
1. Alertness- quality of life depends on quality of attention.
Avadhana~ refers to attention we give with an alert mind to what
ever is at hand.
2. Deep Study- Intellectual power is an important tool that can be
made very efficient and versatile by disciplined study. Choose a
subject of interest, gather books and study it over and over again.
Make notes, reread and revise, discuss with experts and
exchange ideas. Thus you gradually get to know the subject in
depth.
3. Deep Thinking- Thinking springs from the intellect, intellect
grows by thinking. See and hear with an alert mind and think
deeply. Deep Thinking= Contemplation. Worrying drains our
mental energy, contemplation increases and amplifies it.
Worrying never solves problems and there is not a single
problem that contemplation has not solved!
4. Prayer- Prayer has the power of enhancing mental strength and
capabilities. Intellect inspired by divine grace makes man engage
himself in beneficial, positive, creative activities. It helps live
life of peace, happiness, contentment and charity.
***
6. 3. MORAL STRENGTH
• Good conduct is morality. Morality manifests through speech and
gets translated into deeds through our organs. Therefore if we wish
to develop moral strength we need to culture our thought, word
and deed. So to develop moral strength, we have to attain-
1. Purity of Thought: Human mind experiences a plethora of
thoughts in a day. Some of these are healthy and some unhealthy.
Now its quite difficult to list these thoughts because they might
run into pages. But we may safely say that these bad thoughts
arise largely from our passions- lust, greed, anger, attachment,
arrogance, egotism and selfishness. Mind has to be trained and
cultivated by conscious effort. By doing so we can prevent the
mind from getting perverted and immoral and make it flow along
the right direction. Good company and good books are
indispensable for achieving this.
2. Purity of Speech: The words we speak must soothe the ear,
inspire the mind and touch the heart of the listeners. But not
many of us can speak this way. So if we wish to achieve purity of
speech, we must put in a lot of effort to refine and culture our
way of speaking. He who knows the purity of speech will never
get into a quarrel. Knowing the secret of speech means knowing
the tact of what to speak with whom, where and in what
circumstances.
7. MORAL STRENGTH
3. Purity of Action: One who has purity of
action-
• Will doggedly finish any job he has in hand and
will give much importance to the means as to
the end in view.
• Will be tremendously methodical in his style of
working.
• Knows that enthusiasm is different from being
unable to keep quiet.
• Will give lot of thought to his work and will
undertake only beneficial and profitable
endeavours.
Dedication to work, dignity of work, work as
worship of Lord- these are the most powerful
ideas referred to by the term Purity of Action
There are several instances in the Ramayana and
the Mahabharata which epitomize purity of action.
***
8. 4. SPIRITUAL STRENGTH
The central aspect of completely developed all-round
personality is spiritual strength. All the three aspects of
personality that were elaborated till now find their
fulfilment in spirituality.
Spirit that is consciousness is our true nature. This spirit
is all-powerful and all-blissful. Thus to overcome our
fears, our weaknesses and sorrows, we need to know
about our spiritual self. Meditation can help explore our
spiritual self.
Nature of the Atman
Even the mind which is extremely subtle has not been able
to grasp the true nature of the atman. So speech which is
very gross compared to the mind, can certainly not
comprehend and understand it easily. Lets take the example
of sweetness. Nobody can express in words what sweetness
is. The quality of sweetness can be experienced but can
rarely be expressed. Similarly our spiritual self is not visible
to us. But remaining un-manifest, it governs our bodily
functions and actions, it makes our mind and intellect think,
feel and imagine. The ancient sages describe atman as an
entity that was never born nor dies. Nothing can bind it. It
was and will remain from eternity to eternity.
9. SPIRITUAL STRENGTH
Necessity of Meditation
The Upanishads teach-
1. First you must hear about your true divine nature, let those
thoughts soak in through your ears and enter your mind.
2. Then you must think deeply about it.
3. Then you must meditate on the truth that you are that divine
being and gradually become divine.
These steps are termed as Shravana, Manana and Nidhidhyasana.
This is a systematic graded spiritual practice.
How can we realise our own true nature as the atman? –by means
of meditation.
Meditation is to recollect the mind and then make it flow towards a
particular subject continuously, undisturbed. The term ‘flow’ is
mentioned in comparison with the incessant flow of oil in one
stream without any break, in a perfectly smooth and streamlined
manner. Likewise our mind must ‘flow’ towards the object of
meditation.
10. SPIRITUAL STRENGTH
Meditation Technique
1. Choose a clean silent place. Sit in a comfortable posture
(cross-legged- ardhapadmasana, padmasana or
sukhasana) so that the mind focuses only on the subject of
your meditation. Backbone must be in line with your neck,
body must be firm and steady but not stiff. Body muscles
must be held free. Initially legs might pain but gradually
with practice, the pain will completely go away. In the
beginning it is advised to tolerate some amount of bodily
pain. No pains, no gains!
2. Now that the place and posture are taken care of one must
give attention to the mind. The mind should be kept devoid
of any thought related to work or other activities. But this
is easier said than done. To counter them you can chant
some meaningful shlokas and prayers. Chanting Omkara a
couple of minutes quietens the mind. Even chanting Guru
Vandana inside your mind puts it in the correct mood for
meditation. It is advised that during meditation one must do
meditation only.
11. SPIRITUAL STRENGTH
3. Deep rhythmic breathing is more than sufficient for the purpose of
meditation. A simple technique for deep rhythmic breathing is- Take
as deep a breath you possibly can, then exhale out all of it. Secondly,
inhaling and exhaling must be neither too fast nor too slow but it must
be natural, smooth and comfortable on the lungs, muscles and nerves.
While exhaling you can imagine yourself intensely throwing out all
weakness and impurities in yourself. Similarly while inhaling, imagine
yourself assimilating all the right thoughts, strength, purity and spiritual
brilliance in your personality. It is important to feel that your mind is
becoming pure, this makes meditation more effective.
4. Praying for peace and well being of the whole world. Now, in spite of
your earnest prayers you might see that war and disharmony have its
own course in this world. But praying this way will certainly calm down
the turbulence within your mind. Universal laws related to mind and
thought tell us that thought waves sent out always return back to its
place of origin. So, if this is to be believed one must sincerely pray for
the welfare of others, this way the mind loses its narrowness and
becomes deep and expansive. However the results will be proportionate
to the intensity and sincerity of your feelings.
12. SPIRITUAL STRENGTH
5. Also there are other ways for meditation like offering
prayers to all gods, goddesses, avatars and saints. One
might question the philosophical rationale behind
offering prayers to all gods and deities. In Sanatana
Dharma all the gods, goddesses and avatars sprang from
the infinite supreme spiritual principle- parabrahman.
6. Now coming to proper meditation, there are different
centres in the body in which one can meditate. Some
say that one must meditate in the sahasrara ie. the centre
of consciousness located in the crown of the head. Some
others refute this and believe that seat of mind is located
in between the eyebrows. There is another argument that
it is natural to meditate in the anahata chakra located in
the region of heart. Heart being referred here is not the
physical blood pumping organ in the body. Chakra refers
to as a centre of consciousness. In yogic science, there
are many such centres in the body located along the
spinal column. The anahata chakra lies in the centre of
the spinal column co-planar to the heart. The Bhagwad
Gita and Upanishads recommend the anahata chakra as
being most suitable to meditate for beginners.
13. In conclusion, if one successfully espouses these aspects in
their personality, a significant life changing experience can be
witnessed. However, these practices need to be taken up
earnestly and religiously in order to unleash your full potential.
The road to good is the toughest and steepest in the universe.
It is a wonder that so many succeed, no wonder that so many
fall. Character has to be established through a thousand
stumbles.
Anything that makes you weak physically, intellectually and
spiritually, reject as poison; there is no life in it, it cannot be
true. These mysticisms, in spite of some gains of truth in them,
are generally weakening.
-Swami Vivekananda
14. Swami Purushottamananda says…
• If a person has a very strong physique, but no intellectual
growth, he is no better than a strong bull.
• An intelligent man, who lacks moral development, is but a
cunning fox!
• Without spiritual strength, all these strengths- physical,
mental, moral- become like an edifice on sand with no solid
foundation and hence no certainty and permanence.
Hence, we have to clearly understand the significance of all
these four aspects of our personality, and then make a firm
resolve to develop these aspects in us and make our whole
personality strong and meaningful.
15. Note
This presentation was created under the
able guidance of Shri Swami
Jnanamurtyananda from Ramkrishna
Mission, Nagpur. It was due to
Swamiji’s patronage that I came across
this remarkable book, and read it. I
would urge all readers to read this book
and imbibe its knowledge firsthand.
-Indranil Aich
