Towards the Goal Supreme

1. To realize God an aspirant must have: Patience, Perseverance, Purity of body and mind, Intense desire or yearning, the aggregate of the Six Attributes, namely, Shama (tranquility of mind, Dama (restraint of the senses), Uparati (giving up of attachment to objects, Titiksha (remaining unaffected amidst all kinds of afflictions), Shraddha (faith in the words of the spiritual teacher and the scriptures), and Samadhana (concentration of mind on the Chosen Ideal, or God).
2. Do not tell anybody else, except the Guru, the realizations, the visions, or similar experiences, that spiritual practices may bring to you. Always keep your spiritual treasure-your inmost thought-hidden within you. These are not for vulgar gaze. These are your sacred possessions to be shared only between you and the Lord in secret. Likewise, do not talk of your defects and blemishes to others. You lose thereby your self-respect and the respect of others for you. They are for you to confess to the Lord. Pray to Him for strength to overcome them.
3. When you begin meditation, first sit steadily for a while and watch the mind; let it wander wherever it pleases. Think that you are the witness, the seer. Sit watching how the mind floats and sinks, runs and skips. Keep thinking, “I am no the body, not the senses, not the mind; I am altogether separate from the mind. The mind, too, is material; it is only a finer form of matter. I am the Atman (Self), the master; the mind is my servant.” Whenever any idle thought arises in the mind, try at once to put it down forcibly.