The making of a Sarvodaya Sannyasin

Thoughtless awareness -”surrender every desire” technique: this will suit those who have genuine devotion and spirit of self-surrender to God/Allah/Guru or any name of God, be it Rama/Jesus etc.

Theory: Every thought is born out of some gross or subtle desire. If we keenly observe our thought, we can verify this fact. For example, when someone sits for thoughtless awareness practice, a thought may come, “I have to do this work.” – now, this is clearly a desire to do some work. Similarly, a thought may come in which one talks with a beloved friend in imagination – this again, is a desire to talk to some beloved friend.

Thus, one can say that thoughtless awareness is same as desireless awareness and desireless awareness is same as thoughtless awareness.

If one has genuine devotion and spirit of self-surrender to God/Allah/Guru or any name of God, be it Rama/Jesus etc., one can surrender the desire manifested in form of present thought/fantasy/image/sound and that desire will vanish and corresponding thought/fantasy/image/sound will also vanish, leading to experience of thoughtless awareness.

Technique:

1. Sit in Sidhasana or any other sitting posture or even on a chair and make the spine and head erect in a relaxed manner.
2. Place the palms on the knees and close the eyes.
3. The breathing should be natural throughout the entire practice. No attempt should be made to regulate either inhalation or exhalation during the practice.
4. Now, observe the thought/fantasy/image/sound of the mind keenly and ask yourself the question, “Which desire is giving birth to this thought/fantasy/image/sound?” few times (2-5 times are enough). If one questions so and then observes keenly, one will find that the present thought/fantasy/image/sound is manifestation of some gross or subtle desire. Pay attention to that desire and say to yourself, “I surrender this desire fully to God/Allah/Guru/Rama/Jesus etc. (depending on who is the object of your genuine devotion)” as many times as needed for that thought/fantasy/image/sound to vanish from the mind. If one’s devotion and spirit of self-surrender is genuine, the desire and its corresponding thought/fantasy/image/sound will vanish and thoughtless awareness will be experienced.
5. Simply be in it till this state is disturbed by any thought/fantasy/image/sound, in which case repeat the process of step 4.

Benefits:

1. This technique will suit those who have genuine devotion and spirit of self-surrender to God/Allah/Guru or any name of God, be it Rama/Jesus etc. One should use only one object of devotion during the practice.
2. Note: please practise 3-5 minutes of Abdominal exhalation (also known as Kapalbhati pranayama in yoga) just before practising any thoughtless awareness technique in sitting position. This increases the quality of thoughtless awareness practice to the extent which one can’t even imagine without trying it first. Never miss it.
   
3. This can be and must be practised even with open eyes to keep the mind free from thoughts during free time like bath/meals/travels etc and thus, to enjoy peace and relaxation of thoughtless awareness whole day. The practice of this technique during free-time apart from in sitting position for 30 min, is indispensable to gain maximum possible amount of peace and relaxation whole day.
4. Note: please practise this technique for 30 minutes (more is always welcome) in sitting position for satisfactory result. Less than that will be too little practice and will not give satisfactory result.