The basic principle - Soham

 The "I know" has to go

The body is bound to perish one day or another. The body may die, but
not the mind. Such a mind must be controlled. That is true sadhana. You will not have any trouble if you offer your mind to God. The mind is very fickle; not steady even for a minute. So it should be ever engaged in work. Only then it can be brought under control. What work should you assign to the mind? The mind is like a mad monkey. Unless kept busy, it will go according to whims and fancies. The only way to keep a monkey busy is to make it go up and down a pole repeatedly! Let the mind be a watchman at the gate of your nostrils. Let it observe what is going in and coming out. ‘So’ is inhaled and ‘Ham’ is exhaled. ‘So’ symbolises good (Divinity) and ‘Ham’ stands for that which is bad (ego). Then, the mind will understand that Divinity must be taken in and the ego must be given up! (Baba - thought for the day)

This I a thought for the day. We think it over to make sure we do understand it right. What do we have to do to be able to listen, think it over and absorb. 

It is a spiritual practice, known as 

Sravana – Manana – Nididhyasana

It means listen, then think it over to be able to absorb. 

We start with a thought for the day. We listen to his words. 

Thought for the day is a quote from a Baba speech, but it is not that much text that we feel overwhelmed by it. If we think it over it is better to take only a thought for the day. It is more text than just a quote and it is enough to think it over to get the message in it and not too much so that we are not able to think it over anymore as it would be too much to absorb. It is more important that we do it regularly.  

The body is bound to perish one day or another. The body may die, but not the mind.

We can ask, what is he telling us? The body belongs to the earth, it will go back to earth, but not the mind and therefore, what needs to be done with the mind? We have to control it. Does he tell us how to control the mind?

Such a mind must be controlled. That is true sadhana. 

What is true sadhana, it is controlling the mind, sadhana is spiritual practice. 

How can we offer it to God? 

It needs to be purified first and it is 'very fickle', not steady. We have to keep it occupied. It behaves like a mad monkey. 

Soham is the mantra of the breath, breath in - So, and breath out - Ham. 

What matters for us is the meaning. 

If we meditate with a mantra inside in our thoughts in silence the meaning often doesn't matter, because it is a vehicle that help to transcend the mind. But in that case here with the breath the meaning matters. 

It doesn't mean it is not right when we have a mantra to transcend thoughts and the mind and the meaning doesn't matter. Why does the meaning matter? 

So is inhaling all the good, the divine and Ham is that what has to go, the bad, the ego. 

We inhale "He knows", we exhale "I know" it is the ego-feeling and that has to go. 

If we do that consciously we get aware that the "I know" has to go. That is the basics. We are only able to listen to his words, when we don't have the constant feeling that "I know" already everything, that is the biggest obstacle. 

If we practice with the Mantra Soham, we get aware that "He is the knower" and "I don't know". We are in the mind, it is here about the Atma, there is  no way the mind can know the Atma, we can only know by listening to him, that is why we hear always again that "He is the knower or we even get to the conclusion "I am He" or "I am that". 

You will not have any trouble if you offer your mind to God. The mind is very fickle; not steady even for a minute. So it should be ever engaged in work. Only then it can be brought under control. What work should you assign to the mind? The mind is like a mad monkey. Unless kept busy, it will go according to whims and fancies. The only way to keep a monkey busy is to make it go up and down a pole repeatedly! Let the mind be a watchman at the gate of your nostrils. Let it observe what is going in and coming out. ‘So’ is inhaled and ‘Ham’ is exhaled. ‘So’ symbolises good (Divinity) and ‘Ham’ stands for that which is bad (ego). Then, the mind will understand that Divinity must be taken in and the ego must be given up! (Baba)

We had an interview with him. I went first to Sai Baba, it was in 86, and we didn't have as many people yet as we had later. We were meditating before Darshan and he took our group in the interview. And he explained the Soham, the breath is telling Soham all day long. It is a beautiful meditation practice, whenever we get aware we forget what the breath is telling us, we remember, inhale all the good, light, God, harmony, the awareness of "He knows" and we exhale all the bad, darkness, sickness, the awareness of "I know". And we get to the conclusion that "I am that" or "I am He". 

What is the main thing? The "I know" is related to our ego feeling and it has to go. Only when the "I know" is gone, we are able to open up and to listen, and that is the exercise we are doing here, we listen to his words, but it can be as well some holy scripture for example the Bhagavad Gita, we are not ready to listen to his words and to gain the Velic wisdom if we have still the feeling of "I know" in us, because that feeling thinks we know it already why should we do an effort to know something we think we know it already, but that is a big illusion, because it is not about worldly wisdom or as Swami calls it often bookish knowledge, it is about the divine Atma and that we can only know if we learn to listen with attention. 

We can be sure, we do not have the right attention if we think "I know", if I know why should I listen. Therefore, that is the basics, the "I know" has to go.