Satsang 10 : Importance of Personality Defect Removal Process

Irrespective of the path of spiritual practice one chooses, spiritual progress is not achieved unless one’s personality defects (Six foes or Shadripu) are removed. In simple language, spiritual progress means progress in the process of becoming one with God. God is without personality defects and is full of virtues. It is essential to put in efforts towards the removal of personality defects and free of defects if one wants to unite with God.

Our sadhana is wasted in mistakes committed due to our personality defects. For example, in a fit of anger, if one abuses another person, then sadhana worth 30 malas of chanting is wasted. In one’s day to day life too, many problems are created due to personality defects that make an individual unhappy. Any person would want to shun unhappiness and has an affinity towards attaining happiness. To achieve that, one has to remove one’s personality defects; but what should be done in the first place to implement this process? We have to first accept our mistakes, our shortcomings wholeheartedly.

The attitude of an ordinary person and a seeker who is in his primary stages is that of an extrovert. Hence, in the beginning, he has little awareness about exactly how he is as a person. Every person has some misleading understanding about oneself. Since most people think their thoughts, behaviour, and actions to be appropriate, they have a pseudo image of themselves based on these misleading understandings about themselves. This image is different from reality. For example, ‘I do everything in a neat and organized manner’, ‘I help others’, or ‘This is impossible for me to do’ are some of the strong ideas that are imprinted on the mind of an individual. The individual, knowingly or unknowingly, tries to defend the pseudo image created on the basis of these thoughts. Hence, most of the people behave differently with different people. In the first step of introversion, it is important to break this image and to study one’s mind so as to recognize ‘how is the real me’ . The closer one is to one’s real self, the more effective this process of introversion becomes.

Normally, how is it? ‘What I have done is evidently good’, ‘What I am saying is appropriate’, ‘I am not being understood properly’, ‘This happens in my case only’, these are some of the common thought processes that are entertained by common people. If a decision goes wrong, then how it went wrong because of the other person or because of how the circumstances were at that time is what the normal thought process is. But the thought process about ‘What could have been done by me’ in those circumstances, or ‘What was my mistake’ is absent. Keeping this thought process in mind is the first step in the personality defect removal process. If this process happens, then it becomes possible to get to the root of the problem, where the mistake is, and a solution can be found for that. Today, many people all over the world are living happily, enthusiastically, and free of stress after learning personality defect removal techniques. This process teaches us how to overcome our daily stresses on the spiritual level. Let us learn about this process.

Before committing any good or bad actions, related thoughts come into our mind and then we perform those actions. This means that the thoughts in our mind are more important than our actions. Our behaviour is related to our mind.

Outer mind and inner mind are the two parts of the mind. Outer mind constitutes 10% of the mind, whereas inner mind constitutes 90% of the mind. Outer mind is the conscious mind! Our routine thoughts and emotions are related to the outer mind. Our inner mind is the storehouse of all of our emotions, thoughts, experiences, desires, and aspirations. In short, our inner mind stores impressions (Sanskars) not only of the present life but that of past lives in dormant form as well. What are sanskars? In the usual sense, sanskar means good habits, thoughts, and actions. From the spiritual point of view, sanskars are impressions formed on our subconscious mind due to our attitude and actions. Just as subconscious impressions of good things are formed, similarly they are formed of bad things as well. For example, both sanskars of chanting God’s name as well as that of abusing can be formed. If an action is repeatedly performed, then the impressions of that action become stronger on the mind and are embedded in the psyche. Impressions of not only the present life but that of the past several lives are embedded in the deepest levels of the inner mind. Each of these sanskars binds the individual in the cycle of life and death.

Based on our good or bad sanskars, our attitude is shaped and our thoughts originate from our attitude. Depending on our thoughts, good or bad actions are performed by us. Dormant sanskars such as likes and dislikes, desires, traits, etc., are awakened depending on the context and our actions follow accordingly. For example, if a 100 rupee note is spotted on the road, then what will different people do? Some will pick up and keep the money in their pocket, some will ask others ‘Whose money has fallen here?’ Here the incident is a single one, that of a 100 rupee note being spotted, but the actions of two people of different nature is different. The reason for this is the sanskars on the inner minds of these people! The one who has the sanskar of greed will keep the money in his pocket whereas a genuine person will inquire with others about whose money it was.

Any action done by a man is because of his mind. Every action of the body is due to the mind. If the mind is good, that is, without any personality defects or ego, then the actions done by the body are right and if there are personality defects and ego present, then the actions by the body are improper. The results of personality defects are visible over all areas such as personal, familial, social, and work areas. Therefore, to live a life full of confidence, positivity, and introversion, it is important to make conscious efforts.

You do experience such stressful situations in your daily life, isn’t it? The minds of some of us might be stressed about past incidents, some might be afraid of certain people, some might be worried about the future, and students might be afraid of exams. If our personality defects are more in number, then our mind is stressed or anxious for most of the time of the day. You might be experiencing such incidents in you daily life, isn’t it?

Before actually starting the process of personality defect removal, one should contemplate on one’s behaviour. We will observe our behaviour and actions on a daily basis and think about where we are going wrong. Most importantly, we will note all this down.