It is said in an old Indian book that there are four great enemies to human success: (I) a sleepy heart, (2) human passions, (3) a confused mind, and (4) attachment to anything but Brahman. [Each student has to attach his own meaning to this word, keeping it always flexible, so that it may expand and become illumined. Literally: the Evolutioner, Grower or Expander, not creator]

A sleepy heart — means that the body is lazy and its activities are slothful. Human passions — means that the emotions are only reactions from pleasure and pain. A confused mind — means one that still lacks the wisdom-knowledge that gives it constancy or unity of purpose.

In mastering all these you must not aim at repression or destruction, but at well-regulated activity, that is, culture. Physical culture involves the suppression of irregular activities in the body. It demands an ordered life, with well-proportioned exercise, nourishment and rest. The governing of the natural appetites which it requires does not nullify their power, but tunes them up; and the sense of vigorous life is increased, not diminished, by this control.

These things are true also of the mind. It too requires regular and well-proportioned exercise, nourishment and rest. Its natural appetites also need to be controlled and governed, and when this is done there is no loss of mental vigor, but an enhancement of it.

Exercise is something more than the mere use of faculty. A man breaking stones on the road is using his muscles, and certainly in a long time the muscles he uses become strong. A man who carries out a definite system of physical exercises for a short time every day soon becomes stronger than the man who wields the hammer all day long. So also, a man who spends his time in the study of mathematics, literature, languages, science, philosophy, or any other subject, is using his mind, and thinking may become facile to him. But a man who deliberately carries out a definite system of mental exercises for a short time every day, soon gains greater control of his mind than he who merely reads and curiously thinks all day long.

In fact, the need of mental training, of regular, orderly, purposeful exercise of the mind, is far greater than that of the body in most cases; for at our general stage of growth most men’s bodily activities are well-ordered and controlled, and the body is obedient to their will, but their minds are usually utterly disobedient, idle and luxurious.

In the next chapter of this book various exercises for the body are prescribed. These are intended to regulate and calm it. Calmness does not mean dullness or immobility. It means regular motion and is quite compatible with rapid motion. So also control of mind does not mean dullness or stupidity. It means clear-cut and regular thought, velocity and strength of mind, vivid and living ideas.

Without the preliminary training which makes the body calm, control of mind is difficult. A certain small measure of austerity is imperatively necessary for great success in concentration. The reason for this is to be discovered in the basic rule of the process. That rule is this: the body must be still, the mind alert.

Determined perseverance does not usually walk hand in hand with absence of excitement in human life. Yet for success the mind must be calm. The ideal aimed at should be clearly pictured in the mind, and then kept constantly before it. Such a prevailing mood will tend to polarize all thought, desire and activity to its direction. As a traveler may follow a star through mazes of forest and trackless country, so will the persistent ideal guide its votary infallibly through all difficult and complex situations in life. All that is necessary is constant practice and absence of agitation.

Constant practice and absence of excitement or agitation — these two rules are always prescribed. Do you not see that they are the natural accompaniments of will? If you have said: “I will”, not only in words, but also in act, and thought, and feeling, will you not always be free from the excitement and weakness of wishing?

If thus you work and practice, and never wish, and have no attachment to anything but Brahman, success will soon be yours. Life will fulfil itself when the obstacles are removed. In the distant future, do you say? Is it not sure? And what is sure is just as good as if it had already happened; so if you will not have it otherwise, even now success is yours all the time, not only in the end.

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