Sadhana basically involves a change in the mental attitude, or giving a new colour to the mind. The mind has become attached to the external gross world, and the Scriptures tell us to give up this attachment for the following reasons:

• Your conviction that the world makes you happy or miserable is untrue,
• Attainments at the gross level are all pre-ordained,
• Acceptance is the highest virtue. Virtue is lost because of your desires, your conception that you can change your destiny, and your mental conceptions, which are in essence, ideas based on not facing facts.

A seeker wants to learn to perform his actions fairly and squarely on the gross level; to face facts bravely on the emotional level; and to accept facts squarely at the intellectual level.

A seeker understands and learns about the qualities of the other in order to accept the other's mental attitude, gross actions and intellectual convictions, so that after having this understanding, he will have no reactions and will not unnecessarily attach motives to the other. The other does have motives, but he cannot control himself at a gross level, resist his desires or temptations at an emotional level, or understand himself.

The Scriptures teach the qualities of having a firm and balanced intellect and transcending the qualities in order to tempt, persuade, and convince the mind to work for that state. They try to make the mind desire that state and whip it into working for that objective.

After that, the seeker looks within and discovers the disparity between what the Shastras are teaching, and the reality of his own mind. He sees his personal inability - the desires, complexes and conceptions which are coming in his way - and his inability even to comprehend what the Scriptures are saying to him.

After this the seeker seeks guidance because he realises that his mind, which is ever seeking happiness, was trying to find happiness in the gross world through acquiring material objects - whilst after reading the Scriptures he becomes convinced that the happiness he has been seeking all his life lies within. He realises that happiness and unhappiness are a condition of personal mind, and are not dependent on the mind, actions, or judgements of other people. In effect, he is seeking guidance for the control of his mind, and to rise above his mind. The teacher tells him about the pure mind, what desires and intellectual conceptions are, and how the qualities work at a practical level. He tells him the truth about actions.

Through his teacher, he learns acceptance of the gross world, including other peoples' minds, acceptance of destiny, and most important of all, the fact that sadhana is at the mental level and is meant to change the mind. Spirituality is, in essence, the study, then the understanding, and then the changing of the mind.