The corner stone of overall self-transformation is transformation of the attitude. Change your outlook towards yourself; think and feel yourself not as the gross body, the immortal soul, for which this life and the body is only a sojourn in the infinite journey. You are born for the self-realization, for enlightenment, unbounded spiritual progress. No doubt, you should take care of healthy sustenance of the body. But dont confine the goal of your life only to blindly pursue after the possession of its comforts and pleasures. Your attitude should be "eating to survive" and not "surviving to eat"; take proper care of the body as an instrument for the optimum use of the faculties of your sense organs and the mind. Change your views and behavior on the personal, familial and social fronts of life accordingly. Once you turn your attention inward and look at yourself as the soul, you will find marvellous solutions to all your problems and worries; the door of immense joy and progress will be wide open before you. True devotion: Friends! Life is a precious gift. Dont let worldly allurements and attachments overpower and overshadow the beatitude and sublimity of your real self and the pristine dignity of your life. Look at the life of Goswami Tulsidas, for example! When he was blindly driven by sensual attractions and attachments, he received nothing but disdain, scorn and agony. But once his inner self was lit by the light of devotion to God, the same man (Rambola) became the great, venerable saint Tulsidas the author of the holy Ramcharit Manas of immortal glory! But see, his devotion was not like ours…; we chant the mantras, rotate the rosary, but our minds remain restive and unstable - roving around our tensions, desires, and what not. His was a total self-surrender. Nothing mattered to him except the devotion to Lord Ram. Such was the potency of his inner fervor for his Deity that it could compel Lord Ram Himself to appear before him and bless him in His Embodied Form. Fight the Mahabharata within yourself: Mahabharata is said to be the greatest war ever fought on this earth. Friends! You should know that the first step towards spiritual upliftment is to fight this gigantic war yourself in the battlefield of your own psyche, to wipe out its accumulated vices and tendencies. Our lives remain enslaved to the insane appetites and tendencies of the mind until and unless we are able to win this perpetual war against hostile hordes of Kauravas entrenched within us. Winning this war means attaining ultimate victory; becoming omnipotent. Those who conquer their minds are called manaswi. Success lies at their feet; they are the ones who become truly great personalities, saints, divine beings. If you care and aspire for elevation to higher domains in life, join the great battle against the evils lodged within you. The first step towards triumph in this battle is the adoption of the principle of "simple living and high thinking".

- courtesy Akhand Jyoti