At the gates of Moksha and Sakshathkara, there are three guards posted to ask you for your credentials. They are Santhi, Santhosha and Vichara; Mental Equilibrium, Joy, Contentment, Inner Peace, Inquiry, Discrimination etc. Even if one of the guards is made to become friendly, the others will facilitate your entry. First in the series is Santhosha. If you make Santhosha yours, Thripthi or Contentment is yours: and Contentment is the highest source of joy and the most valuable possession. It is as much as an empire.

Without contentment, Kama and Lobha attain dangerous proportions and will overwhelm the power of discrimination itself. Desire easily becomes greed, and greed degenerates into miserliness and lust. They make you flit from object to object in mad pursuit of the evanescent sensual joy. How can such men develop the faculty of concentration? And without the capacity to concentrate, how can they engage themselves in Dhyanam? And without Dhyanam, no one can get Daivam, or Godhead. Advise the mind that flows so swiftly in so many directions: "Oh Mind, do not drag me along the floods of the objects, along the path of sensual desires and spoil my career. Take me to the Lord instead. Flow in that direction, please". Giving up all other desires and ever content, dwell on His Name and His Rupam only, to the exclusion of everything else. Dhyanam on these is real Santhi, genuine Santhosha.

Contentment will not make any one an idler, remember. It is an attribute of true Sathwic character. It will make the mind always turn towards the Lord. It will save you from the tribulation to satisfy the unimportant waves, catering to the selfish needs. It will direct human talents towards efforts that elevate. The contented man will also be truthful and he will therefore be in constant communion with the Atma. That is to say, he can be immersed in Dhyanam for long periods without rest or the feeling of tiredness. Dhyanam is the one method of counteracting the mental activities which surge forward in a thousand directions; there is no other method at all.

The capacity to concentrate is a very useful qualification. You must watch the vagaries of your own mind, how it travels, what objects it runs after, etc., and slowly by means of Dhyanam, you should teach it to stay still and to behave beneficially.

Do not worry about the unsatisfactory environment you may have. Of course, the place may have some drawbacks and it may not be ideal. But it is no use trying to run away from all that. You can overcome the drawbacks by training your own mind. Stay there itself and pray to the Lord! Pray that He may fill you with His thoughts and Vision, making you ignore the defects of the environment. Do not seek comfort, for comfort might not be conducive to Dhyanam. Learn to be comfortable in any place; that is better. Live in joy wherever you are; that is the way. Revel in the realm of your mind; worship there the Lord you have chosen as your goal and be free of all the defects of the natural or human environment! No spot can then be irksome to you, nor will any place seem disgusting.