I feel the need to integrate my scattered life. I feel to bind myself to the Lord! How? In what way am I to integrate and build my life? It is then that I lay down three disciplines-sadhanas- for myself.
The first discipline: Live in silence. Be away from the din and drone of this world. Build your life in silence.
At that time I was living in a small town. A few sisters and brothers had collected money and gave it to me. It totalled up to rupees three thousand. I handed over the money back to them with the words: Build a hall where men and women can sit in silence and meditate.
The municipality of that town granted them a free plot of land to build the hall for meditation. I further requested them to build a small wash room with a water tap inside the place. The house I lived in, did not have a water tap. If the hall had a wash room I could bathe in there. Till now I bathed and washed my clothes under the tap in the open. I prayed to Lord, that I may continue this life of simplicity.
The second discipline: Root your life in simplicity. What is a life of simplicity? I made certain rules for myself. One of the rules was, that I should wash my own clothes.
The third discipline: Naam – simran. I made it a habit to pick up a word or a phrase from the sacred scriptures and recite it continuously. “Tum Thakur, tum pe ardaasa,” is a phrase I love to recite. I also used to recite verses from Shah Abdul Latif and other Sufi saints. In this third discipline of naamkirtan, many amazing things happened. I received many insights into the invisible world. I hoped naamkirtan would show me the light, and will illuminate the path of spirituality. I often rebuked myself. Awake. Get out of this slumber. Time and again I have quoted Shah Abdul Latif’s saying, those who live in silence, ascend the peak.