Swadhyaya

Swadhyaya means the study of the self. We need to analyse ourselves to be aware of ourselves. Who are we? What makes us who we are? Are we just made up from everything in and around our lives and are not really coming truly from our inner self? We should know who we are and why we act and react in the ways that we do. They could be impulses that we have picked up from other people, like our parents or friends or even school teachers.

We need to study every aspect of ourselves. Our actions, our thoughts, the way we speak, our mannerisms and our attitudes. All of these should be refined to be pure in nature. To be able to live life effectively and spiritually we should be aware of all of these aspects of ourselves. This means to be able to be objective, to be able to see the whole picture from every angle not just from a narrow minded single perspective. We must be able to see what we are doing or where we are going wrong in order to improve ourselves. If we are unable to do this we will be stuck.

This is not something that can happen overnight. It takes a lot of time and can be a continual cleaning and cleansing process in order to remove the layers that have accumulated to create what we have become. We must study our lives and our attitudes to life. We should become aware of any patterns that have manifested or are manifesting in our life. We should strive to become aware enough to find the cause of these cycles so that an end can be put to them.

Being aware of Karma and how you are affected by it is important to Swadhyaya. Everything that we do, think and say has an effect upon us in the future�it is the universal law of cause and effect. Therefore we have to be careful and aware of ourselves. The manifestation of Karma in our lives can be controlled by what we do, again this is cultivated by a correct attitude, awareness and self study.

We should look at our family and the society that we were born into as we will have picked up patterns and traits from these. These impressions would be very strong when we are children when we are growing up so we need to see what is there that we don�t need. However no matter how much self study we do we should make sure that it is in a seeking introspective manner and make sure that it is not an introverted one.

The idea of Swadhyaya is to be released from the delusions of the ego but the ego is very strong and can try and convince you otherwise! Patience, devotion of the self, discipline and a desire to improve ones-self are all required in the process of knowing the self, but once we get to know the self we will start to see the beauty that exists in all things. You have to know yourself for true unity with the spirit.