भगवद्गीता 18.52

Solitude has its own charms. The spiritual vibrations in solitude are wonderfully elevating. Meditation will come by itself without exertion. All saints and sages who have attained Selfrealisation have remained in solitude for a number of years. You will have good meditation if you sit on the bank of a river, in a cave or on the seashore or in a jungle. During the Christmas and Easter holidays you can all enjoy the peace of solitude. It is very necessary to live in solitude at least for a month or a fortnight in a year for the householders. Instead of wasting time, energy and money in Calcutta or any other city, during the holidays, live in holy places like Rishikesh? Uttarakasi or Naimisaranya drink the nectar of peace in such places by doing Anushthana (intense and systematic spiritual practice) or Japa of a Mantra and attain immortality. If you once taste the bliss of solitude you will never forget it. Every year you will attempt to taste it again. He who takes too much food (a glutton) is ite unfit for meditation or the spiritual path. Too much food will produce laziness, a halfsleepy state and deep sleep also. Eat to live. Eat in moderation. You will have a light body and light, cheerful and serene mind. This will help you in your practice of meditation. Observe Mauna or the vow of silelnce for a week or a month. Observe the vow for two hours daily. Control the body. Practise Ahimsa and Brahmacharya. Meditate on the Self or on the Lord Hari with four hands, or on Lord Krishna? Rama or Siva. Be regular in your meditation and gradually increase the period of meditation from 15 minutes to 3 or 6 hours at a sitting. If you are a wholetimed aspirant, spend the whole time in meditation. If you are not able to do this, do Likhita Japa (writing the Mantra) and Kirtan (singing the Names and glories of the Lord). Study religious books in the interval. Only advanced aspirants can meditate for a long time. Watch the mind and cultivate dispassion. Energy will leak out through the senses if you are careless and nonvigilant. If energy leaks out, you cannot have good meditation. Dispassion is indifference to sensual enjoyments herein and hereafter, absence of desire for visible and invisible objects. You must have steady, lasting and sustained dispassion. It should not wane. It should be a constant attitude of the mind. You must be fully established in dispassion. In doing the Anushthana for 40 days live on milk and fruits or light diet. Take only 3 or 4 articles of food. Take one meal only. Sleep on the floor. Observe celibacy and the vow of silence. Do not come out of the room. Speak little if you do not observe perfect silence. Do the Anushthana on the banks of the Ganga or any sacred river. Try to do one or several Purascharanas of your Ishta Mantra. If there are five letters (syllables in English) in the Mantra? 500?000 repetitions of the Mantra will constitute one Purascharana.