The purpose of the diary is to reflect your own Inner State, so that you know where you stand. It is a tool, which if used properly, will chisel you into a receptacle fit for the manifestation of the Master within you.

Chapter I

The Importance of Keeping the Diary

If we would learn to obey and keep the diary, we would become gods and goddesses. It may be that he knows his condition; he reads, he thinks, he attends Satsang, he makes resolutions, but always falls back into old habits again and again. This is why I have advised keeping a daily Spiritual Diary. It is a method of self-introspection which I have introduced after much deep thought on the subject … The benefit of this is a moral upliftment – this is a very sweet way of explaining it.

With time, methods change. In olden days, clothes were washed by trashing them against rocks, and nowadays we have got to the stage of dry cleaning, without the use of water. Masters have used many ways through the ages trying to induce an awareness in men of their way of life. Those who are not following this science correctly never keep diaries.

Spiritual Diaries have been prescribed after careful thought, and with deep purpose. Daily self-introspection must be kept up, and through this you will be able to see for yourself how far you are coming out of the senses‘ influence … the diary is meant for one‘s personal use and helps to bring out many of the hidden underlying weaknesses to the surface so that one may begin to see them and try to remove them one by one, and with their removal life becomes pleasant and Spiritual Progress is accelerated. The diaries show how much time you put in and how many places your heart is attached to outer things in one form or the other.

Devotion requires purity of heart. Purity of heart requires that no other thought should strike in your heart other than of the One Whom you love. If there is no other thought in your heart for anybody else and it is vacant from outward attachments, then God is there. Devotion starts when you detach your heart from the outward things and attach it to God or the God-in-man. This is developed by coming into constant contact with Him. The ABC starts by regularity of devotion to your Spiritual Practices … Those who are not maintaining diaries will fail constantly. In due course of time, their whole heart will be attached to the world. Outwardly they might appear to be very devoted, but they are really devoted to the world.

Those who do not maintain the diary will lose valuable ground in making steady Spiritual Progress. In time, they will cease to apply themselves to their Spiritual Practices and in consequence the virtues stressed on the diary form will be observed less and less.

If some of the dear ones desire to maintain diary for self-introspection – before initiation – such like dear ones will eventually benefit from the Holy Path.