Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

You know what repenting is? This is what it is: "Oh! You made a mistake! Repent!" Repenting is not the right attitude. Instead, Prayaschitta - "I have to make little corrections. A little correction needs to be done." Now, how do you correct? You say, "Okay, let me sit and do more meditation," or “Let me watch my food, go on a liquid diet, and fast for a day or two." Hmm? All this changes the chemistry in the system. Your action is only a projection of the system. Just correcting an action, cannot correct you! You have to correct the system - the nature in the system. How does one do this? Sing! Sit and sing! Sing some bhajans! Do some meditation! Do the pranayamas! All these are called "tapas" "Tap" means heating; "tapas" really means toasting! Turning the fire on! Fire purifies! There is no greater tapas than the pranayamas! The pranayamas burn out all the unwanted things in the system. They bring a balance amongst the gunas and they raise the level of sattva.