Simran is not mechanical repetition. It is keeping Naam in the heart at all times, and it has a method. Follow it in order — each step rests on the one before it.
1
Sit and level the breath (pavan sam karni)
Amrit vela if you can, head covered, spine tall and relaxed. Do not force or strain the breath — simply make it even and steady. A forced breath disturbs the mind; a level breath settles it.
2
Saas-giraas simran — chant Waheguru with the breath
With each breath, and through each morsel and moment of the day, chant Waheguru as two clear syllables: 'Wah' and 'Guru', joined to the breath. This comes first and is the foundation of everything after it.
3
Listen to your own voice
While chanting, keep the attention on the sound you yourself are making. This listening is the essential part of the practice — not the count, not the speed, not how long you sat.
4
Then antargat (internal, silent) simran
After saas-giraas, ideally do antargat simran for the same length of time — thirty minutes chanting, thirty minutes antargat. This is the ideal, not a compulsion; start with what you can keep daily.
5
Turn the surti toward the nabhi — this is the key
During antargat only — not during saas-giraas — the surti is turned toward the nabhi (the naval area), while you listen inwardly through the ears. Holding the attention at the nabhi is the key of the whole practice. Stay there, patiently, until the dhun is heard.
6
When the sehaj dhun sounds, listen only to it
Keep the surti at the nabhi until the sehaj dhun is heard — often first a fine, high-pitched frequency. It may also arrive as crickets chirping, bells, or instruments such as rabab, pakhawaj or ghungroo. The moment you hear it, leave the nabhi and listen to the dhun alone — nothing else. The nabhi was the door; the dhun is what you came for.
7
It is alright to fall asleep in the dhun
After some time in antargat, sleepiness often comes. Do not fight it. If you fall asleep while listening to the dhun, that sleep is not ordinary sleep — you slip into sunn, a sleep without dreams and without thoughts, and the Naam keeps sounding. Falling asleep in the dhun is not a failure in this abhyaas.
8
Leave the fruit to Hukam
Never chase, promise or dramatise inner experiences, and never set a date for them. They come by abhyaas and Guru's kirpa. Your work is the method; the fruit belongs to Hukam.
A caution before you begin
Interior states described in Gurmat — the quietening of the mind, the opening of Dasam Duar, the Anahad Shabad, the manifesting of Brahm Jot — are fruits of discipline and grace. They are never techniques to be promised or guaranteed, and comparing your experience to anyone else's only feeds haumai. Keep the practice, keep the sangat, and leave the rest to Guru Sahib.
