The ‘causal’ level of our personality — the unconscious depth-layer of our mind — is indicated as ignorance. The ignorance of the spiritual essence and its infinite glory and perfection in us is the cause for our sense of restlessness, loneliness, fear, and so on; therefore, the intellect desires for, the mind agitates with, and the sense-organs indulge in the world of sense-objects.
Vāsanās give direction to our actions and are three in number — sattva, rajas, and tamas — the pure, the agitated, and the dull. The tāmasic vāsanās can be removed by cultivating rājasic vāsanās, and rājasic vāsanās can be removed by cultivating sāttvic vāsanās.
When the mind gets purer, even sāttvic vāsanās get exhausted, thus allowing the divine Self to shine forth vividly. Each of our recognized negative tendencies is to be treated with its opposite noble virtue. This is called substitution.
When the mind is full of the noble values of life, the mind gets ready for its leap into the Reality through contemplation. Contemplation fulfills itself in the higher State of Consciousness when the mind ceases to be and, therefore, even the noble vāsanās are sublimated.
Introspection, detection, negation, and substitution — these constitute the preliminary processes in the purification of the seeker. Without this mellowing treatment, one is not fit for the strains of spiritual growth.