His main daily spiritual practices were seva, mantra japa, archana (chanting the thousand names of the Divine Mother), treating others with kindness and directly bringing his awareness to the present moment. Throughout each day he would consistently make sure that he was in the present moment. Whenever he became aware that his mind had drifted away in thoughts, he would immediately bring himself back to the present moment at will. For him this was a second-to-second, minute-to-minute activity, all day. He says that there were some occasions when he would lose the awareness of the present moment for an hour or so, in distraction. When he realized this had happened, there was immediately an immense determination to make up for the error by bringing himself back to the present moment and staying there for as long as he could.

Master Sri Avinash had such faith in Amma that whenever any unfavourable situation appeared in his life, he would not be concerned about it. He would just surrender it to Amma and be at peace.

The nature of Master Sri Avinash’s seva for Amma, as well as the large number of disciples around Amma, meant that he did not have a physically close relationship with her. For example, he never had an opportunity to have a one-on-one talk with Amma. Because of this, he says, “I had to make the most of Amma’s help from a distance.” When he heard Amma’s satsang on Tuesdays, there was hardly a time that it didn’t bring him heart-quenching tears. Each week, he couldn’t wait to put her teachings into practice in his life.

By this time, Master Sri Avinash was experiencing many hours of satori every day. He would either induce the satori state or it would come to him spontaneously. His main goal was then to stretch out this state to every waking moment, while serving Amma. He kept his experiences quietly to himself, sharing about them with only a few of his friends.