"Thus it is really by the Grace, whether Guru, Self, etc. that they are brought to this highest path. Of course, they might have practiced the other paths in former existences and thus were born ripe for this one; others try the other ways and after progressing finally turn to Self-enquiry. But the last laps of all paths are the same — surrender of the ego."
The mind is like a river. The thoughts are like the various droplets of water. We are submerged in that water. Stay on the bank and watch your mind.
Most of us are stuck in a dream world. We're stuck in a dream world because it presses down on us. It appears so real. Things are happening every day. Yet, one day you will awaken. It's the same as awakening from your dream at night. There is no difference.
When you awaken to the dream at night, do you have any interest in the dream? You may for a while. If you're into dreams, you may try to decipher what the dream means, for a little bit. But after a while you forget all about the dream.
So it is with this world. When a person awakens, or a person becomes liberated, they are able to see the dream, but they know they are not part of it. They also observe everything, but they are not part of the dream. The world no longer has any power over them, over the awakened person, the liberated person. The world has no power whatsoever over you once you're liberated.
Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity. The ordinary man has always been sane because the ordinary man has always been a mystic. He has permitted the twilight. He has always had one foot in earth and the other in fairyland. He has always left himself free to doubt his gods; but (unlike the agnostic of to-day) free also to believe in them. He has always cared more for truth than for consistency. If he saw two truths that seemed to contradict each other, he would take the two truths and the contradiction along with them. His spiritual sight is stereoscopic, like his physical sight: he sees two different pictures at once and yet sees all the better for that.
It is exactly this balance of apparent contradictions that has been the whole bouyancy of the healthy man. The whole secret of mysticism is this: that man can understand everything by the help of what he does not understand. The morbid logician seeks to make everything lucid, and succeeds in making everything mysterious. The mystic allows one thing to be mysterious, and everything else becomes lucid."
Is the Presence of the Supreme in our minds and in our bodies the same thing as the soul?
The Presence of the Supreme is anywhere in the body, the vital and the mind. But it is the soul that is always conscious of the Presence of the Supreme. From time to time we are conscious of God’s Presence in the heart, but in the mind we very rarely feel it and even if we do, we doubt it. In the vital, even if we get some inner strength from God, we try to use it in a wrong way. We try to destroy the world in an aggressive manner. In the physical, we are so dull and inert that we do not feel the Presence of the Supreme. But when we go deep within, we see that His Presence is always in the physical, in the vital and in the mind. God’s Presence pervades our existence, but one part of our existence is more illumined than the rest, and that is the soul. The soul, being fully illumined and in constant touch with the Highest, feels the Presence of the Supreme all the time. If we make considerable progress in the spiritual life, our heart, like the soul, will become consciously and constantly aware of the Supreme’s Presence. Then gradually this awareness will dawn in the mind, the vital and the body.
There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind—you are the one who hears it. If you don’t understand this, you will try to figure out which of the many things the voice says is really you. People go through so many changes in the name of ‘trying to find myself.’ They want to discover which of these voices, which of these aspects of their personality, is who they really are. The answer is simple: none of them.”
“They who reflect, who reflect upon You, they live peacefully in this world. They are freed, they are freed who remember the Divine [God], their snare of death is cut. They who remember the Fearless One, the Fearless One, all their fears are dispelled. They who serve, who serve my Beloved, they merge with the Divine Form. Blessed, blessed [happy] are they who remember the Divine. Says Nanak, the servant, I offer myself to them.”
(Adi Granth/Sikh Scriptures, translated in, “The Name of My Beloved, Verses of the Sikh Gurus, Devotional Poetry from the Guru Granth and the Dasam Granth”, by Nikky Singh, The Sacred Literature Trust Series)
"God is conducting tests all the time; every occurrence in life is a test. Every thought that crops up in the mind is in itself a test to see what one's reaction will be. Hence one must be always alert and aloof, conducting oneself with a spirit of detachment, viewing everything as an opportunity afforded to gain experience, to improve oneself and go on to a higher stage."
“Concentrate in the heart. Enter into it; go within and deep and far, as far as you can. Gather all the strings of your consciousness that are spread abroad, roll them up and take a plunge and sink down. A fire is burning there, in the deep quietude of the heart. It is the divinity in you – your true being. Hear its voice, follow its dictates.”
“Oh soul,you worry too much.You have seen your own strength. You have seen your own beauty. You have seen your golden wings. Of anything less, why do you worry? You are in truth
the soul, of the soul, of the soul.”
