Progress-delight⁵⁶

O lead me from the unreal to the Real.
Lead me from darkness to Light.
Lead me from death to Immortality.

Indeed, this is the prayer the Vedic seers of the hoary past offered to humanity. It is at once a soulful prayer and a fruitful meditation. I am a seeker. If I can soulfully pray and fruitfully meditate, then I make progress. This prayer and meditation embodies my progress and delight.

Anandadd hy eva khalv imani bhutani jayante
Anandena jatani jivanti
Anandam prayantyabhisam visanti

From Delight we came into existence.
In Delight we grow.
At the end of our journey’s close, into Delight we retire.

A seeker’s progress is his delight. Again, his delight is his progress. A seeker’s progress-delight is his self-transcendence. I am a seeker, a Truth-seeker. I am a lover, a God-lover. I transcend. What do I transcend? I transcend my inner capacity and my outer capacity. My inner capacity is my receptivity and my outer capacity is my speed. I must needs have a receptivity-heart larger than the largest. Something more, I must needs have an ever-expanding heart. I need speed. Faster than the fastest speed I need in my life. Something more, I need an ever-increasing speed, so that sooner than at once I can reach my goal. And again, I know perfectly well that each goal is the starting point of a further goal, a higher goal, a deeper goal.

My progress-delight is my Lord’s revealing Sound. My progress-delight is my Lord’s fulfilling Silence.

Thoughtful inspiration I need, soulful aspiration I need, fruitful meditation I need. My thoughtful inspiration will make me a great God-seeker, my soulful aspiration will make me a good God-server and my fruitful realisation will make me a perfect God-lover.

I cry and I smile. I cry in my heart and I smile with my soul. My heart’s cry reaches the perfection-sky. My soul’s smile transcends to the satisfaction-sun. I must ascend and transcend. My ascendance is my aspiration-cry and my transcendence is my satisfaction-smile.

There are human beings who think that life is a dream, an illusion, while others claim that life is a battlefield. Still others think that life is a divine play and each human being is a divine instrument. A seeker is he who has become a conscious instrument of his Beloved Supreme. Him to love, Him to serve and Him to manifest in His own Way is the aim, the sleepless aim, of the seeker.

Here we are all seekers. What we have is a mounting cry and what we are is a gratitude-flame. On the strength of our aspiration-cry and our gratitude-flame, we are bound to reach our Destined Goal: the Goal that is beckoning us, the Goal of God-satisfaction in God’s own Way at God’s choice Hour. There can be no better way to feel progress-delight and to feel our entire being flooded with light and delight than to please God in God’s own Way. How do we achieve this? We achieve this great realisation-height only when we value at every moment the real self within us and not the usual self within us. The real self within us is our constant inner cry. The usual self within us is our desire-cry, which at every moment wallows in the pleasures of ignorance.

Success-life is not our goal. Progress-life is our goal. We compete not with others. We compete with our teeming doubts, worries and anxieties. When we minimise our doubts, worries and anxieties, we make more satisfactory progress, and there comes a time when we free ourselves, liberate ourselves totally, from doubts, anxieties, worries, insecurities and so forth. That is the moment when we enjoy our progress-delight.

Soulfully let us pray, fruitfully let us meditate, and ours will be the Goal of goals: God-realisation in God’s own Way.