Confidence

There is a great difference between confidence and over-confidence. Over-confidence is of the mind and for the mind, whereas confidence is an inner light. With that inner light, we illumine our mind's darkness. So when we feel the light-ray inside our heart, that ray starts illumining the darkness of our mind. When we have confidence, we feel that God is not only with us and in us but also for us.

But when we are surcharged with over-confidence, at that time we do not need God. We do not need anybody else. We have to know the difference between real confidence and over-confidence. When we discern confidence in our outer life, it is all over-confidence and nothing else. But when we really have confidence in our heart, in our inner life, then it illumines everything that is dark in our life. Confidence is something that is extremely necessary, but we have to be careful in our outer life that this confidence is not over-confidence. Over-confidence is nothing short of destruction.

Creativity

Without creativity,
No great soul
Can offer anything substantial
To mankind.

Detachment

Detachment is immediate peace. Detachment is wisdom. We are not our creators. Somebody created us. When we can detach ourselves from any person or any object, then we get boundless joy. Detachment is the wisdom-light in us that tells us not to be affected by anything that happens. So many wrong thoughts are coming, so many things are happening in the family, so many things are going wrong in the world — if you can be detached from them, then you will not be affected.

Detachment is not an escape. Detachment is to say, "This is God's world. Let God take care of it. My only obligation is to please God in His own Way. He is the Creator; I am the creation. I can only be of real help to God, real service to God, by praying to Him."

When you try to remain detached, you have to feel that it is your wisdom-light that is coming to the fore. Detachment is not an escape from life. Detachment is a way to see or to feel that God knows that what is happening is for the ultimate good of mankind or for the ultimate good of Mother Earth.

Determination

If there is no determination,
Life is bound to be
A constant failure.

Devotion

Devotion is the connecting link between the seeker's heart and God's Feet, and this connecting link is like a magnetic pull. Stronger than the strongest is this connecting link. When devotion is sincere, immediately the seeker can have fast, faster, fastest speed.

Divine warrior

There are two kinds of warrior: one who conquers with a sword or a gun or some other weapon. That is a human warrior. The other is a divine warrior. This warrior does not conquer; he illumines with light. The divine warrior comes and sees darkness. Light never takes darkness as its enemy, whereas darkness takes light as its enemy. As soon as light, in the form of a divine warrior, stands in front of darkness, light will say, "Oh, my little brother is full of doubt and fear and so many other undivine things. Let me bring water and wash him and make him clean and beautiful." So the divine warrior is always trying to make others as good as himself because he knows he is representing God. But the human warrior will say, "Let me kill that person! He has different views from me. Why should I accept his views? They are all wrong!"

The human way is to destroy; the divine way is to sympathise with our younger brothers and sisters. Darkness is nothing but the younger brother of light. Always there is light, even inside darkness. There is no darkness that does not have an iota of light inside it. The divine warrior thinks of light, more light, abundant light, infinite light. So he will stand in front of darkness and try to illumine it. In that way, he will fulfil God's Vision on earth. The human way is always to destroy. The divine way is to say, "What I am, I want you to be because I know I am representing God on earth and I would like you also to represent God on earth."

Ecstasy

Ecstasy can be dynamic; ecstasy can be static. Dynamic ecstasy is what moves us forward, upward and inward. We all need dynamic ecstasy. Static ecstasy lives inside us and cannot be used either for the betterment of ourselves or humanity. Static ecstasy gives us tremendous satisfaction, but that satisfaction we do not need in order to manifest God's Light here on earth. For that, dynamic ecstasy is needed.

Exquisite

Inner surrender
Has an exquisite inner beauty
Which our outer eyes
Fail to notice.

Faith

God tells us that if we lose faith in Him, no harm, but if we lose faith in ourselves, we are finished; the game will be over. So we have to ask ourselves the question, "Who am I? Am I the thought that is entering into me in the form of doubt, in the form of fear, in the form of anxiety?"

If somebody tells you that your name is 'Anxiety', you will vehemently deny it. You will say, "No, my name is such-and-such. It has such a lofty spiritual meaning. My entire existence is flooded with light."

You will not identify yourself with the name 'Anxiety' at all. Nor will you identify yourself with your fears and doubts. At that time, you will separate yourself from these negative thoughts. In the spiritual life, always try to cultivate faith in yourself and in this way you will not identify yourself with any negative qualities. You have to know that when fear, doubt, anxieties and worries come, it is an attack. If anybody calls you by the name 'Worry', are you going to respond? No. But if anybody calls you by the name 'Faith', you will immediately say, "Yes, I am that, I am that, I am that. God has so much faith in me. I have so much faith in God."

In our ordinary human life, we may lose faith in God for two days or four days. Then we will say to ourselves, "This is God's vast Creation! Is He really useless? If He is useless, then He cannot be the Ruler of the world, the Governor of the world." And our faith in God is restored.

But when it comes to our faith in ourselves, all the stupid things that we have done in our lives come forward to destroy our joy. We lose faith in ourselves because twenty years ago perhaps we told a lie. Twenty years ago perhaps somebody asked me which direction to go in Augsburg and I showed him the wrong way! So all kinds of things happen in life. When we deal with our human faith, we are only digging up the past. We remind ourselves of how many bad things we have done. But divine faith is not like that. Divine faith is always going forward, forward, forward. We have to throw our human faith into divine faith. Then we shall be able to go forward.

Even the term 'human' faith is always mixed with doubt because we cannot separate faith from doubt, specially self-doubt. But when it is a matter of divine faith, as soon as we say the word 'divine', beauty comes into our life, light comes into our life. The divine is something beautiful, pure, absolutely glorious. When we say 'divine', immediately light comes to our mind; whereas, when we say 'human', it is always mixed with some negativity, some darkness.

On the human level, there is negativity inside everything and everyone. So when we are dealing with our own faith in ourselves, we have to constantly separate ourselves from doubt because doubt and faith go side by side.

Once we accept the spiritual life, we have to say, "I am of God, I am for God." If you can say this, then immediately you will have faith in yourself. Your faith automatically becomes divine and your anxieties, worries, fears and doubts will all disappear. If you are of God, then how can you be full of doubt?

Then there is another point: whatever you have suffered in your life, it is God who has experienced it in and through you. That same God is now telling you, "Only identify yourself with Me." If we can identify ourselves with God all the time, then all the divine qualities within us will be brought to the fore. Just say, "I am of God. I am for God." Then your doubts will become like a football and you will be able to kick them away. They will not be able to come near you.

If you are really for God, you will be like a deer running towards your Beloved Supreme. Who can prevent you from reaching Him? Our devoted qualities have to run towards God faster than the fastest. When you say, "I am of the Supreme," those little, little animals — doubts, worries and so forth — will all get frightened because they are afraid of light. We are afraid of darkness, but they are afraid of light. So always say, "I am of the Supreme. I am for the Supreme."

Unfortunately, we cannot maintain that feeling. When our old worries and anxieties come back into our minds, God disappears. At that time, we do not try to illumine those negative thoughts. We are helpless. In India, one Acharya used to say, by way of joke, "I am a divine warrior, but what can I do? I have a shield in one hand and a sword in the other. My hands are all occupied, so how can I fight?"

But fight we must. Our heart has to say, with all its affection, love, kindness, sweetness and fondness, that we are of God and we are for God. Then we will be able to maintain our feeling. Otherwise, if this idea comes from the mind, we will forget that we are of God and for God sooner than at once. It is our heart that has to say, "All the good qualities that God has given me I am offering to Him, and He will give me much, much more than before because I am of Him and I am for Him."

Grace

When we receive
Even an iota of Grace from Above,
We enter into a higher race
Of divine existence.

Gratitude

Gratitude is the shortest road
And fastest speed
To arrive at God's Palace.

Humility

There are a few things in life that have the speed but do not embody certainty. But when it comes to humility, humility has both speed and also assurance. Humility carries the speed and assurance for us to arrive at God's Palace sooner than at once.

Illumination

Illumination is in the mind and of the mind. Illumination and realisation are two brothers; they are twins. They fulfil each other. The mind's illumination and the realisations of the central being go together. The word 'salvation' always gives us the feeling of Master and slave. Somebody infinitely higher than us is granting us salvation. But when it comes to illumination or realisation, then we feel that a dearer than the dearest Friend has come to our rescue. We feel, "I was in darkness, so my dearer than the dearest Friend, my Lord Beloved Supreme, has come to my rescue."

When we want salvation, we always see the difference between the higher and the lower. The higher part has come to save the lower part. But when it is a matter of illumination, at that time we have to feel that the One who has come to illumine us is our dearest Friend, our Eternity's dearest Friend. In the Christian world, we hear the word 'salvation', but we have to know that the meaning is completely different from 'illumination'. For our salvation, we invoke the Master, but in our illumination we already have the Master, God Himself, deep within.

Immersed

The more we are immersed in our deep, deeper and deepest meditation, the sooner we shall see the unmistakable arrival of our Lord Beloved Supreme right in front of our earthly existence.

Infinity

In the beginning, we have to imagine Infinity. Then we have to feel it, and afterwards we have to see it with our inner vision. When we can see Infinity in an atom, in a molecule, and feel the molecule is for us, then we shall know what Infinity is. For us to see a small drop inside an infinite ocean is easy because our mind tells us that easily a drop can be inside the ocean. The mind knows it is true.

But the heart's inner vision knows that it is always mutual: if we can be inside God, God also can be inside us. We know that the Infinite can easily house the finite, but our mind tells us that the finite cannot house the Infinite. Both the Infinite and the finite are nothing other than God the Beloved and His child. Inside God the Beloved, we can see His child, and inside the child, we have to see God the Beloved. It is a game. God tells us that whatever He is and whomever He is, we are also exactly the same. God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. He is everything. Whatever He has and whatever He is, we have and we are. It is like hide-and-seek. The Infinite is hiding and the finite is searching for it. Then, when the finite hides, the Infinite searches for it. So when we can see Infinity inside the finite the way we see the finite inside Infinity, then we become a real player in God's Cosmic Game.

Intuition

Let us first talk about intuitive faculties. Some animals have more intuitive faculties than human beings. That does not mean that they are superior to human beings. No. Only they are more in tune with Mother Nature. Those who are more in tune with Mother Nature develop intuition. Through prayer and meditation, we can also develop intuition. And again, by loving Mother Earth, by loving a flower, loving a leaf, loving a tree, loving the water, loving Nature's beauty, we can develop intuition.

If you want to develop intuition through prayer and meditation, imagine that you are following a road that is longer than the longest. Imagine somebody is walking beside you and that person has a flashlight. When he starts using the flashlight, you see that the road is becoming shorter and shorter and shorter. Intuition brings the longest road right in front of you.

Sometimes when I ask what is happening in Germany or Russia or some other place, I do not know the details, but my intuition just brings a particular family or some individuals who are in need of my inner help right in front of me. So intuition can go to the farthest and, again, intuition can bring the farthest right in front of you.

But if it is difficult for you to develop intuition through prayer and meditation, only appreciate the beauty of the flowers, the beauty of the grass. If you can identify yourself with the beauty aspect of Nature, then you will develop intuition. That intuition is very, very pure, but it is limited.

If a spiritual person has intuition, his intuition is infinitely stronger than the intuition of those who do not pray and meditate. But I have to say, why should you pray and meditate in order to acquire intuition? You need only realisation. Realisation is a vaster than the vastest oneness. Intuition is not oneness. With your intuitive capacities, you will try to know what is happening somewhere else. Why do you have to know what is happening somewhere else when you have the capacity to become everything and everyone? That is realisation.

Awareness, on the other hand, is far inferior to intuition. We may be aware of something — a tree, for example — but we have no way to bring the beauty and purity of the tree to us. However, if you have intuition, you can inwardly go to where the tree is and enjoy the beauty and purity of the tree.

Intuition gives you an inner connecting link with the object. You can either go where it is or you can bring it right in front of your vision. For intuition, there is a connecting road, but awareness does not have a road.

Again, realisation goes far beyond intuition. When you have realisation, you see the tree with all its leaves and flowers and fruits right inside you. You do not have to go anywhere.

We may be aware of something, but we cannot bring it to us. Intuition can go there or intuition can bring the reality of that object to you. So intuition is infinitely more important than awareness.

We can be aware if somebody is very bad and we can be aware if somebody is very good. But simply by becoming aware of somebody's bad qualities, we cannot remove those bad qualities. We are aware of his bad deeds, but we are helpless; we cannot do anything. But if, by intuition, we know of somebody's bad qualities, then we will try to do something. Whether we will be successful or not, we will try to help him turn over a new leaf.

Again, if we have realisation, which is oneness, we will take it even more seriously. At that time, we will take it as our bounden duty to be of service to that person.

Joy

Each individual can have joy in the spiritual life provided he or she consciously and deliberately wants to become God's chosen instrument. God's chosen instrument is the perfect toy of God. If you can become a toy of God, then, like a fountain, you will have joy within and you will spread joy everywhere.

Light

Light is everywhere. Light is even in darkest darkness. But we need Infinity's Light to transform the darkest darkness of ignorance-night.

Love

There is not a single human being on earth who does not love. If one wants to make satisfactory progress, then one has to love oneself divinely at every moment. How do we love ourselves divinely? We love ourselves divinely when we feel that our earth-existence is for God to utilise. And that love must permeate our entire being.

Nothingness

When we sincerely feel
That we are nothingness incarnate,
Then God comes
And turns our nothingness
Into His Infinity's Fulness.

Oneness

God-oneness means
Heaven-fulfilment
And earth-enlightenment.

One-pointedness

One-pointedness is of paramount importance in the spiritual life. Let us say that I am looking at the five fingers on my right hand. I am not looking here and there; I am only looking at these five fingers. Then the question comes: how can I make my focus of concentration smaller and smaller? When I look with utmost one-pointedness, I will discard my thumb, I will discard this finger and that finger, until finally I am concentrating only on the tip of one finger. In order to achieve one-pointedness, you have to make the object as small as possible. The smaller the object, the easier it is to exercise your one-pointedness. When you make the biggest things very small, then you will make very fast progress.

One-pointedness you develop only by making the subject or object as small as possible. One-pointedness you cannot apply to vastness. Again, when you develop this capacity to concentrate on objects which are smaller than the smallest, tinier than the tiniest, it will become so easy for you to identify yourself with the vastness of the Reality. At that time, if you use your one-pointedness to reach your Beloved Supreme, you will see that He is coming towards you. Your one-pointedness will come into the category of contemplation.

Suppose you are looking at my Transcendental Photograph. Gradually, gradually you will try to look at the smallest portion possible. Only try to see the eyes. Then forget about two eyes and try to see only one eye. First you will see the whole face and then, gradually, gradually bring your focus to two eyes and then only one eye. When only one eye remains, feel that that one eye is entering into you and you are entering into that eye. Use your one-pointedness.

So again and again I am saying that for one-pointedness, make the vastness as small as possible, as tiny as possible. When you are successful in piercing through it, even if you are looking at the ocean itself, your one-pointedness will make the vastness disappear.

Openness

Every day, every hour, every minute, every second, we must develop the beauty and fragrance, light and delight of openness, so that God can act in and through us most satisfactorily in His own Way.

Plenitude

Plenitude is found inside solitude. If we can live inside solitude, we are bound to see plenitude; not only plenitude but infinitude. First dive deep within. Station yourself there. You will see that it is all solitude and, inside the solitude, you will see the plenitude. This plenitude shall grow and grow into infinitude.

To start with, remain inside the heart of solitude. There you will receive plenitude in abundant measure. From plenitude, you can go to infinitude. But start with solitude. Through your prayers and meditations, you will be able to enter into the realm of solitude.

Pride

There are two kinds of pride: the divine pride and the human pride. The human pride wants either to build the world or to destroy the world. But the divine pride never destroys. The divine pride will say, "Being God's child, I cannot destroy anything. I can only serve God in helping Him to build a better world. Whatever He intended to do with this world, this world as it is is not satisfying God. Therefore, I am praying to God to transform this world. I am praying to God to make each human being good, better, best. I am of God; I am for God. How can I destroy anything? I can only try with my inner beauty, my divine beauty, to make each and every human being better."

This kind of divine pride is absolutely essential for the betterment of the world.

Progress

The progress of our spiritual life can be measured only through our heart's ceaseless tears. Sometimes we say that we are not making any progress. Then what do we do? Some people give up. They feel that spirituality is a barren desert. I wish to say that, in order to make progress, we have to dig deep, deeper, deepest. We have no idea at what point the tears of our heart will spring up like a fountain.

Let us say that we have been making very good progress and all of a sudden our progress has come to a standstill. Whether it takes two hours or four hours or four days in a row, whatever amount of time is needed, we must cry and cry and cry. Many people give up the spiritual life when they see that they are not making any more progress. But they do not realise that progress can sometimes be made in a different way. Progress can be made either by pulling or pushing. You can try to pull the ocean of Light towards you, or you can push yourself towards the ocean of Light.

In this connection, I wish to narrate a humorous story. A man found that his sleep was disturbed. Days ran into weeks, weeks into months and months into years. Still he could not get proper rest at night. Every night he suffered from nightmares and then he could not go back to sleep. His nightmare was always the same. He would see a huge house. The house was always in darkness, but he felt that there was something inside the house; he was convinced that he would find a room that was flooded with light. Every night, in his nightmare, he approached the house carrying a little flashlight. Then he would struggle to open the door. Alas, each night he failed. His mind was fixed on the idea of pulling open the door. He felt that if he could only pull open the door, then he would be able to go inside the house. But he always tried and tried in vain. Then he would wake up from his nightmare.

Eventually, the man decided to visit a famous psychiatrist to receive treatment for his condition. He narrated his pathetic story to the psychiatrist. He felt that if he had to go on suffering in this way, he did not want to live on earth any more. The psychiatrist listened to the whole story and said, "All right, before you die, let me ask you a few questions. When you are standing at the door, do you see anything there that you have not told me, apart from the fact that the house is in darkness?"

"Yes," said the man, "on the door there is a small sign with one silly word — PUSH. However, I do not pay any attention to it. I know that only by pulling will the door open up."

The man's mind was focussed on the idea that if he pulled the door, it would open up, but, according to him, pushing was of no value at all.

Similarly, in the spiritual life, sometimes it happens that we cannot make any more progress. Why? We are trying to pull the ocean of Light towards us. But how can we pull the ocean? It is simply impossible. So we have to grab ourselves and push ourselves into the water. Then we will become the ocean of Light itself.

Many times I have said that one cannot make progress in the spiritual life by hook or by crook. I have said that spirituality is not a matter of pushing and pulling. Here I wish to qualify my statement. Spirituality is not a matter of pushing or pulling others aside in order to reach the goal.

Again in some ways, life is always a kind of push or pull. When it is safe to push, we should push. Unfortunately, we always try to pull something. That is the mistake we always make. We should not try to pull the infinite expanse towards us. No, we should push ourselves towards the infinite expanse.

When you want to make progress, just think of yourself as a mischievous monkey. Feel, "I am nothing but a monkey!" Then grab that naughty monkey and throw it into the water. Only in this case, the ocean does not contain water, so you do not have to be afraid. In the ocean of Light, you will see that so many Gods and Goddesses are waiting for you to receive you with utmost affection, love, sweetness and fondness.

When the time comes for us to enter into Infinity by pushing or throwing ourselves, we do not do it. We feel, "No, no, if I can pull Infinity towards me, then only will I make progress." Every human being suffers from this problem. Our progress stops when we try to pull the largest and heaviest object towards us. But our progress continues if we push ourselves or throw ourselves into the ocean. You have to feel, "I am a tiny drop. How can I bring the ocean into me? It is I who should enter into the ocean." That is the wisdom that you have to apply to yourself in order to make the fastest progress. Consciously push yourself into the water.

Progress is always made by taking ourselves to the superior, God, and not by bringing the superior into us. Just say to yourself, "Why should God come to me? Who am I? I should go to God."

If we know that God is in the adjacent room, it is we who should go to Him and not the reverse. Are we fools? If God is there, we have to run towards Him! By going to Him, we can please Him. True, He can come to us, but if He comes to us, we will not get the same joy. When we run to Him, we feel that we have done something. When we cut a mango into pieces and eat it, we get more joy than if somebody hands us a piece of mango. Always our action gives us more joy. Something more, if God comes to us, pride can enter into us. But if we go to God with our humility, with our love, with our fondness for Him, then we are safe.

If I am sitting somewhere and you come running towards me, I get much more joy as your spiritual Master than when I go to you. When I go to you, you may say, "Oh, now I have really become something! The Master has come to me." So instead of drawing something towards you, always go to the destination. The destination can come to you, but you will not get the same satisfaction. If you go to the destination, you will get infinitely more joy.

Purity

Purity of the mind
Expedites astonishingly
Our Godward journey.

Purpose

Life has only one purpose: to know what the Goal is and then to throw oneself — body, vital, mind and heart, everything that you have and you are — into the Goal. Our purpose is to go up and also to dive deep within. If you want to go up or dive deep, what will you do? Either cultivate tears inside your heart or bring into your life the smiles of your soul. Either through tears or through smiles you can fulfil the purpose of your life.

Rainbow

The seven colours of the rainbow connect our aspiring hearts with the seven higher levels of consciousness, provided we can be in a meditative consciousness when we look at the rainbow.

Self-giving

In the outer world, we use the term 'self-giving'. In the inner world, we use the term 'God-becoming'. The more we give to humanity, the sooner we grow into our larger than the largest heart. In an ordinary sense, when we spend five minutes with someone, we feel that we have given them eternity. Then again, if we like or love someone and we stay with them for five hours, we feel that we have given only five seconds. This is our way of thinking. If we love someone, two hours becomes one minute and if we do not like someone, one minute seems like two hours.

So when we are in the physical or when we are in the mind, and we offer ourselves, we give an iota of our existence and immediately we feel that we have given the equivalent of one million dollars. But if we remain in our heart, we will feel that we have so much more to give, so much more to give — our love, our peace, our light, our bliss. We will feel that what we have given is next to nothing.

So when it is a matter of self-giving, when we are in the mental world, we feel that it is a waste of time. We feel that we are just wasting our energy. But when we are in our heart, we feel that we have much more to give. We feel that our self-giving can never come to an end. We say, "Let the person come again. I will give him more, more, more."

When you remain in the heart, self-giving has divine reality in it; it is inexhaustible. The qualities that you are offering — joy, love, goodwill, concern — are absolutely infinite. Anything divine you have in infinite measure, provided your self-giving comes from the heart. If it comes from the mind, you will give practically nothing, but you will feel that you have given everything. At that time, what is the use of self-giving?

When you give from the heart, you always feel, "I am a fool! I could have given much more, much more." Self-giving in the heart always unites us with vastness. Self-giving in the mind always binds us and binds us. It makes us miserable. We regret it because we feel that we have wasted our precious time. But when we give from the heart, we feel an endless supply of joy, light and so many other divine qualities.

So when you perform an act of self-giving, always feel that it is coming from the heart and not from the mind.

Service

Love can be theoretical, but service always has to be practical. Sometimes we may say, "He is a practical man." That is not the meaning of the word 'practical' in this context. Here, 'practical' means to serve God in the way God wants us to serve Him.

If you want to know which one pleases God more, love or service, then I must say that love is good, but service is better. Love is an inner feeling. Service is also an inner feeling, but service manifests, whereas love identifies.

Identification is not enough. It must be followed by manifestation. If you want to do something for the world, love and service must go together, but God will appreciate your service more because you are doing something for Him that is tangible here, there and everywhere.

God-service means God's immediate manifestation on earth. Those who serve God are all the time creating something new, new — new for God on earth.

Silence

Silence increases our divine qualities and decreases our undivine qualities. Silence is God's language and that language we can learn only through our heart's tears; that language we can learn only through constant self-offering. At every moment we can increase the beauty, fragrance, light and delight of the divine within us by exercising the enormous power of silence. The power of silence is infinitely stronger than the power of sound in the spiritual life. Silence is the inner beauty for God-realisation and silence is the outer power for God-manifestation. If we have silence, faster than the fastest we can go to the farthest corners of the globe and do the needful.

Simplicity

Outwardly, simplicity is something most of us do not appreciate. When somebody is very simple, immediately our mind tells us that his simplicity is nothing short of stupidity. But in the inner world, simplicity is of paramount importance. If we have simplicity in our inner life, then we accelerate our Heavenward journey most strikingly.

Soulfulness

Our prayer-life needs soulfulness. Our meditation-life needs soulfulness. Soulfulness has to be in everything that we do. If there is no soulfulness, we do not succeed. And if there is soulfulness, we are bound to succeed in all our activities.

Speed

In everything we need speed. Today's speed is taking us to a particular destination, but tomorrow's speed has to be faster. That speed will take us to another destination. Every day we must increase our speed to arrive at a specific destination.

Today's speed can take us to a particular destination, but with that same speed in the inner world, we will not be able to arrive at another destination. We have to increase our speed. And again, when we want to arrive at a new destination, we have to increase our speed once more.

In our outer life, we can run a marathon at a constant speed — a six-minute or seven-minute pace. Mile after mile you can go at the same speed. But in the inner world, each time you arrive at a new destination, you have to increase your speed in order to arrive at the following destination. Otherwise, you are not allowed to arrive at a new destination with your old speed.

Sweetness

Each time we have sweetness
In our thought,
God comes one step
Closer to us.

Tears

Sweeter than the sweetest
Are the heart-tears
Of a God-seeker.

Vastness

The vastness of the mind
Can purify and beautify
A seeker's life.

Zeal

When we have zeal
In our dedicated service,
We enter into God's Heart
With a very special thrill.

Notes

Editor's note

Cover illustration by Chidroopa

Sri Chinmoy offered spiritual meanings for the words in this book, which were submitted by his disciples in Kauai, Hawaii, on 4 December 2001.