Spiritual Struggle
some thoughts from
Swami Yatishwaranandaji
In the field of religion there is also a kind of aristocracy, but they are always willing to share their riches with others. Those who are strong, those who have the capacity only, succeed. Not the others. There is no place for the weakling in spiritual life. The great aristocrats in the realm of the spirit always place what they possess before others. But you can take a horse to the water, but not make it drink if it does not want to. This is the meaning of ‘throwing pearls before swine’. We must use discrimination and bring the right thing to the right person. Others will not be able to understand it and are not going to follow it, whatever you may say and do. There are people who have greater capacity and smaller capacity. If milk has been watered too much how long shall I have to boil it?
We should look upon it as a great fortune that for some reason or other our mind possesses an attraction for the higher and eternal things, and should see that we steadily and gradually proceed along the higher path, never flagging till we reach the goal. Our spiritual fervour is to be maintained, and we very often run the risk of becoming slack. This is the end of spiritual striving in most people after they have taken to the spiritual life for a certain time. Their minds are too restless and too outgoing to keep this spiritual fervour and intensity up for a very long time and to go on steadily and doggedly with their practices and daily readings and studies. So we should be on our guard. 6.05 Doggedness, tenacity is the one thing needed for spiritual life. All progress can only be had through great steadiness and tenacity, never allowing ourselves to flag or to become lukewarm.
The one task of our life is to assert this potential divinity, to come face to face with the Reality that is. Man verily easily forgets that his power of comprehension is so very limited. A little knowledge is always most dangerous.
“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
“The more I learn, the more I find I do not know.”
One God hidden in all things, pervades all things and is the Inner Life of all things. He is the giver of the fruits of Karma, He lives in all things. He is the Soul of all; there is nothing like Him, and he is without any Gunas, being secondless. He is the great Wise One. He is the one doer among the many actionless objects.
Generally, it is not the Truth that we love, but we just love ourselves in something. We are in love with an idea, because it is our idea, not because it represents the Truth at all. “God is known to him who really knows Him to be unknown. And he is unknown to him, who thinks He is known.” (Kena Up. 2.3)
To the true and steady devotee the Lord reveals His glory. And the devotee’s task is to be in tune with the Divine, with the Infinite. And then the Lord manifests His glory to him. Just as man tries to approach God, God is ever ready to approach man.
________________________
Swami Yatishwaranandaji [1888-1979] was Swami Brahmanandaji’s disciple. This illumined saint worked in Europe and the United States. His Meditation and Spiritual Life is one of the classics