Preface
The activity of
conducting the Ashram* which has been, by God’s grace, allotted to me for cultivating
in other persons the spirit of self-development also becomes incidentally the
cause of the manifestation of my life’s efflorescence. Through this activity,
I came in increasing contact with other jivas (living beings).
And so, by God’s grace I continue to share in the working and molding of their
lives.
As is well
known, everyone has to contend with his personal mental or physical
difficulties, perplexities, problems, worries, circumstantial, or social
intricacies. The Ashram activities give me (through personal contacts) the
chance to delve into the troubles of other jivas and help them
in extricating themselves from those hardships. My devotion to God comprises
itself in the service I render them and in thus aiding them to rise to a higher
level.
Guna and
bhaava (sterling
qualities and noble feelings) are indispensable for the stay and support of life
on earth. Whether a man wants to lead a higher spiritual life or a worldly life
worth the name, he has but to cultivate the strength that guna and
bhaava provide him. If
he does not acquire them to a sufficient extent, the man is sure to fail even in
material worldly life. How much more so in spiritual life!
This book
contains letters written to Sri Hemantkumar Nilkanth in order to make his life
blossom out spiritually and manifest itself in the right spirit of the world.
They are also meant to help him in cultivating such insight, attitude and
decided bent for a higher life, to bring about his bloom and its manifestation
in all directions. The letters are therefore of only relative restricted
relevance and quality. They are written in response to the times or
circumstances in which he then belonged. They do not reveal higher truths than
what he required at that time, because every jiva ought to be
provided only what he needs, at the same time he needs it. Anything more may
even become harmful to him (like heavy food given to a delicate
stomach).
Every
Jiva aspiring for
life’s development must old his body by performing all his actions with as much
devotion and intelligence as he possesses. Without the continuous unfailing
practice of that most sincere way of self-development, there is no possibility
of his acquiring such tremendous intensity of aspiration essential for
progress.
Some
jiva say that for
his progress he will depend upon god’s grace alone and not upon his personal
effort. If the consciousness of God is constant in him and if, in every one of
his actions that consciousness manifests itself from the best kind of knowledge
and devotion he has, then the fact that god’s grace is actively working in his
life and helping him is clear as day. That is why that jiva has to create
in him such an inner state of being as would please the Lord God to assist him
and satisfy his desire (of sole reliance on God).
Some
jiva assert that
God’s grace demands nothing, rests on no condition, which a man must necessarily
fulfil before he receives it. Even if he is right in his view and is really
receiving divine grace, let him never forget the fact that he will not be able
to perceive its existence and will surely fail to take proper advantage of its
working so long as the power of receptivity of God’s grace has not sufficiently
grown in him. Under the excuse of the security that God’s grace affords, we want
to justify our lethargy and to lead a life of irresponsible, devil-may-care
ease. But Lord God, if he were physically present before us, would feel an
excruciating torture at the sight of our senseless suicidal sloth. Whenever a
jiva of this stupid
mentality utters the holy name of God’s grace, he commits the grave offence of
self-deception.
It is my prayer
therefore to you all, my dear ones, to leave the question of God’s grace to
itself and first of all create real enthusiasm, patience, and perseverance in
yourselves, so that you may be able to retain a vital awareness of God during
ordinary worldly actions. My objective in writing these letters and publishing
them is to impel my dear ones and other readers to create constant awareness of
God in themselves.
By God’s grace
this jiva (the writer)
has never felt for want of helpers, has never been without them. When some of
them leave the word, others have always stepped in to replace them. Through this
work of conducting the Ashrams, which god’s grace has conferred on me, I have
experienced the vital fact that my dear God is endowed with thousands of eyes
and thousands of hands to help me through. That experience, moreover, makes me
feel God’s infinite and loving grace ever descending on me.
This is my
earnest appeal to all those who have come to me for my assistance in developing
their lives: Please be kind enough to go on creating in yourselves such an ever
livelier consciousness of that purpose as would satisfy my
heart.
If you indulge
in tall talk of God’s grace without making an inch of effort to grow out of your
slovenly, refractory present way of living, be sure I will never put up with it.
There is a limit beyond which the wayward behaviour of dear ones becomes
intolerable to me. That is why I implore them: Please give up your loud claim of
receiving god’s grace, if you have no desire to act like a serious aspirant.
Don’t think that God’s grace is in your pocket, can be had for nothing. Even in
our worldly affairs if we want to gain anybody’s favour, get something from him,
we behave in a way that pleases his heart. In the same way we must first please
God by our actions in worldly life and create in ourselves noble qualities like
detachment, broad mindedness, and freedom from vanity or egotism. Only then can
our reliance on God’s grace become legitimate and have meaning.
Nothing ever
happens in this world capriciously, without rhyme or reason. Empty talk and
indulgence in fanciful intellectual flights cannot save us, and cannot lead us
to the vision of Life Eternal. That way we simply waste away the precious gift
of life granted to us. That is why it is my prayer to you all, my dear ones, to
strive to live a sensible, clearly motivated life.
In and through
the kind of work assigned to us, we must be able to create qualities such as
self-discipline, zeal, tenacity, courage, spirit of adventure, forbearance and
the capacity to calmly put up with sorrows. If we are unable to acquire those
qualities from our life’s activities, what other source is there for us to
obtain enough strength and power to make us fit for spiritual life? Hence I
beseech you: Since we have met, let us create by mutual association the
consciousness that can fulfil the objective for which we have
met.
All the
incidents narrated in this book have actually happened in my life. There are
some persons still alive, who can corroborate. It is my experience that once a
person begins to read this book, Jivandarshan (translated as
Vision of Life Eternal), he has but to go on reading it at a stretch to the end.
Whatever has been done by this jiva (the author) is
due to nothing else but the power of God’s grace. I was but a non-entity, a
cipher. That is why I happen to be a glorious example of a worthless creature
who, inflamed by the spirit of devotion to God, is able to totally surrender
himself to him, become his tool, and gain by his grace the strength to perform
mighty Himalayan deeds. Threads in a loom become closely inter woven to make a
piece of cloth and lose their separateness altogether. This book shows the
reader how in the same manner a man completely loses his distinctness from god,
if he is full of love and devotion for him.
This is my
prayer to all those friends who help the Ashrams at Nadiad and Surat: Please
always remember, as keenly as you can, that you are helping the Ashrams for your
own sake, i.e., simply for elevating your own life. Unless we keep vigorously
alive our consciousness that everything we do is for self-realization or our own
development, it is impossible for us to give up the closely confined life of
materialism and gain the ever-flowering life of godliness.
To keep the
Ashrams in good order, to see that they go on flourishing and are supplied with
all they need, is as much the business of Ashram inmates as of those outsiders
who love the Ashrams and help them. The inmates must behave in a way that
increases the attraction of visitors and supporters to the Ashrams and the
latter should reciprocate by timely and practical aid.
* The Hariom
Ashrams at Nadiad and Surat contain six closed silence-rooms in each. In it any
individual — no matter to which religious sect or creed he (or she) belongs —
voluntarily confines himself and gets the rare advantage of complete solitude
(with the necessary modern comforts) in order to remember God in the way he
likes and to reform himself through introspection.