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Chapter II -Aspiration and Achievement
Good intentions alone will not do. They must be backed up by
good actions. You must enter the spiritual path with the best
intention of attaining Atma-Jnana (Self-knowledge), but unless
you are vigilant and diligent, unless you do intense and
rigorous Sadhana, unless you guard yourself against lust,
anger and egoism and selfishness, the good intentions alone
will not enable you to achieve success.
Moral purity and spiritual aspiration are the first steps in
the seeker's path. Without a strong conviction in moral
values, there can surely be no spiritual life, or even a good
life.
Stern self-discipline is absolutely essential. Self-discipline
does not mean suppression, but taming the brute within. It
means humanization of the animal and spiritualization of the
human.
You will have to break the virgin soil before you sow the
seed. The seed breaks itself before it sprouts out as a plant.
Destruction precedes construction. This is the immutable law
of nature. You will have to destroy your brutal nature first
before you develop divine nature.
The spiritual path is rugged, thorny, and precipitous. The
thorns must be weeded out with patience and perseverance. Some
of the thorns are internal; some are external. Lust, greed,
wrath, delusion, vanity, etc., are the internal thorns.
Company with evil-minded persons is the worst of all the
external thorns. Therefore, shun ruthlessly evil company.
During the period of Sadhana, do not mix much; do not talk
much; do not walk much; do not eat much; do not sleep much.
Observe carefully the five 'do-not's'. Mixing will cause
disturbances in the mind. Talking much will cause distraction
of the mind. Walking much causes exhaustion and weakness.
Eating much induces laziness and sleepiness.
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