November 21, 2023
The truth has been revealed again and again by the Lord, and it will continue to be thus revealed. Gurudev echoed this truth. He regarded it as His own mission and His own vision, His work and His worship. He listened to everybody.
He often declared that He was an eternal student, eager to learn from everyone, and from life itself. He was a voracious reader. But unlike most of us, He reflected on what He had seen, read or heard. All this was infused by His spirit and seen through His vision. Soon, He conveyed His spirit, His ideas and His vision through His writings.
In spite of the fact that there are hundreds of highly inspiring scriptures which we have inherited, we still remain ignorant, and there is still no radical change in our nature, because the revelations of the scriptures do not enter into all parts of our being. We handle them as a printer handles his material, as a job to be done.
To Gurudev Sivananda this was a good start! Our bodies are engaged in such spiritual activity. Soon, because we read such highly elevating material again and again, the intellect is won over. But even this does not inspire us to live a truly spiritual life.
The heart has to be won over. Gurudev was a pastmaster in the art of conquering our hearts. His affection and His Love were truly limitless. His encouragement and His patience were boundless. He made us all feel that we had truly understood the truth, even if we had just learnt the use of the words. He encouraged us to deliver lectures, to speak about the spiritual truths to others. Lo, during such exercise we discovered our own lack of spiritual experience. He made such experience seem within our easy reach. He treated our faults lightly. Our hearts were conquered, the truth He had presented in His works, and the mission was complete.
I believe that this is what is needed in the religious field today. We need not be discouraged if we can only grasp the truth intellectually and our own lives fall far short of perfection. We might even thank God for our imperfection - that gives us enough opportunities to strive harder for perfection!
The very work (dissemination of spiritual knowledge) in which we are engaged provides us with enough opportunities to reflect and meditate. The knowledge which we endeavor to spread becomes more and more fully integrated into our lives. It becomes Jnana yoga, the yoga in which the truth comes to life in us - the word is made flesh.