Man learns through experience, and the spiritual path is full of different kinds of experiences. He will encounter many difficulties and obstacles, and they are the very experiences he needs to encourage and complete the cleansing process.
One’s entire life is a continuous process of learning. Any process of inquiry is related to learning. But basically our inquiry should be concerned with finding out what is transient and what is permanent. This is true knowledge.
The churning separates the butter from the milk. In the same manner, through cosmic processes and upheavals of heat and cold, the five fundamental elements - earth, water, fire, air and space were separated and Earth, this Ball of Butter, emerged as the product of the churning.
Selfless service alone gives the needed strength and courage to awaken the real you sleeping in your heart.
Now you worship His Form, you repeat His name; ignoring His orders. Without practicing the discipline laid down by Rama to purify the mind, all else is mere show, empty rituals.
All religions exhort us to cleanse the heart of malice, greed, hate and anger. All religions hold out the gift of Grace as the prize for success in this cleaning process.
When the road ends, and the goal is gained, the pilgrim finds that he has travelled only from himself to himself.
As long as you have attachment to the body and attachment to objects, fear and suffering will be with you. Therefore Krishna told Arjuna to develop his discrimination and rid himself of body consciousness. Only then he would be able to develop integral vision.
Service without ideal of self…trains you to transcend all the artificial distinctions imposed by history and geography, and to realise that the human community is one and indivisible.
