Wings of Love, pages 1 to 26

Discourse date Unknown

REAL TRUTH IS WHAT IS EXPERIENCED AS SUCH

Realization of Truth, of the Supreme Soul, and of what we really are, is not a matter of intellectual deliberation or mental reflection. Only those of us are able to comprehend Truth who nurture their worthiness and receptivity by ceaseless practice. Inasmuch as our knowledge of things is restricted by the extent of our capacity to know, it is necessary to remember that the bounds of Truth are not limited to the extent of our knowledge. The frontiers of Truth are ever beyond our ken, because the more we know the more remains yet to be known. What we know need not necessarily be Truth since Truth is much too large for our capacity to comprehend which is neither complete nor perfect. One who identifies the limits of one's knowledge with those of Truth stops thereat, and does not go further. Even in the case of worldly objects we find our knowledge restricted by our sense-organs. To a person bereft of eyesight there is, indeed, no object like light in his world of experience. A true conception of light cannot find a place in the community that consists entirely of blind persons. Nor can darkness be truly comprehended by them, because an experience of light is essential to a thorough understanding of darkness. If we are devoid of the auditory faculty, sound becomes non-existent for us. Virtually, the existence of only those things is revealed to us which are intelligible to our senses. Our world of experience co-extends with our perceptive ability. We cannot, however, say that the real world is only that much. The frontiers of the world we experience and the real world are not identical. Our world is thus restricted by us ourselves. Surely, there are many worlds within one world. There are as many worlds as there are living organisms.

Examining still more minutely, we can say that there are as many worlds as there are individuals constituting the different species. Thus in the universe the individual worlds are numberless, because those who know, perceive, and experience are likewise numberless. Hence, the universe is subdivided into as many imaginary pieces as there are individual cogs in the wheel. Far behind men are quite a large number of animals whose sensory faculty is far inferior to that of man. We know that many of them do not possess the faculty of seeing or hearing. Some are denied the gustatory faculty and some the olfactory. Those beings do not, really, have the experience of light, sound, taste or smell.

The world of experience of man extends as far as his sense-organs allow it to do, and it will be sheer ignorance if the real world were to be restricted by us to what is projected by our limited knowledge. Were we blessed with more sense-organs, we might possibly have extended our world of experience still further. Scientific appliances have enabled us to do so. This is mentioned only to emphasize that our knowledge is commensurate with our capacity to know, with the powers of our senses to understand and grasp. What is true of the visible world is also true of the existence of the invisible one. Whenever people ask me, "Does God exist?", "Does the soul exist?", I put this counter-question to them, "Do you possess the ability to experience the soul and God?" The real question is that of ability and not of the existence, or otherwise, of God. If you have the ability you will surely experience those truths which are beyond your reach now; in the absence of that ability, those truths will necessarily seem untruths. If some vague fear compels us to accept truths they cannot be real truths, for real Truth is what is experienced as such.

Twenty-five centuries ago a seeker after Truth fell at the feet of Lord Buddha, beseeching his guidance. "How do you visualize it?" he said. "What is your conception?" The Enlightened One said, "What I have conceived may not help you much since you don't have the eyes competent enough to visualise Truth. Whatever I may say will be taken as untruth because you cannot realize the reality of what you cannot experience." Narrating an anecdote the Buddha continued, "I had been to a village where they brought me a blind man, requesting me to convince him of the existence of light. I told them it was no better than madness since he hadn't the instrument of vision, namely the eyes. They should rather take him to a doctor who could rectify his eyes. Where there are eyes to see there is light." I say the same to you. Your concern need not be Truth. It should rather be whether you do have the eyes competent enough to see beyond the object. What is seen is nothing but matter and whatever there is, besides and beyond it, falls outside the range of our experience. Its sympathetic impulses, its waves of reaction fail to have any impact on us. When you meet a friend, your contact with him is confined only to his physical being.

You do not come into close touch with his soul. When you see a tree in the open yard, you stop at the outer limits of its physical presence, but you do not have any access to its inner soul. Why? That is because one who has had no close contact with one's own soul and one who has had no experience of the sentient energy within, cannot hope to realize the all-pervasive Sentient Being. The question, therefore, is not of God, Truth or light but of vision. In my view, Dharma is more a remedy, a means of cure, than an object of deliberation. Fresh vistas of experience will open out within us if the slumbering impulses are goaded into activity, leaving at our disposal the knowledge of those things without which there is no purpose, no aim, and no meaning in life. Matter recedes into the background, leaving the impalpable behind, as our sensibility grows finer and our receptivity keener. A point is reached when the entire universe ceases to appear as a gross object of perception, and the pure unclouded vision of the Supreme Soul alone remains.

In order to achieve this we shall have to prepare ourselves. The farmer prepares the soil before sowing seeds. Persons seeking the realization of the supreme must keep the ground in readiness and tune themselves within in order to hear the all-pervasive divine music without. The sun is visible because our eyes perceive it. The sun may leave its impact on us, because we have both, the visual organ and sufficient receptive capacity. I am speaking and my voice enters your heart, producing a responsive echo, because you have a sense-organ which enables the sound to come up to you. The Supreme Soul never ceases to exist even for a moment. Our vital breaths are all His; every limit is His; but we do not realize it because our own hands keep the passage of entrance closed to Him.

THREE VITAL LINKS

There are three stages in the process of keeping this passage ever open -- three vital links that bring about your unison with the Supreme Soul. I am going to discuss them here. I shall tell you how that power of sympathetic reaction can be generated in you whereby the gross gets dissolved and the subtle comes to the fore. The empiric object vanishes and the Supreme Soul becomes visible. The links I am going to enumerate take you from the visible to the invisible, from the gross to the subtle, from the worldly object to the Supreme Soul.

FIRST LINK: SELF-LOVE

The first link in the chain is self-love. Let us love ourselves. Let this love be unhindered and unconditional. He who cannot love himself is incapable of loving others. In the absence of love it is impossible to go beyond the mundane, the physical, and the temporal. The power of love is the only power in man that is spiritual and unearthly. The ,steps leading up to the benign presence of the Supreme Soul can be climbed only by holding on to the unearthly link of love. But let me sound a note of caution. Surely some difficulty will be experienced on hearing this advocacy of love of oneself, because the so- called scriptural tradition is against it. Its tenets and injunctions lay down, directly or indirectly, what is hostile to the self. Is it possible to suppress the self without being hostile or inimical to it? The edifice of righteousness and virtue has been built by man on the mutual struggle and conflict between the pair of opposites into which the self had been split. No one need be surprised if life founded on illusion turns out to be ugly and uninspiring. The beauty of life can never fructify through the process of self-conflict, for the individual coming into conflict with himself loses his power, his prop and stay which would have ensured success in his life. Himself at the back, he makes his hands fight each other. In that case, who can conquer whom? Neither success, nor defeat is possible.

What is possible is only a mutual conflict leading to the birth of an individual utterly depleted of strength, and finally to death. Since, in this manner all the faculties of the individual conspire together to bring about self-destruction, life becomes ugly, uninspiring, and futile. Beauty, Truth and blessedness are attainable only if life were to be engaged in the creative cultivation of the self. Sermons on the suppression of the self cannot, however, produce notes of harmony within. On the other hand, they generate discord and disharmony and lead to misery, anxiety and frustration. The person who is filled with mutual conflicts, he who begins to fight with himself, he who splits himself into a friend and a foe, he who considers some of his faculties to be his adversaries and pits some others against them, actually creates a hell for himself. The pity is that we had been considering such a life of conflict, a righteous one, a virtuous life! In my view, a virtuous life is entirely different. It is not a life of internal conflict but that of internal peace, harmony and music. It is not a life of 'self-hostility' but that of unison and integration. Those who wish to acquire this harmony of the soul have to lay its foundation at the very outset. Those who start with a conflict cannot dream of reaching a state of bliss without conflict, for the end is already present in the beginning itself. Let it be remembered therefore that the first stage is far more valuable than the final one. The Supreme Soul is perfect harmony -- is perfection itself. If I wish to be merged into that Divine Harmony, it is essential that I should have a note of harmony within me. How can this note of harmony be produced? Never by treating the self with contempt, nor by self- reproach and self-hostility. It can be produced by love of oneself.

SELF-LOVE VERSUS SELF-SUPPRESSION

The very first foundations of a life of spiritual endeavour are love of oneself and spiritual harmony. Surely you will be confounded to hear this, because you have been often advised to suppress something within you. But I say that there is nothing within you that needs suppression or extirpation. There are certain drives within every man that need to be harnessed, not extirpated; certain forces that must needs be awakened and loved, not suppressed. They should be controlled and directed along the proper course. But those who consider them hostile can never be successful in transforming them. A man of understanding can transform even poison into nectar, but one who has no understanding whatever is sure to turn his nectar into poison. I call understanding nectar and deficiency in it poison. We see that putrefying things, things that emit foul smell, are used as fertilizers. Just now some one presented me with a bunch of flowers. How fragrant they are! When their fragrance stirred my heart, I remembered the source of this fragrance.

The foul smell of the muck has been transformed into an endearing fragrance in its course through the seeds and stems. If you simply heap up the manure in your yard, the foul smell will vitiate the whole atmosphere, but if you spread it over your garden round your house, it will be filled with pleasing smell. What you call "foul smell" is only the undeveloped form of "fragrance," not hostile to it. A discordant note is nothing but the undeveloped and disarranged form of the harmonious notes that blend so well in perfect music.

There is nothing in human life which deserves to be shattered to pieces, to be annihilated.

But there is much in human life, to be sure, which should be transformed, sublimated and raised up. Man possesses certain powers which are intrinsically neutral. They are neither auspicious nor inauspicious, neither good nor bad. They are neutral. They assume the form in which we utilize them. What is called sexual potency, the power of passionate lust against which the so-called spiritual leaders have waged an interminable war is but a neutral potentiality, because that power, when transformed, evolves itself into a divine force. It is the primordial creative power, and what it is competent to do depends upon how you use it. What it can be, does not depend on it alone but on our understanding and on the art of living our lives. Does it not, on being transformed, attain the nature of brahmacharya, the power of the celibate? This brahmacharya is not hostile to the power of lust; verily it is its sublimation. similarly the power that manifests itself in fury becomes peace, calmness and quiescence. It is only a question of transformation. In our life the process of creation possesses greater importance than the process of destruction.

If this fact is clearly understood, the question of a struggle with, or a hostility towards the Self, will scarcely arise, for the creation of the Self is possible only in an atmosphere of self-love. I would also like to add the the physical body should not be excluded from the Self.

THE BODY NOT TO BE SHUNNED

Give the body abundant love, on getting which it becomes vibrant, alive. Its slumbering potentialities are awakened. But remember that neither the so-called debauchee nor the so-called abstainer loves the body in the real sense. The contempt of the libertine for his own body is manifest in the lack of his own self-restraint. It is out of this contempt that he is inclined to waste away his body. The abstainer too, recoiling from the other extreme, is no less backward in his hostility to the body. Of course, the directions they turn to are different. The abstainer tortures and torments the body in the name of self- restraint, in the name of renunciation, and the other in the name of licentiousness; but both of them are wanting in thankfulness to and ardent love for the body. The characteristic feature of a person of healthy mental poise is a favourable attitude towards the body with a loving vision. Torturing the body in any manner whatsoever reveals an unhealthy and sick mentality. It amounts to the fact that we can be tormented by two kinds of mental infirmities, one of unrestrained enjoyment and the other of unthinking renunciation. Hence the libertine makes a volte face and comes to the point of renunciation. How much does one wish that he is able to stop in the middle! But, unfortunately, it is very easy to proceed from one sickness to another, such sick-minded persons have taught us a lot. This is what they teach: the body is our enemy, we have to fight with it. As a result of these baneful teachings religion and piety have become body- obsessed. Opposition to the body must perforce be body-centred. Hence I say that if you wish to go beyond the body, if you wish to rise above it, do not fight with it, harbour no hostility towards it. Love it and seek its friendship. The body is not our enemy. It is an instrument, a wonderful instrument, ready to be used. It is incumbent upon you to stretch your hand of friendship towards that which you wish to use. Prior to everything else, it is necessary to extend a friendly hand towards your own body which is a fine specimen of God's adroitness as a skilled craftsman. It is a ladder full of secrets that leads you up to the Supreme Soul. He is certainly mad who comes into conflict with the ladder instead of climbing up through its rungs. Unfortunately, we are surrounded by the fraternity of such incorrigible bedlamites. Beware of them. It is difficult to estimate the extent of havoc wrought by such madmen among us. You do not fully realize the thousands of secrets lying hidden in this body naturally bestowed on you. Even if one learns all the secrets of one's own body, one can easily secure the key to the endless mysteries of the Supreme Soul. How small is this body but how many wonderful mysteries lie embedded in it! The mind is hidden in the body. The soul is hidden in the mind. The Supreme Soul is hidden in the soul.

A sage was about to die. He took leave of his disciples and devotees present there. He thanked them all and stood up with his folded hands, and said, 'Oh, my beloved body! It is you who led me to God. I thank you for it. I could not do anything for you. On the other hand, I had subjected you to untold sufferings and pain. I had extracted work out of you without paying you anything in return. I am indebted to you very much, for endless has been the help you rendered me. At this hour of farewell I seek your pardon. For all my acts of omission and commission, I request you to excuse me. But for you, it would have been impossible for me to reach God!"

You have to see the body in this way. This attitude of thankfulness, this loving fervour is essential. The sage had said, "Oh, my beloved body!" These words stir up a wonderful bliss in me. Cannot a similar sympathetic understanding brighten up your life too? May I ask you whether you have at any time looked upon the body with an overflow of such loving sympathy? Have you ever felt yourselves blessed with its acts of service? Have you ever expressed your gratefulness to it? If not, how great had been the ingratitude!

What an unbecoming discourtesy! What a misdemeanour!

The attitude towards the body should be one of understanding and deep sympathy. One should have knowledge enough to protect it and view it with friendliness. It is our fellow- traveller in a long uphill journey, sharing with us our joys and sorrows. It is an instrument; it is a means and a ladder. Hence, in my view, no man with an iota of sense in him can come into conflict with it or be wicked towards it. But, as ill luck would have it, there have been in the world, and there still are, many men of warped, distorted vision whose high-handedness, violence, unrelenting suppression and cruel tactics towards their own physical body provoke in our mind feelings of remorse and sorrow and eventually a fervent prayer, "Oh God! save mankind from such stupid spirituality!" Activities of this magnitude and seriousness go only to prove a total loss of intelligence in them. But alas!

the evil influences of such people still linger and haunt us even today. Let us keep ourselves away from such sickening sermons. Such preachers do not deserve our reverence; they deserve to be cured instead. Certainly I hope we will be able to cure them.

This hostility to the physical body, as I said, is but a reaction to the weakness, failure and dissatisfaction resulting from unregulated sensual enjoyment. Thus the innocent physical body has been blamed for the sinfulness of the Self itself. I appeal to you to be alert in regard to agonizing self-denials based on hostility to the physical body. In view of the fact that you have been playing havoc with your body, you may feel tempted towards all forms of self-discipline. If on seeing the enormous wealth possessed by some one, one becomes greedy or on seeing someone's beauty, one is charmed, one does not normally puncture one's eyes; if one were to do so, I would definitely call him a madcap, for the eyes never ask you to be greedy, nor do they want you to be passionate; they don't command you to do anything of the sort. They are ever ready to carry out your bidding in the manner you deem fit to make use of them. As for the physical body, it is your slave, a whole time follower. Wherever you wish to take it, it is ever ready to follow you. Should you say, "Go to hell", it is ready to go to hell; should you say, "Go to heaven" you will find it ready to go to heaven. The question, then, is not of the physical body, but of your volition. Let it not be forgotten that the physical body reels along behind the will. We will be committing a great blunder if, instead of modifying the will, we were to torture the body, victimize it or even destroy it. Subjecting the body to harassment and suffering is another form of violence, and I never approve of violence to the self or to the physical body. I advocate self-love, and it appears to me that there cannot be anything more foolish than self-violence. But what I call self-love has nothing to do with ego-centred individuality. An ego-centred individual never loves himself, for should he love himself he would have been free from egotism, for there is nothing more diabolical and dispiriting than egotism. It is the ego-centred-individual who indulges in activities of self- violence in the garb of a holy man, for the ego does not attain as much satisfaction and nourishment in any other manner as in this. That is why a kind of haughtiness is visible in the so-called abstainers, ascetics and semifledged sages. They are egotistical because they are saints; and they are saints because they are egotistical.

AVOID HOSTILITY

In the vast universe created by God there cannot be anything unfriendly or inimical to you. It is a different matter, however, if you do not make use of it or misuse it. Men of wit and understanding convert a stone Lying on the ground into a stepping-stone, while men devoid of common sense, turn even a stepping stone into a stumbling-block on their way. In life, it is the way of looking at things that matters. If the vision is distorted, it makes a lot of difference. We need not be surprised if the physical body eventually becomes hostile to the person who has been considering it so from the outset. Let us start with the belief that it is our friend. Then it remains our friend for ever. If the hostility, the grudge, vanishes, a load is taken off from the self; we are relieved of a tension; we experience peace and restfulness. Let us experiment with it. Let it be remembered that the body is only a medium. It does not take anyone anywhere. Let there be no ill-will towards it. If we look at it without any prejudice, our heart is naturally filled with thankful love for the silent service it renders us. Again, we are not to stop with the body. We have to go further deep. The physical body is only the starting point of our journey of love towards the Self.

LOVE THE MIND

When we go deep down, we see the mind. We have to love it too and seek its friendship.

Normally we are aware of only these two planes of the individual self, namely, the body and the mind. If we wish to go far above these or deeper than these, we have to make use of them. The campaign against the mind has, no doubt, been carried on with greater intensity than against the body. This has been the central target of attack from the spiritual quarters. It is necessary to free ourselves from this hostility. The mind is a power, and, like all powers, it is also a divine power. It is a highly developed subtle power. Censuring it, being hostile to it or abusing it is sheer stupidity fraught with fatal consequences. It is but proper for us to realize that even today man is not thoroughly acquainted with all the mysteries of the mind; nay, he does not know how to use his mental power. The mind, now, is more or less in the same state as that of electricity.

Once there was a time when electricity was only a destructive agent. But it is being employed today in colossal creative projects. Men's understanding of his own mental powers in their entirety will usher in one of the most creative and blessed moments in human history. The mind is the receptacle of limitless potentialities. Those who are hostile to it clash with these potentialities and seek annihilation at their own hands. They say that they censure and oppose the mind for its fickleness and unsteadiness. But inconstancy is a sign of life. Those who are afraid of life and eagerly wait for death, welcome sluggishness, since they see peace and restfulness in it. But let me tell you that peace resulting from sluggishness is unreal. The sluggishness of the mind is self- destructive. What appears as peacefulness there is but the quietness and desolation of the cemetery. The restlessness of life is definitely preferable to the stillness and quiet of the cemetery. It is not the quietness enforced by suppressing the mind, but the peace that evolves itself by a thorough understanding of the mind, that is worthwhile, that is worth having. Only such a peace can lead us on to greater heights. Dead quietness leads to matter, to the earthly and the material, not to God. It is essential to have a lively placidity, an active silence. Only that which is lively can become the doorway leading to the sublime life. That is why I do not advocate suppression of the mind or approve of the efforts to subdue its restlessness to attain peace. Never sink into such a mire of stupidity and stagnation. There is already enough sluggishness in the world and you can graciously avoid augmenting it further. I want a mind that is lively and peacefully calm as well. As we saw earlier, only that peacefulness can be live and quick which you acquire without losing the unsteadiness which I call mobility. Where the quietude of the lake is futile, that of the flowing river -- of the river that is conti-nuously flowing towards the multitudinous seas -- is worth striving for. If that is possible, man can reach the Supreme Soul. I assert therefore that you need not be sorry that the mind is unstable; never censure it; never consider it your enemy. You should rather be thankful to it, for, but for it, you would have long since become a stagnant lake. If the mind had not been fickle you would have taken up a seat on the top of some rubbish heap engrossed in concentration. If the mind had not been fickle, the greedy would be hovering for ever over the object of their greed, the deluded over the object of their delusion and the sensual over the object of their senses. Then the road to God would be closed for ever. Since the mind is restless all unreal gods are eliminated, and it goes ahead. Since the mind is unsteady, it does not allow us to be stationary; it goads us on and on. I wish to tell you a great mysterious secret underlying this fickleness of the mind:

Unless and until it finds a final resting-place befitting it, the mind will never allow you to take peaceful rest. That is why it is fickle. The mind finds its heaven of refuge only in God where it sheds its fickleness, but never before. Bear this in mind that your mind is kind and benevolent to you. Otherwise you would get stuck-up in some worldliness and your endeavour to reach God will be shelved for ever.

Do not, therefore, censure and abuse your mind for its unsteadiness. Accept this unsteadiness as a favour shown to you, and utilize it. Let it be remembered that if the mind fails to be steady and firm, that is because of some error on your part, some misdeed for which you are responsible. That is why the mind does not wish to stay there.

You do your utmost to concentrate, but your mind does not. Certainly, that is your mistake. By being inconstant the mind warns you, but unfortunately, instead of taking the hint, you consider the mind your enemy!

I have heard a story. Once upon a time when Egypt was ruled by a great emperor, a great sage highly respected by the emperor lived in a small Egyptian village. One day, without any previous intimation, the emperor paid a visit to the village. He wished to invite the sage to this palace. The sage, however, had gone out somewhere when the emperor reached the hut. His young disciple could not recognize the emperor in his simple clothes.

He asked the visitor to sit on the ridge of the field and said that he would go to the village and fetch his preceptor. The emperor not only refused to sit, but also began to pace up and down the field. On seeing this, the disciple requested the visitor to go and sit under a tree where there was ample shade. Still unwilling to sit, the emperor began pacing up and down beneath the tree. This set the disciple thinking, and he requested the emperor to step into the hut and sit down there. Still the visitor would not oblige him. He continued to walk up and down inside the hut. In this perplexed state of mind the disciple went out to fetch his preceptor. On the way the young man could not restrain himself from recounting this rather odd behaviour of the visitor from the city. The aged sage who had understood who the visitor could be, said, "Son, he is our emperor. There is no place in and around our hut befitting his status where he can sit. That is why he has been walking up and down."

I wish to tell you that the mind too is restless for the same reason. It does not find a worthy place where it can abide for ever. It is our duty to seek a throne befitting its dignity. Instead of doing so, you are getting ready to fight with its restlessness. Did you ever think what those places are which you have assigned to your mind? Can you really expect it to sit in one of those? Friends, it is a favour shown to you that the mind is fickle.

You may continue to assign it different places with the entreaty, "Sit here, please," but it will not sit there. The mind cannot and will not sit anywhere except in God, and that is its unlimited bounty. Remember that the so-called restlessness of your mind helps you a lot.

If it cannot be held in one place, know it to be a place unworthy of it. I would also add that your success in pinning it down to a place unworthy of it amounts to nothing, for no sooner does one succeed in forcing it to sit somewhere for a while than one finds it getting up and running elsewhere. This excited drift and flutter will continue until the ultimate point of rest is reached. And this ultimate point of rest is God.

People say that concentration of mind is essential to the realization of the Supreme Soul.

But I say that if the Supreme Soul is realized, the mind will at once have the desired concentration. People say, "Keep the mind steady so that God can be realized." I say, "As soon as God is realized, the mind comes to rest." The mind rushes to the place where it gets pleasure, not to anything that gives it pain, and the moment the prospects of pleasure disappear, it quits it and flees. Hence we never see it pinned down to one object. Gather together a sum of ten thousand rupees. At the outset, the mind may say, "Perhaps there is pleasure here." But alas! the very next moment it moves away. Hardly does it begin to sit at rest when it finds itself disillusioned. Accumulate ten lakhs, then ten millions. Again you experience the same disappointment. Even ten crores heaped up by you will not make any difference. We cannot prevent the rambling propensities of the mind which rushes on, as I said, to the place where it gets a glimpse of pleasure. It flees as soon as the glimpse, too, vanishes, but is a little constant so long as the image of possible happiness lingers. The day it gets the never-vanishing glimpses of Eternity, of real pleasure, it winds up its inclination to flee and is filled with plenitude and absolute stillness.

I will not, therefore, advise you to enforce steadiness of mind. Forced steadiness causes sluggishness and leads rather to stagnation than to the attainment of the ultimate goal.

When the final goal is reached, the mind remains steadfast. This fact, when misinterpreted, gives rise to the wrong notion that, once the mind is kept steady the final goal can be reached. This is as absurd as putting the cart before the horse. The fact that eyes remain closed when we are asleep does not justify the reasoning that the advent of sleep is assured in merely shutting the eyes. My advice to you is that you should make your mind move in the direction in which the fragrance of real pleasure spreads; slowly and lovingly should you lead the mind to the abode of real felicity. Set your eyes on real happiness and the mind is sure to follow it up. But use no force, no compulsion even unconsciously. Compulsion is sure to provoke resistance from the mind contrary to your expectation. Your inhibitions become invitation and your taboos attraction. If you evince a desire to restrain it from doing anything, the mind takes to it with added avidity. This is but natural. It is your ignorance of this simple fact that involves you in what are, normally, not unavoidable sufferings. The fundamental point is that your mind is not your enemy. You are not to suppress its natural inclinations and instincts but to lead them with love and to comprehend them, with our common sense to awaken them. Only that which is auspicious survives in the light of reason, in the light of common sense. An unforgettable rule of life is contained in the phrase amor vincit omnia -- love conquers all. We can never dream of conquering anyone by means of hatred. No, never. It is impossible to conquer those whom we hate, those whom we consider our enemies. We can conquer only those whom we love. Hence those who wish to win over their mind must love it. There is no other way than the way of love leading to victory.

So the first link, the first golden rule, is that let us love ourselves. Let us transform and sublimate ourselves, and not suppress ourselves. Let there be no split personalities within us. Let us marshal our faculties into one single, integrated unit: all unified single units are born out of love. If I am filled with abundant love for what I am, good or bad, if all hate and slander disappear from my mind, if I cease to oppose myself which may be noble or contemptible and fall in love with all that I am in my totality, then a compact, indivisible personality will emerge within me. Such is the formation of personality, for love, a cementing force, amalgamates heterogeneous elements, and when my different faculties are amalgamated into one unified whole, a wonderful energy is generated within me. The power that is severed and split flows in different directions and is wasted away, but in an amalgamated form its force is immense. The most wonderful achievement of this energy, the outcome of this fusion, is its capacity to transform those insignificant things which it could not overcome in spite of constant struggle. This it could achieve the moment love for those seemingly insignificant things is aroused. This unbrokenness or compactness of personality is the foundation of this self-transformation. If one wishes to improve oneself, to renovate oneself, one has necessarily to become a single unified whole. The individual, split into several wee pieces, wastes his entire energy in pitting one piece against another, in controlling them and in maintaining the balance of power among them. There is no surplus energy left with him for the transformation of the self, for its sublimation. Only he who loves himself and retains this undivided and unsplit unity possesses that surplus energy.