Last night, the lights went off: and the entire town was plunged in pitch darkness. The sky wore a blanket of dark clouds and the moon had not yet risen. One could not see what lay a few inches ahead.
I said to myself, “O my soul! In such utter darkness — spiritual darkness — hast thou dwelt for ages. When wilt thou behold the Interior Light — the Light of the Atman, the Spirit?”
Man came to the earth as a pilgrim, but has become a wanderer. Even in our spiritual quest, we wander from creed to creed, from one school of thought to another, and are filled with unrest. We move to temples and churches and places of pilgrimage, and meet with disappointment. For, not until we turn within, may we find that which we are seeking.
Truth is within! Wisdom is within! The Source of all strength is within! Therefore, turn within!
A beginning has to be made somewhere. Every day, preferably at the same time and at the same place, let us sit in silence and pray, meditate, do our spiritual thinking. It is our daily appointment with God. We keep a number of appointments, everyday. Alas! we neglect this most important of all appointments — our daily appointment with God.
He is not from us afar. He is wherever we are. He is here: He is now! All we have to do is to close our eyes, shut out the world, call Him— and there He is in front of us. In the beginning we may not see Him: but let us be sure, He sees us. We may not be able to immediately hear His voice: but He hears us. The tiniest whisper of the human heart, the least stirring of the soul is audible to His ever-attentive ears. Speak to Him: open out your heart to Him: place all your difficulties before Him: and you will find wonderful things happen to you.
(Dada J.P. Vaswani is humanitarian, philosopher, educator, acclaimed writer, powerful orator, messiah of ahimsa, and non-sectarian spiritual leader.)
