by Swami Yatiswarananda

This means effort, the struggle to go beyond the thought world we have been building up for years.

Most of the people are unwilling to abandon it. They are too lethargic to work against their own mind.

Sri Ramakrishna once complained to the Divine Mother that he had cooked the food and kept it before the people, but still they did not even take the trouble of eating it. We always want everything to be done for us by somebody else. There can be no vicarious salvation without any self-effort on the part of the aspirant. Most of the so-called religious people are mere parasites in the world of religion and spiritual life. It would be better for them to take up something else.

Before we actually begin our spiritual life in real earnest, we must decide if we are really and fully prepared to pay the price for it. Generally there are two tendencies in us: the worldly tendency and the spiritual tendency. If both are more or less equally strong in the beginning, the spiritual tendency must be strengthened; otherwise there will be no progress, and the tug-of-war going on in ourselves can never be overcome. That is why it is absolutely necessary for us to fix once and for all on our ideal, and then stick to it, whatever happens.

If we really wish to follow the difficult path beset with so many pitfalls and dangers, we must also be prepared to overcome all the difficulties. If we wish to transcend all the unrealities, there must always be a certain amount of fearlessness and heroism of the dare-devil in us. The path of the aspirant is a very dangerous one; dangers and pitfalls are lurking everywhere, on all sides; and if once caught, there is no more chance for many people. Unless you sacrifice all your worldly desires and your sense of "I-ness," you can never realize the higher ideal.

Spiritual life means sublimation and purification of our feelings, and it means at the same time developing our will power and forcing the mind to take to the higher path. This must be wholly directed towards the higher life.