Spiritual Growth: Make Friends With Your Self

By Swami Kriyananda

When Jesus said: - The kingdom of God is within - what He meant was that heaven itself would be a disappointment to restless, worldly people.

If a person has no true joy in his heart, he will not find true joy outside though he be in heaven itself, and in the company of angels. Heaven must be experienced right here, right now, within ourselves if we are to experience it ever.

A stream extending itself too far into a desert will go dry. Man too dries up inside, spiritually and emotionally, when he extends himself too far in his search for outward pleasures. The wellspring of enjoyment lies in his inner Self. What he is, inwardly, that he will find without. The more truly he lives in himself, the more rewarding will his outer life be, also.

Mans inner Self is the spring that feeds all his knowing, all that he can enjoy on earth. If he neglects it, all his perceptions must wither and die. If one neglects a spring, it may clog up and stop flowing. You have only to look into the eyes of spiritually unaware people, especially as they grow older, to see what has happened to them.

Is it with enthusiasm and dynamic energy that they pass their leisure time? Watch them sitting idly, staring at the TV, or peering vaguely at you to ascertain whether that was really a joke that you just finished telling.

Mans mistake is to run from the one fact which alone can be completely real to him. It is only by making friends with his inner Self first that he can ever make friends with the world.

Scientists are always trying to perfect their instruments. But we, too Ñ our bodies, our minds, our nervous systems Ñ are - instruments - in need of perfection. Can we observe anything intelligently through telescope or microscope beyond our own capacity for observation? It is only as this instrument, the mind, is made more perfectly sensitive that we can ever hope to penetrate deeply to universal mysteries.

Will it cut you off from an understanding of others if you seek truly to under-stand yourself? Not at all! You can understand others only to the extent that you have understood yourself. But will it make you less sensitive to their needs, less sympathetic, less outgoing and eager to help them?

Again, No. For it is only as one becomes aware of his own weaknesses and overcomes them that he develops compassion for others in their sorrows.

Todays theme is international unity. But the kind of unity politicians seek is only a patchwork job. Unity that lasts cannot be created; it must be realised. The point is, we are already One. We have imagined distinctions that do not really exist. So we need to work towards greater development of personal conscience, of personal awareness.

A friend, young and restless, once planned to go around India to visit various saints. This might have been a laudable purpose, except that, so far, this boy had put forth very little effort to improve himself; his real hope was to find someone who would consent to do all his spiritual work for him. (I could imagine him rushing from ashram to ashram, collecting blessings like pine cones!)

I said to him, - If you take a thimble to the ocean, you willonly get a thimbleful of water. No doubt those great saints have much to give you. But what of your own capacity to receive what they give? -

If you would change the world for the better, first of all be better yourself. You are the greatest responsibility the universe has placed in your hands.