The Four Worshippers
Among men who are purified by their good deeds, there are four kinds who worship the Divine: the world-weary, the seeker for knowledge, the seeker for happiness, and the man of spiritual discernment.
Through many a long life, the man's discernment ripens; he cuts through all delusion that rises from desire and this relative world.
No One Who Seeks the Divine Comes to Evil
No one wo seeks the Divine ever comes to an evil end. Even if he falls away from the practice of learning and ceases his constant striving, he will stll win heaven and be reborn among the pure. He will regain quickly that spiritual discernment which he acquired in his former life and so will strive harder than ever for perfection. He will reach at last to the Divine.
Mastering the Restless Mind
The mind is restless and hard to subdue. But it can be brought under control by constant practice and by the exercise of dispassion.
A disciplined man can master his mind and tame the senses if he strives hard and uses the right means.
Victory and Defeat
Realise that pleasure and pain, gain and loss,
Victory and defeat, are one and the same.
Therefore you should never mourn for anyone
You should not grieve for what is unavoidable.
Attachments and Desires
Those whose discrimination is stolen away by false doctrines grow deeply attached to pleasure and pain. You must be free from the pairs of opposites. Poise your mind in tranquillity. Take care neither to acquire nor to hoard. Work not for attachment to its fruits. Work without anxiety to results.
Self-surrender
Free yourself from bondage to virtue and vice. Devote yourself to union with God. In the calm of self-surrender, the seers renounce the fruits of their actions and so reach enlightenment. Then they are free from the bondage of rebirth and pass to that state which is beyond all evil. In clarity you will become indifferent to the results of all actions, present or future.
Perfect Freedom
Free from craving and its torments
Not shaken by adversity
Not hankering after happiness or comfort
Not haunted by fear or anger
Free from the things of desire.
The Passions
As the tortoise can draw in his legs, the seer can draw in his senses. The abstinent run away from what they desire but carry their desires with them. When one enters Reality, he leaves his desires behind him.
Even a mind that knows the Path can be dragged from its course for the senses are so unruly. But he who collects his senses and controls his mind is illumined.
Missing Life's Only Purpose
Thinking about sense objects will attach you to them. Grow attached and you become addicted. Thwart your addiction, it turns to anger. Be angry and you confuse your mind. Confuse your mind and you forget the lessons of experience; forget experience, you lose discrimination.
Lose your discrimination, and you miss life's only purpose.
Walking Safely
When he has no lust or hatred, a man walks safely among the things of lust and hatred. Sorrow and grief melt into the calm peace of an established mind. The wind turns a ship from its course in the waters: the wandering winds of the senses cast man's mind adrift and turn his better judgment from its coruse.
When a man can still the senses, forget desires and live without craving, he is enlightened.
The Wise
The ignorant work for the fruit of their action.
The wise must work but without desire,
Pointing man's feet to the path of duty.
Let the wise beware lest they wewilder
The restless mind of the ignorant always looking for excitement.
Let them show by example, how
work is holy and noble when the worker rests on the Truth.
Passion and Lust
The passions have two faces: rage and lusts.
These are your deadly enemies.
As smoke hides fire and dust hides a mirror,
Lust hides the eternal soul in you.
Intellect, sense and mind are fuel to the fires of lust.
Destroy this evil thing, your constant foe.
Divine Tendencies
A man who is born with tendencies towards the Divine is fearless and pure at heart. He is charitable. He controls his passions. He studies the sacred books well and regularly, and obeys their instructions. He practises spiritual discipline.
He is straightforward, truthful and of even temper. He harms no one. He renounces the things of the world. He has a serene mind and an unmalicious tongue. He is compassionate towards all. He abstains from useless activity.
He has faith in the strength of his higher nature. He can forgive and endure. He is clean in thought and act. He is free from envy, greed and hatred. Such are the birthright of this man.
See also Old age and an adamantine faith | Contents
