In a spiritual sphere of mental peace and inner joy, the responsibility for success or failure is entirely one’s own. You have no right to shift it on to others. The fire will go out if the fuel is over, so stop feeding it with fuel. Do not add fuel to the fire of the senses. Detach the mind from the temporary and attach it to the eternal. Plant the seedling of devotion, namely the preliminary exercise of remembering the Lord’s name (namasmarana) in the mind. That will grow into a tree with the branches of virtue, service, sacrifice, love, equanimity, fortitude, and courage. You swallow food, but you are not aware how that food is transformed into energy, intelligence, emotion, and health. In the same way, just swallow this food for the spirit, this remembrance of the Lord’s name, and watch how it gets transmuted into virtue and the rest without your being aware of it.
- Divine Discourse, Feb 27, 1961. |
