Many of you grieve: “It is said that getting the audience of a holy person is destruction of sin (darshanam papa nashanam). Well, I have had darshan not once but many times, and yet, my evil fate has not left me and I am suffering even more than before!” True, you may have come and had darshan, and have sowed fresh seeds secured from the holy places — seeds of love, faith, devotion, good company, godly thoughts, remembering God’s name, etc. And you may have learnt the art of intensive cultivation and soil preparation. Now you have to carefully sow the seeds in well-prepared fields of cleansed hearts. Until the new harvest, when the fresh produce comes in, don’t you have to consume the grain already stored in previous harvests? The troubles and anxieties you experience now are the crop collected in your previous harvests, so do not grieve and lose heart!

- Shivaratri Discourse, Mar 1963.