God is not far from you. He is within you, in your own inner altar. All of you suffer because you are unable to discover Him there and draw peace and joy from that discovery. A washerman, standing knee-deep in a flowing river and washing his clothes therein, died of thirst because he failed to realise that the life-giving water was within his reach. Such is the story of man. He runs in desperate haste, to seek God outside and dies disappointed and distraught, only to be born again. Of course, you must be in the world, but remember, you need not be of it. The attention has to be fixed on the God within. In the Kannada country, there is a festival called Karaga. The central figure of this holy rite keeps many pots on his head, one over the other, and moves in the procession keeping step with the music; he has also to sing in tune with the rest and keep time to the beat of the drum. But, all the while he has his attention fixed on balancing the precarious tower on his head. So too, you must keep the goal of God-realisation before you, while engaged in the noisy and hilarious procession of life.

- Divine Discourse, Jan 1, 1967.