The Pole Star
The pure heart shines with a faultless brilliance. Sweet love grants unblemished joy. Goodness is the most efficacious specific for the illness that lays humanity low. Goodness is even the reservoir of immortality. Attach yourself to goodness fully and you can renounce all sorrow. Goodness confers great contentment; ananda [bliss] confers great freedom from fear. In fact, when life becomes merged in the thought of God, it is fixed on the Pole Star.
Man is the child of immortality. All men are brothers, for all are sparks of the same divine flame. All are fundamentally atman [divine soul]; the love for the atman and the endeavor to realize it are the birthright of each individual. There must be mutual love and there must be universal ananda, resulting from this mutual love.
But today the happenings are quite contrary to this state of things. What shall we say of human behavior, what shall we say of the daily bickering and troubles? What of the conflict of opinions and arguments? What of the lootings and killings? What is the cause of all this? All are our own; all are ourselves. We are pointing the knife against ourselves; is this sign of purity of mind? What has happened to the injunction laid down in the Vedas, “Satyam vada; dharmam chara—speak the truth; lead a righteous life?”
Each person aspires to be happy and to have peace of mind. With this in view, each one engages himself in various activities. But both happiness and peace evade him and play hide and seek with him. Does man give up the search? No. Like a [spinning] top, he turns round and round to capture them. Still they elude him.
What is the reason for this state of affairs? “Is it defective effort, or the very law of activity? Or is it the fundamental nature of the world itself? Or is this failure due to the spirit of the times? No! A little thought will convince that not one of these surmises is true. The real cause is “absence of faith in the victory of the good.” That faith can come only with the growth of devotion to God.
At present, there are many who declare they will reform the world. They have the intention to reform, and they endeavor hard. They shout from platforms, thumping the tables that the world is in a bad condition and that they have the remedy ready with them. But the result of their efforts makes the world more seriously ill.
How can purity be attained by lectures? They propose to cleanse the community by means of more money; how can money improve morals? The Five Year Plans have followed one after another, but the rot remains. The evil has become heightened. The atmosphere has become fouler and fouler.
What is to be done next to improve matters? Is the diagnosis wrong, or is the drug not available? The fault lies in wrong diagnosis and wrong treatment. The illness is unlimited freedom. That has brought about the state of uncontrolled passions and the resort to weapons of destruction. Liberty has to be enjoyed within certain limits, otherwise it becomes license or even licentiousness. The limits of liberty are called disciplines. The discipline has to be exercised in all fields of activity. Absence of this discipline has led to the sad plight of the country today.
Before man decides to lead others and to prescribe for the world, he must learn to have command over himself and his emotions and passions and be at peace with his own inner urges. He should win a victory over his inner foes, then only can the outer foes be defeated.
Today the effort to establish peace is so gigantic, but the concrete result is very little.
Well, the world itself is a mystery to man. It is beyond the reach of human intellect and imagination. And each man is a fragment of that mystery. Of course, there are some who have seen through the nature of the world and have succeeded in realizing its true condition. But man neglects such sages. What then can he do to live in peace? Eat and then you know the taste. Enter and then you know the depth. Consult them and then you get a true sense of values.
The wheel of time revolves relentlessly with no interval. The evil of one day emerges as the good of another day; the morals of one sect becomes in the eyes of another immoral. What is right for one may be wrong for another. One man’s foe is another’s friend. Caught in this trap of duality man swings like a pendulum, unaware of the underlying unity. He struggles with many a fall, many a blind search, stumbling along the track of life. He weeps and laughs, he rejoices and regrets, he halts and hastens—since the beginning of his history. This is the tale of man’s sojourn in this world. But however hard the track, he must sooner or later reach the Summum Bonum, the paramapada, that is the inescapable destiny.
Man must know this high destiny and steadily walk the path of sadhana [spiritual effort]; he must pull down the obstructing walls. He must develop the great and unifying quality of love and approach all with brotherliness. That gives man the supreme happiness and peace. For atmashanti, (peace of mind) there is no better instrument than vishwaprema (universal love).
One other point: Imitation can never form the basis of progress. To take pride in imitating others is the first step in spiritual fall. It weakens one’s discrimination and reasoning power. It cuts at the very root of liberty. The aim of the Hindu way of life, of the Hindu culture, and of the rules laid down for the Hindus is very significant and full of meaning. It is nothing less than directing the entire consciousness toward higher values and ultimately toward God.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Dec. 1966
