Third Maxim

"Fix your Goal which should be complete Oneness with God. Rest not till the Ideal is achieved."

IT is very essential for everyone to fix his thought at the very outset, upon the goal which he has to attain so that his thoughts and will power may pave his way up to it. It has been observed that those on the path of Spirituality who have not fixed that final state as their goal, have definitely remained deprived of the final wealth; because they mistook the thing which they picked up on the way to be the Original and stopped there only, and considered that alone as Ultimate and Absolute. Just imagine the extent of imperfection resulting by not fixing up the goal! Consider the case in worldly matters: So long as a person does not keep his objective in view, neither his efforts are properly oriented nor the work is done with such vigour as to be helpful in achieving his objective. It is said the boat cannot be taken to the destination unless there is a helm in it. If we consider our body as the boat and relate the place where the boat plies to the River of Spirituality, it becomes imperative that we fix up the helm in that boat so that we can cross that great ocean, which I have called as the River of Spirituality. What can be the helm in the River of Spirituality? It is our will power by which we steer our ship and take it to the Destination. Of course, innumerable whirls are met with at many places on the way. But we get over and pass those whirls by will power and the strength of the thought of reaching, and the right path will go on opening for us. Since our view is now on Spirituality, we fix up such a goal for us which is the highest. And the goal can be only that which will really be right to relate to the Real Self.

It is also the duty of man to try to reach up to that. It becomes an impossible task to traverse this path unless this goal is fixed in the mind of man. And the Divine help comes only when He or God becomes sure that His devotee is trying to reach Him. When a kind of global knock is created in Him by its effect, it means that you have concentrated your thought on That. In other words, the case of the lover and the beloved has come to view, which means that the distance which was there between a devotee and God began to be felt as nearer. The nearness increased to such an extent that, gradually, that portion which was causing the feeling of distance in thought began to get erased. Further on, it came to pass that even that thought was also forgotten. The reason was that the relation of closeness became still closer. This closeness grew to such an extent that we began to feel having merged in Him having gone closest to Him. Gradually, even the idea of our really being closest to Him has also now entirely vanished from our thought. The fact was, we attained so much closeness with Him that our whim, or the ghost of an idea, which was the thought of separation, and which was different from that thought, has now merged in Him in such a way that its condition has become, in a way, that of the Latent Motion which existed at the time of pralaya (dissolution). Now, our expansion began to take place in Him by that silent movement which we have created in Him, and began to withdraw in Him in every way. In this way, our oneness with Him happened, and it got so much durable and permanent that we began to swim in That Infinite Ocean which has no other limit. Now, we began to have the real life. What was that? That was the effect of Ocean in which we are swimming now. Look, the steady thought of getting merged in God, which you had formed, and the will which you had made steady, finally took you to the Goal by aiding continuously. The result was that you have automatically reached There and established your abode in That permanently. Dear brother, how much difficult it was which you have attained by merely your will and fixing the right goal, and how easily you have reached where you intended to go! How was this path traversed? First, there was the thought that we should reach up to That, and then, you began to sincerely attempt to reach That. Since the best aim was there before you, and you had to reach That, the interest to reach That was also created in you. When the interest is created in any work, you will again and again like to do it, and the habit is formed in such a manner that you do not get even steadiness and rest without doing it. The inclination begins automatically to get intensified by practising it. The nature of an abhyasi begins to draw towards it with such a great force that nothing else is felt good without his doing it due to the extent of inclination of his heart by the continuous and steady formation of the habit. Such a condition, when developed further on, can be termed as restlessness. This also includes extreme anguish. Therefore, it became necessary that we should necessarily remain restless to reach That. Our restlessness will pave for us the way to reach the Goal, just like when the time for the beginning of Creation came, the Latent Motion was restless to make the way for itself, and its restlessness opened the way for it.

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