- Sister Wendy

When I visited Hyderabad earlier this year, the first thing I did was attending the training program at Imperience. During a break, an old gentleman came up to me. He said Namasthe, and then he said to me, "be a lion in practicing this". It's just like that; he said this, no introduction, no extra context. It was my second day in India, and I felt it touched the core of my heart, giving me immense courage and support amidst some feeling of loneliness, uncertainty, confusion and doubt. I didn't know what it means really. But my heart felt uplifted.

Elsewhere Babuji also said that it is a God-given right for men to be happy, and it is a duty to realize. In Dr. KCV's words, we can live for God, in God and by God. They are all attainable. Why then, are we not bold enough to attain it for our own. We ask questions like that of why God had created a world in which so many live in misery (as Babuji describes in the same article), and then the effort stops for the most part. But these questions should be only a starting point of real effort in approaching Reality.

One of the reasons for this may be because it's not so easy. It is not so easy to face the naked Truth when Itself(He) reveals it to you. In the bedtime prayer for example, when I pray to Him and surrender (or I should say try to surrender), I ought to be honest. Being honest is not a perfunctory thing - and at first it's difficult to be honest with myself. Or even how to be honest? It sounds a bit odd to not to know how, but I had that problem initially. God does not mend itself to fit into our own believes, notions and mental constructs, no matter how "true" we believe them to be, and how long we've staunchly lived by them. Spinoza had said that Truth does not cease to be true because the vast majority of the people do not believe in it. We cannot fit That into our own narrow sphere by rationalizing, justifying and arguing.

So when we come face to face with Him, to be honest with oneself (the true Self) often means to admit faults, shattering of certain believes and ideas; opening up the ego shell, and allowing Him penetrate through that hardness. That takes courage.

It takes lion's courage to please Him only, and not look to others upon whom our worldly "interests" are dependent. Why is this so, I ask myself, when She's given me all and all, reason and courage, love and dare, yet I don't look inside to seek Him company, to please Him. Instead, I seek outside "authorities" and please them. By pleasing them, I could not always stay true to Him. When She's made men giant under the sun, why am I'd rather be a dwarf in a shadowy place. I was given a great number of notions since childhood, and even a greater number I've created for myself. I often try to meet others and my own expectations, thinking that they too would like this or expect that. And how do I know that? It is due to my worldliness I've developed over the years. And they are part of what's keeping me from being free.

Should we be less timid and more courageous? Should we not be too afraid of not meeting certain expectations of others? Should we try every opportunity to be with Him and please Him?

The second half of the sentence says "and men are made so, by Sahaj Marg". Indeed, when we feel the intimacy with Him, when we gain that small piece of Truth, we gain confidence, and become totally convinced. No, not convinced, but we have come to know It (more and more) because that knowledge has become part of us.