The Perfect Life

By H.D. Paramahamsa Omkarananda Saraswati

The highest Truth, the supreme Reality, is, that there is in you the all-pervading Pure Consciousness, the Divine Being, filling you with indescribable Delight and infinite Peace.

That which makes you feel at all times that you ARE, is this Consciousness. If the child understands that the lion in front of the palace-gate is nothing but mud and paint, it will not fear and cry; similarly, to know this Pure Consciousness, which is in your own Self, which is behind the fleeting transient impermanences, is to triumph over every vexatious condition, imprisoning limitation, unutterable sadness, which ignorant people are experiencing in the stormy world of today. If without diffusing its energies, you focus your mind upon this pure Consciousness, the supreme Awareness, the spiritual Being, you shall end all your agonies, you shall quench all your despairs and enjoy the intensest Joy, the widest Peace, the highest Victory over the forces of darkness.

You do not understand this transcendent Truth that the Pure Consciousness is your own Self, because you are covered by the darkness of ignorance; you are swayed by infatuating feelings and passion, deep delusion and narrow understanding. On account of this ignorance you are not aware of the infinite possibilities, the spiritual powers, that are hidden in your own heart, and you have no faith in the Pure Delight of Infinite Peace of your own Self. Your impure and evil mind, pursuing fancies, has created all this misleading multiplicity and has distorted the symmetry of life, has made the world irrhythmic and chaotic and has thrown you down into untold unhappiness.

The strength necessary for extricating yourself from the grip of ignorance is to be drawn through the process of introspective analysis which shatters into fragments the knot of individualised will, the fort of evil nature; and the luminous lamp of intelligence uncovered thereby brightens the corners of the heart; and there, lo, is beheld the Truth Supreme.

Discrimination between the right and the wrong, the real and the unreal, will confer upon you Wisdom. Wisdom takes you beyond all bonds, tears aside all your limitations, breaks down all your weakness and gives you strength to succeed against hostile forces and all impediments in life.

Wisdom dispels the darkness of ignorance and bestows upon you spiritual Light, Truth and Rest in supreme satisfaction and felicity.

One who does not yield to the wrong suggestions of the mind, who is untouched by the commotions of the world, who is pure in mind and heart, who aspires only for the divine good and peace, commands the reverence of all and enjoys unutterable peace, here and now.

The mind always wanders and is attracted by all sorts of perishable objects and, deceived thereby by outward appearances, does not know the essence behind these objects and the universe. Therefore, O aspirant, turn your mind towards this Essence: meditate on this Essence, experience the Divine. Withdraw yourself from the ways of the lower nature and let your mind flow in the right channels of understanding, whereby, you will go beyond unrest into the realms of Perfect Peace.

Accelerate your spiritual movements towards this Peace, Knowledge, Illumination. If you lead a life untouched by the din of the outward, shallow, petty life, if you commune with the Divine through deep meditation, if you fasten your mind to the Spirit behind matter, you will have a delightful and harmonious life of perennial peace, undisturbed calmness and fathomless powers.