In English
I had no idea of speaking to you this evening, but of course, I need no “preparation”. My Resolve and its fulfillment are instantaneous. spoke just now of some important guiding principles of life, like the cultivation of virtues, the development of character, the control of hatred, etc. Advice such as this is being given from a hundred platforms every day, and people listen and depart. But they do not practise what they have heard, so things remain where they are. This is because those who give advice do not follow what they preach; they must themselves be examples of the value of what they teach. Like the blind men who described the elephant, they describe the advantages of acquiring virtues and the benefits of controlling hatred more out of hearsay than out of experience. There is deep-rooted unrest today in every individual, because there is no harmony within. The social and spiritual rules that have come down from ages prescribe one type of conduct; the books that one reads recommend another type; experience gives conflicting advice. But peace depends on the mind and its awareness of the secret of poise. The body is the caravanserai, the individual soul is the pilgrim, and the mind is the watchman. The mind seeks happiness; it feels that happiness can be got in this world from fame, riches, land, and property, from other individuals or relatives; further, it builds up pictures of heaven where there is more intense happiness for a longer time. At last, it discovers that eternal undiminished happiness can be got only by dwelling on the Reality of one’s own Self, which is Bliss Itself.