In English
Every experience is a lesson, every loss a gain
The saddest part of the story is that people, though they see and hear, suffer and fall, do not get quite convinced that sin is a dangerous experiment; that it unmistakably brings on its harvest of tears. The quality of ignorance and delusion draws a veil over the truth and hides the mouth of the pit into which the unwary sinner falls again. Of course, when grief overtakes you and pain has you in its grip, the Lord does not always announce the exact sin for which that particular experience is the punishment. You are left to deduce in a general way that every experience is a lesson and every loss is a gain. You have to learn that you bind yourself and you liberate yourself. You entangle yourself in the three qualities () and, by your struggles, you only pull the world and tighten it round yourself. You are endowed with discrimination, even the most illiterate among you. You have a conscience, whispering into your ear; so you yourselves must choose and select. A great painter once came to a king and was asked to execute a huge fresco on the wall of the court hall, a scene from the battle. A painter, till then unrecognised, rose up and asked for permission to execute a fresco on the opposite wall. He said that, within the same period, he would prepare on his wall an equally grand fresco; in fact, an exact replica of the other, in spite of a thick curtain between the two walls! When at last the king came and, drawing the curtain to the very end, looked on the opposite wall, he was amazed to find an exact copy, down to the minutest detail of line, curve, tint and tilt, the same scene! For the local artist had, throughout the intervening period of time when the painting was being done by the other man, only been polishing the wall assigned to him. He had used no brush or paint; he had just polished the wall into a mirror. Polish your mind, and the Lord and His sublime grandeur will be reflected in your heart.