Why is it critical to be simple and sweet?

Every educated person and student must cultivate simplicity and discard ostentation. If they are addicted to pompousness, they lose their genuine nature or individuality. Even if a person is a master of all sciences or famous as a great intellectual, he is certain to be counted out of scholars and pundits if he has no humility and discipline in his dealings with others. He may win respect for some time but that will decline pretty soon. Alertness to serve and simplicity alone will confer honour on a person. When one gives up an attitude of pretentiousness, one earns permanent respect from people. Real education imparts a spirit of renunciation, a dislike for ostentation, and the yearning for serving others.

How to see through the delusion and remain focussed on our goal?

Every being has its own Dharma or innate specialty or individuality or special characteristics. This rule applies equally to blades of grass and the stars. The cosmos is not one continuous flux; it progresses persistently towards achieving a totality in the qualities and circumstances. But if you are too immersed in the all-pervasive delusion, you cannot elevate yourself. When in delusion, you are not aware of the path of peace and harmony in the world. You will also not be able to hold on to the good and avoid the bad, and establish yourself in the righteous path. However, you can transform yourself from the present status through self-effort and discrimination. The moral forces permeating the cosmos will certainly promote your achievement!

What are a few simple questions that will guide the mind gently to accomplish spiritual progress?

The mind is a bundle of thoughts, a complex collection of wants and wishes. As soon as a thought, desire or wish raises its head in the mind, the intellect must probe its value and validity. Is it good or bad? Will it help or hinder? Where will this lead? Where will it end? If the mind does not submit to this probe, it will land itself on the path of ruin. If it does and obeys the intelligence, it will move along the right path.

What is the subtlest education we must acquire, which is core to our lives?

Knowledge can be considered as having two aspects: Baahya Vidya and Brahma Vidya. Baahya Vidya provides the wherewithal for human livelihood. You can study many subjects, earn valuable degrees, acquire lucrative job and manage to spend your life with no worry and fear. This type of Vidya helps you perform whatever job you may doing, be it that of a humble clerk or a prime minister. Brahma Vidya, on the other hand, endows you with the strength, that will enable you to discharge successfully the duty you owe to yourself. It lays down the path which leads both to joy in worldly relations and bliss in the life beyond. Therefore, Brahma Vidya is far superior to all Vidya available to man on earth.

How can we persist in walking along the path of the good and godly, when we are so deeply immersed in the world?

The infant does not know the taste of milk. By taking it daily, it develops an attachment for it which is so deep that when milk is to be given up and rice substituted, it starts to protest. But the mother does not despair. She persuades the child to take small quantities of cooked rice daily and through this process, the child starts liking rice and gives up milk. By practice, rice now becomes the child's natural food, so natural that if rice is not available even for a single day, it becomes miserable. So too, sensual pleasures are ‘natural’ at first. However, by means of practice, listening to the words of the wise, slowly, you will derive greater joy listening to the glories of God. Thereafter, you cannot exist without that holy atmosphere even for a minute. The company of the worldly chatter will no longer attract you. You will feel that there is nothing as sweet as the experience of listening to the splendour of the Lord.

AN ADVISE

External circumstances regularly change quickly. You must consider however that the most intimate essence of man is unchanged over time. Give what you have to grow. Try to help others as well as you can.

How can we overcome the ups and downs in our daily life?

Ajnana (Ignorance) and Dukha (Sorrow) cannot be destroyed by rituals and rites. This is the lesson the scriptures teach us. However, what is happening now is that people have forgotten their real nature. They believe that they are the body and the senses, and crave for objective pleasures. They delude themselves that they can secure joy by catering to the body and senses. Such attempts cannot earn bliss. Instead, they earn disillusionment, defeat and disaster; they reap sorrow and joy in quick succession. The ajnana can only be destroyed with the knowledge of the Divine Self. When illusion disappears, the sorrow produced by one's involvement in the ups and downs of the world is destroyed and one can realize that humanity is the Embodiment of Bliss.