Great Teachings

Evaluate Progress in Sadhana - Swami Satchidananda

While in Sadhana we are liable to commit mistakes in thought, word and deed that hinder our progress and take us away from God. Instead of correcting ourselves we continue to make mistakes and thereby slip down. Every day we have to deal with many persons of different characters. Some of them may be pleasant to deal with, some neutral and some very irritating.

Our success lies in dealing with them all with love, with no tinge of irritation, whatever may be their behavior. In this we, unfortunately, fail often. But if we understand where and why we have failed we will be able to do better the next day so that we may, instead of slipping down, progress fast in Sadhana. Every day is a day of examination for us and we have to judge ourselves. The Lord is ever watching over us.

People come to us with problems in a depressed state of mind. It is for us to understand them and help them to regain their composure and return home with a better frame of mind. Instead, if we ourselves lose our balance, we will be creating only confusion, which means doing great disservice to others and to ourselves.

Why are we making such mistakes? And how can we avoid them? It is definitely not by brooding over or by thinking of the mistakes made. The reason for the mistakes is often slackness in our Sadhana. We can be sure that mistakes will not creep into our thoughts, talks and actions when we have God-remembrance, and God-remembrance is like a light burning within us. So we must keep the light of God-remembrance aflame in us constantly during our waking hours so that we are not prompted to do anything wrong and whatever we do, say or think, will be conducive to our spiritual progress, and to the lasting benefit of others.

God-remembrance is like a guard that keeps us away from mistakes. It is the light that keeps the darkness of ignorance away. It is the power that keeps fear and sorrow away. It is the way to keep God with us.

Perfect Attitude in Work - The Mother

“There is nothing small in God’s eyes; let there be nothing small in thine. He bestows as much labor of divine energy on the formation of a shell as on the building of an empire. For thyself it is greater to be a good shoemaker than a luxurious and incompetent king.”

“Imperfect capacity and effect in the work that is meant for thee is better than an artificial competency and a borrowed perfection.”

“Not result is the purpose of action, but God’s eternal delight in becoming, seeing and doing." It is obvious that the greatness of an action does not depend on its scope, and its perfection does not depend on circumstances or on external conditions, but on the sincerity of the consecration with which it is done.

To do what the Divine wants you to do, in a total consecration of the being: this is the only thing that matters; the outer scope of the action is of no account.

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