It is by the inner life that self-realization is achieved. Life can be divided into two parts. One part is attending to our worldly needs, toiling, earning money, serving in different capacities in order to have ourselves and to provide for our families. That is one side of life. And the other side is realizing that there is something besides the worldly life, that there is a higher ideal, a greater happiness, a deeper insight into life, and a greater peace. This is another life. By inner life I do not at all mean a religious life; for a man may be religious and at the same time very worldly.

There is a story about Aurangzeb's reign in India, that he issued an imperial command that everyone in his dominions must attend all the five prayers of the faithful. At that time, a sage lived there, although no one knew that he was a sage as he lived in solitude. This sage also received the command, but he forgot it or did not think about it. The police were sent to bring him to the house of prayer, and he came willingly and joined the congregation. When the priest who leads the prayers began his recitation the sage ran away from the congregation almost at once. The police went after him, and he was brought before the judge, for he had not only violated the law but disturbed the whole congregation. He said to the judge, "I would like to know what the leader of the prayers meant the congregation to do." The judge said, "Religion teaches that your thoughts should be united with the thought of your leader." The sage said, "But that is what I did! The teacher's thought went to his house; he had forgotten his keys at home. So I could not remain in the house of prayer; I ran for the keys." In the end it was proved that it was so. He was a great sage and to him was known all that was going on in the minds of others.

To be religious, to be orthodox, or to be pious does not necessarily mean to be spiritual. To be spiritual is something quite different from being "prayerful", as one calls it. The question is, how does one proceed in the inner life? The inner life can be considered as a journey to a desired goal; and there are certain conditions on this journey which one should first know. In the first place the journey is hard because there are no electric trains. It is a journey we have to make on foot. This at once changes the character of the journey and makes it different from the journeys we are accustomed to. There is no modern equipment, and we have forgotten how one journeyed in the past. To go through the wilderness, over mountains, to swim rivers in order to get to the other side, to risk all sorts of dangers on the way, that is the kind of journey we have to make in spiritual attainment. The outer journeys are made easy today, but the inner journey has kept its difficulties.

Vol. 6, The Alchemy of Happiness

The Inner Life and Self Realization

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Vol. 6, The Alchemy of Happiness

The Inner Life and Self Realization