The Quest for Excellence

We are all aware of the changes we need to bring about in our lives and in ourselves in order to strengthen spiritually and make headway towards the eye centre. Humility, faith and obedience, for example, are among the many qualities that are assets to any practitioner on this path.

It is not easy to act humble if we feel that we are better than others, or to have faith when doubts assail us. This means that in order to imbibe any virtue we need to feel it from within.

Hazur Maharaj Ji used to say that with meditation all these qualities rise within us “like cream over milk.” So why is it that we are asked to develop these qualities? Why are we reminded to have faith, to keep a check on our egos and to surrender to the will of the Lord?

Yes, it is true that these virtues or this spiritual strengthening will automatically come from within, through daily meditation. But it is also true that we can learn to practise these virtues and in this way train the mind.

When someone asked Hazur Maharaj Ji how one becomes humble, Hazur answered, “Brother, what is there to be proud of?”

If we think about it, we will realize that nothing we possess is going to be with us forever. The house we live in today belonged to someone else before us and maybe even while we are still alive, it could be transferred to someone else. The limelight we enjoy today was once someone else’s, and sooner or later, the focus will shift to another.

Realizing that we possess things that are transient, or that we are vulnerable to disease, old age and death can easily puncture our inflated egos. It is thus useful to get a reality check every so often; it helps keep us grounded.

It is the same with all other virtues. When we consider the fact that we can sleep in only one bed or wear one set of clothes at a time; when we consider the fact that to avoid traffic jams, we might need to take public transport despite having many cars, we realize that we can actually be content with much less.

When we have a hard time accepting the events of life, we can instead try to accept that we are helpless before our destiny. How many times have we tried and struggled to acquire something that was just not meant for us?

We have to face situations at every step in this life, and at every step in this life we have to explain to our mind, “You have to accept whatever comes in your fate and accept it smilingly, cheerfully. Why grumble?” It’s a constant training of the mind.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Die to Live}

Meditation will provide us with the ultimate experience that will make us aware of the greater truth and open our eyes to our false sense of self. But we must also use our sense of discrimination and logic to develop these virtues that can help lift the dense fog of our ego.