Part III

Purity

If I have to say what is most important in the spiritual life next to God-realisation, then immediately I will say “purity”. Purity and God-realisation cannot be separated. Purity has to be in the physical, the vital, the mental and the psychic. In the ordinary life we use the term “cleanliness”: he is clean, he is dirty. But purity is something which is infinitely higher and more fulfilling than mere outer cleanliness. A man may take a shower, and right after taking the shower he may cherish undivine thoughts and ugly evil forces. Now, what kind of purity has he got? He has cleansed his body, but his vital, his mind, his inner existence is all impurity. So outer cleanliness has very little to do with the heart’s inner purity, the heart’s reality. But again, outer cleanliness can be of great help and assistance to inner purity. If we take a shower and put on clean, fresh clothes, the things we are allowing to surround us are already pure and divine. Then it will be easier for us to prevent the undivine, hostile, lower vital forces from entering into us and keep our mind and vital pure and divine.

In the spiritual world, purity is the breath of our real inner existence. If we don’t have purity, we can achieve only a little bit of reality by hook or by crook, by pulling and pushing. But that reality is very limited, and even that very limited achievement quickly goes away. Without purity we won’t be able to achieve anything substantial in the spiritual life, and we won’t be able to maintain the little that we do achieve. But if we have purity, then we can have all the divine qualities in boundless measure. If we have boundless purity, then our inner achievements can last forever. But unless and until we have established solid purity in boundless measure, God-realisation will remain a far cry.

How do we become pure? One way we acquire purity is by mixing with spiritual people, with pure people. From them we will get inspiration and guidance. The other way is to consciously think of ourselves as children, divine children. If we feel that we are divine children, we know that there is Somebody to take care of us. And who is that? It is our divine Parent. A child has no sense of impurity. He is always pure. Our outer mind may say that the child is very dirty, but that is only the physical. Inwardly, he is pure. If he has been playing outside, his body may be covered with dirt, mud, everything. An adult will say, “Look, he is so dirty!” But the child has no sense of guilt or wrongdoing. He just runs to his mother to be cleaned again. If we can always feel that we are divine children, then our sense of impurity will go away and our soul will spontaneously tell us what is the best thing for us. And inside that message purity will loom large.

In the spiritual life, each seeker must feel that he is a child. If we can feel that we are only four years old, we will be able to live in the heart. A child lives in the heart. When he is thirteen or fourteen his mind starts functioning. When the mind starts functioning, the heart is veiled; and when the heart is veiled, everything goes wrong and purity is nowhere to be found.