IT IS WHAT YOU ARE AND DO THAT COUNTS

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

76. IT IS WHAT YOU ARE AND DO THAT COUNTS
Loving adorations to revered and beloved Holy Master Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji who
has done everything that he can—and in some ways who has done what no other man has done—to
throw light on the path to blessedness. He showed and placed before us a way of life and all that
needs to be done to pursue this path in every minute detail, so that living the life and following the
path we may attain blessedness in and through this very body. May his loving benedictions enable
each and every one of us here to be practical in our spiritual life, to emphasise more upon being and
doing than on knowing.
It is what you are that counts in the eyes of God. It is what you do that bears fruit, not what
you know. You are all familiar with the story of Devarishi Narada who did not have peace of mind
even though he knew everything that is to be known. He takes his problem to Sanatkumara: “I have
learned everything that is to be learned. I have vast knowledge, but, nevertheless, I am suffering, I
have no rest, I have no inner peace.”
“What have you learned? What all have you studied? What knowledge have you acquired?”
asks Sanatkumara.
Narada’s reply is a narration of all the sacred books that were perhaps then existing. Then
Narada is told: “Your studies are admirable, your knowledge is praiseworthy, but the Supreme is
attained by living the life indicated by the scriptures.” The Atman cannot be learned through
discourses, nor by listening to a great deal of expositions: nayam atma pravachanena labhyah, na
medhaya, na bahuna srutena (This Atman cannot be attained by study of the Veda, nor by
intelligence, nor by much learning).
Therefore, if we really want highest blessedness, if we really want that supreme,
indescribable experience Absolute that at once grants you indescribable peace, joy and bliss, then
may we live the life as the great ones have lived and taught us. Walk in the footsteps of the great
ones, maha-jana yena gatah sa panthah (the path trodden by the great ones). Live even as they have
lived, and you will attain the same state of blessedness and divine perfection, illumination and
liberation. Thus we have been told.
Sometimes the thought comes: What is the use of much discourse and much talk. Sage
Dakshinamurti taught in silence. The great master Jesus did not address large audiences. All His
recorded words will fit into a booklet. Lord Buddha lived longer and many words were written
about his life and movements, but His actual teachings will only fill a small volume.
But then, their teachings were stored in human hearts and they have been revived afresh,
filled with new power as time goes on. For their teachings were practised. New life has been
continuously put into their teachings, infused into them, by those who knew that it is what we are
and what we do that yields results. And, it is those who did take the step of making themselves
personifications of these great teachings, practising them in all their fullness in their own active,
day-to-day life, who have made their words a living reality for us even today.

Reflect well! The Upanishads are very slim volumes—some with eighteen verses, some
with twenty-four verses. But they comprise the quintessence of the ancient, ageless wisdom that has
been the heritage of all those born in this country.
When we consider these realities, one begins to rightly feel that to say much is superfluous,
and to do even a little is the essence of the spiritual life. Being and doing, therefore, count in the
spiritual life over and above all things, all knowings. Erudition is admirable. A great deal of
learning and knowledge is not bad. But certainly one must see that it is not enough.
May this perception, this understanding, drive us onward to greater action, to practical
spiritual life, to the active living of the teachings of the great masters. This is the one thing needful.
May the grace of the Divine enable us to attain supreme blessedness through a practical spiritual
life—through divine life in daily practice!