KEEP MOVING TOWARDS THE GREAT DESTINATION

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

96. KEEP MOVING TOWARDS THE GREAT DESTINATION
You have not come upon this earth plane to remain here forever. It is a brief sojourn in a
plane of existence which is not your true and permanent plane of existence. It is not your native
place. You do not belong here, for you are the unborn, eternal Spirit Divine.
This is the declaration of those who have seen, known, realised, experienced, and thus are
absolutely convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt about this truth, this fact—as convinced as one
who holds a berry in his hand. He simply knows that it is there.
Therefore, all the great ones have addressed the pilgrim soul: “O, ye travellers upon this
earth plane! You are Spirit—without dimensions, far beyond name and form, far beyond time and
space—which is not caught in this finite, phenomenal universe of inert things. You being pure,
eternal, unborn, imperishable Spirit are not a dweller of this gross, ever-changing, temporary,
material physical plane of names and forms. They do not go together. Eternity is beyond time. You
are beyond time. The Spirit transcends the limitations of matter. You transcend the limitations of
matter.”

You have to reach a destination and you cannot afford to sleep by the wayside. You must be
on the way. Life is the way. All other things pertaining to life are by the way. Therefore, you have to
be intent upon being on the way and with alertness and vigilance carefully avoid being drawn out of
the way into trivialities, into pleasure hunting. Those who hunt for pleasure do not know. It is they
who are being hunted. They are the prey, yet they think that they are the hunters. They have become
prey to the power of maya, losing themselves in the byways.
No matter how spectacular these byways may look— you may become a famous scientist, a
wonderful cinema actor or a multi-billionaire—you are nothing if you lose your way. Because all
these things are by the way, diversions. If the world applauds you, you have to weep in your heart,
for the applause of the world is a nothing for one who has to reach a destination.
To be on the way and to keep moving upon the way is life. Everything else is death, spiritual
death. Even if you pile up name, fame, applause, recognition and the wealth of the whole world, you
live in spiritual poverty if you do not keep to the way and move towards the destination.
Never mistake the wayside trivialities to be the way. They may have their place for those
who are still in ignorance, caught in avidya, groping and stumbling in the dark, who are firmly
bound within the shackles of desire, craving, greed, and the sense of identification with the body
and the reality of this unreal passing show. For them it is very important, so they go after it and weep
bitterly in the end. For they have missed the way, lost their destination.
Let that not be your life. Let your life be characterised by wisdom, by clear perception. It is
not the little things of life, the little pleasures, sense-satisfactions, titillations of the nerves that
constitute life. Life is one thing, and all other things are beside life. That is the important thing to
grasp. In going after little frivolities we may miss our life.
Life is the way, and the goal is God. The goal is your highest, supreme welfare, not
temporary satisfaction. Therefore, ponder deeply this important fact that you are a traveller here, a
pilgrim, a wayfarer. And for a traveller and a pilgrim the most important thing is the destination, and
the most important thing in reaching the destination is to keep to the way, to be on the way.
The living of life in the right and proper manner, in an idealistic manner, constitutes the
way. All other things are traps. They are petty diversions with no substance, no matter how great the
world may value them. For the world is in a deep, deep delusion of Self-forgetfulness, in a state of
deep slumber, dense darkness, firm bondage. Avoid this woeful condition. For you have been given
the gift of an awakening, of a clear perception of what you are, why you are here, what the
destination is and what the essence of life is.
The essence of life is to keep living your life, not to go after pleasant sense-satisfactions.
They do not constitute the essence of life. They are episodes. They are mere frills. Therefore, keep
to the way, and know that you are a passing pilgrim. Beware, be cautious, be warned and keep
yourself in a state of wakefulness so that you are not diverted into petty, little byways, no matter
how pleasant.

That is the great thing needful. For life is short and time is fleeting. Therefore, we have to be
up and doing, moving straight towards the great Goal, attaining which one becomes supremely
blessed. May Gurudev’s grace enable you to keep yourself in a state of constant wakefulness and
awareness. This is life—to keep yourself always upon the path and moving towards the great goal
and destination!
The one way of making action harmless, taking away its power of bondage is by elevating
its quality through righteousness, dharma. When karma is infilled by dharma, it begins to become a
liberating process.