OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THE INNER AND OUTER WORLD

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

81. OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THE INNER AND OUTER WORLD
Worshipful homage to the supreme, eternal Absolute Reality of whom we are all
inseparable parts sharing in that Divinity and in that perfection. Whether we are aware of it or not
that inner spiritual relationship is more real than any other relationship that exists in this creation.
If we are to be aware of that eternal relationship, we have to be very, very alert, vigilant and
careful that the innumerable relationships we have with external things, beings, situations and
experiences do not become diverting factors drawing us away from this inner awareness towards
other things. If we do not exercise this caution consciously, if we do not make purposeful effort to
keep this vigilance and alertness always, the nature of our present human identity is such that it is

bound to take us away from the Reality and disperse our entire being in trivialities, in things of no
worth or value.
“Aham adischa madhyam cha bhutanam anta eva cha (I am the beginning, middle and also
the end of all beings).” Thus declares the Supreme Being in trying to initiate us into this secret inner
relationship. Despite this great grace, this great teaching that He is our all-in-all, everything to us,
man still wanders in the jungle of forgetfulness of God, in the forest of God-alienation.
The reason is precisely because one does not make conscious and purposeful effort to keep
up this awareness in the midst of distraction, one does not make conscious and purposeful effort
through enquiry and through an ever-active discrimination exercised throughout the day to see that
the externalising, diverting and distracting influence of the universe outside is counteracted wisely,
diligently and constantly by a contrary inner recollection of ourselves in the Spirit.
It is only if this is done that one can keep up this awareness despite the outer attraction of the
universe about us with its countless relationships to things, people, situations and experiences that
draw us out. The wise sadhaka is that being who makes his or her device to see that this
externalising, diverting and distracting force in this world of temporary, vanishing appearances is
nullified, and, on the contrary, as Ramatirtha used to say: “Make even a stumbling block into a
stepping stone to success.” One tries to turn to one’s own advantage even these distracting Godforgetting
forces and influences by making them factors that help one to stay in God-awareness.
As the Bavarian mystic, Jakob Boehme, said: “Everything represents God. Everything is a
symbol of the Eternal. It is there to remind you of the Reality.” He turned the whole situation from
negative to positive by saying that whatever you can see, hear, touch, taste, smell or think about is
there to drive your mind towards God, to evoke within you the thought of the Reality.
However, if such a transformation in your vision and your experience of the external
universe is to be brought about, there is an important factor which we cannot afford to miss. When
none of these external factors are there, when nothing is there to disturb you, draw you out, divert
and disperse you—perhaps you are sitting alone in your room, relaxed, and the lights are off—why
do you not immediately plunge into God-thought, God-awareness? When these factors that you
always blame for your inability to keep up an unbroken current of God-thought are all, for the time
being, null and void, why don’t you go into samadhi?
It is because we have another whole dimension of relationships. We are related to memories
of the past. We are related to fantasies and imaginations of the future. It may not be the distant
future; it may be what you have to do tomorrow. We are also related to emotional attitudes towards
other things and beings. We are related to sentiments. This is a whole world of inner relationships
that militate against our eternal relationship with God.
Thus, we live in two worlds, both false, both obstacles. So, we have to be alert and vigilant,
exercising conscious awareness not only in relation to the outer external universe of things and
beings, but we have to exercise equal caution, alertness and vigilance to see that this inner world of
our own psyche—our own past, present and future—does not become a factor drawing us away

from God, distracting us, dispersing us and making us plunge into a subtle, inner subjective world
of memories, imaginations, fears, desires, sentiments and emotions.
The Upanishads say that these streams of thought are always there in the mind. And, unless
you are aware and watchful to perceive in what direction the thought stream is taking you, you are
lost. You will be sitting for meditation, but you will be far away somewhere on the other side of the
globe unless you exercise awareness and keep on diverting the stream in the direction of the Divine.
One should consciously make effort to be stayed in the Divine, stayed upon the Reality.
It is not only politically that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. It is equally true of our
inner psychological life and our personal external earth life in this material universe of names and
forms. Eternal vigilance is a small price to pay if you contemplate the glory of liberty, the grandeur,
the greatness and the beauty of liberty.
And, nothing comes without conscious, willing effort. Fortunate is the seeker to whom such
an effort is meat and drink, who thrives upon such effort, for whom such a life is like music to a
musician, poetry to a poet or art to an artist. If this spiritual vigilance is pursued for its own sake, it is
something you thrive upon, it is your very life breath. It is not a drudge, it makes you gladdened,
uplifted, elevated.
A wise saying that all the world knows, but which most people conveniently ignore is: “No
gains without pains.” Yet, look at the hours a physical culturist will spend in the gymnasium to
build up his body. Or, look at the years of training and self-denial an athlete will go through to
prepare for the Olympics. Even if they win a gold medal, it is a few days of glory and then they are
forgotten.
If, for the temporary, they are willing to make so much effort, how much more joyfully one
should be able to willingly and happily make effort for the permanent, the eternal. With ceaseless
effort, vigilance, and alertness we must skillfully divert the effect of these external and internal
pulls to our advantage, making them favourable to sadhana, instead of contrary to sadhana.
This is skill in action. This is the right use of one’s intelligence, power of enquiry,
discrimination and analysis. Therefore, with a burning earnestness from within, a deep sincerity in
one’s longing, let us solve this seeming paradox of God being our all-in-all, being the nearest and
deepest of all our relationships, being eternal and beginningless, and yet that relationship being so
easily forgotten and apparently nullified by the temporary relationship to the world without and the
world within.
This paradox cannot be put to an end by anyone or anything else other than by our own
wisdom, earnestness, sincerity, wakefulness and clarity in clearly seeing the spiritual situation as it
is. Seemingly formidable, but yet it is a trick that if one has the right formula and the key, it is not
there. This obstacle is not there. Suddenly, it becomes to you your helper.
This is what Brother Lawrence did. This is what the mystics did. This is what all the great
Upanishadic seers did and achieved and taught to us. They practised the presence of God keeping
up a constant, unbroken stream of Reality-consciousness or God-awareness in the midst of

everything else. How to turn even seeming obstacles into factors that help us to keep up this
constant, unbroken stream of God-remembrance we will, God willing, discuss in our next talk.