The suffering

People suffer because they have all kinds of unreasonable desires and they pine to fulfill them and they fail. They attach too much value to the objective world. It is only when attachment increases that you suffer pain and grief. If you look upon nature and all created objects with the insight derived from the inner vision, then attachment will slide away, though effort will remain; you will also see everything much clearer and with a glow suffused with Divinity and splendor. Close these eyes and open those inner eyes and what a grand picture of essential Unity you get! Attachment to nature has limits, but the attachment to the Lord that you develop when the inner eye opens has no limit. Enjoy that Reality, not this false picture.

The Mind

It is the mind which makes or mars man. If it is immersed in things of the world, it leads to bondage; if it treats the world as but temporary, then by that vairaagya (detachment) it becomes free and light. Train the mind not to feel attached to things that change for better or for worse. Do not hold before it the tinsels of worldly fame and riches; attract it towards lasting joys derived from springs inside you. That will bring big rewards. The mind itself will then become the Guru, for it leads you on and on, once it has tasted the sweets of Shravana, Manana and Nidhidhyaasana (listening, recapitulating and repeated steady meditation). It is the mind that fills the image made by the potter with the Divinity which the devotee sees in it; it is the mind which fills the shrine-room with the fragrance of holiness.