Living as Directed by the Saint is True Association
Every sacred function commences with an invocation to Ganapati, and is wound up with bidding Him propitiatory farewell. So, too, the beginning of the perusal of a spiritual book as well as its termination should be marked with an awareness of God, only with this difference: that whereas in a function, after the end, we remain and Ganapati is given a farewell, in the perusal of the spiritual book we should merge our 'self' at the end with God, with the prayer, 'O Master, keep me as you please, but I beg you grant that I may never be unmindful of you'.
When you sing a hymn, do not forget that it is God that is your object. If you have Him in your thought, it does not matter even if the body is engaged in household chores. Do not set God aside out of fear about what the world thinks of you. Think on what you are in reality; that you will realise when you try to see who you are not. A little thought will show you that you belong neither to kith nor kin, nor to wife, child, parents, nor even to the mind and body that you think to be yourself; what remains after eliminating all these, is the real you. True contentment is only obtained in unity with the Supreme Being, in giving up all duality. Ego creates the sense of duality, so endeavour to conquer that ego. For this, attribute all doership to God, try to feel that God is immanent in everything, associate with the good. The real good is in the Ultimate Truth. True association with the good and the godly consists in having faith in their words, and moulding our thought and action accordingly. Keep single-minded faith in the saints. Follow their way. Do not think it humiliating to be in their company. Those, who continually indulge your sensual needs are not true saints. True saints, on the contrary, reduce the attachment to sense-pleasures. Surrender yourself to such true saints, for they alone can purge the mind of hankering after satisfaction of the senses, and can create a yearning for God. Their language always rings with sincerity, and therefore it appeals to us, converts us. Implicitly follow their teaching.
The world can never be devoid of saints. We can only recognize them by assiduously practising nama.
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