Practise it alone, practise it alone.
Frequenting the society of good and holy men has always been considered a help to pure life. Even where no word is understood of a conversation, the poor and the ignorant to-day in India will come and sit for hours in the company of those they consider holy or exemplary in their lives, watching the expressions of features and actions, and going away respectfully with the impression of these in their hearts. We need to do something more than merely associate with the good and great: we need to make our hearts as theirs: they are “hard to get” for they are difficult to find, and when found are “hard to reach” indeed. To reach them is to become as they, is to admire with a devotion near akin to worship, and which makes us tune our lives by these exemplars. And why should we not worship them? Are they not manifestations of truth? Is it not truth we seek and worship ever? From the dualist’s standpoint they are lamps set up by the mercy of God for the guidance of our feet. For the non-dualist they are modifications of truth, manifesting for him within his own mind, and his aspiration is to merge himself with them on his way to absorption in the Great Ocean of Truth.
Frequenting the society of good and holy men has always been considered a help to pure life. Even where no word is understood of a conversation, the poor and the ignorant to-day in India will come and sit for hours in the company of those they consider holy or exemplary in their lives, watching the expressions of features and actions, and going away respectfully with the impression of these in their hearts. We need to do something more than merely associate with the good and great: we need to make our hearts as theirs: they are “hard to get” for they are difficult to find, and when found are “hard to reach” indeed. To reach them is to become as they, is to admire with a devotion near akin to worship, and which makes us tune our lives by these exemplars. And why should we not worship them? Are they not manifestations of truth? Is it not truth we seek and worship ever? From the dualist’s standpoint they are lamps set up by the mercy of God for the guidance of our feet. For the non-dualist they are modifications of truth, manifesting for him within his own mind, and his aspiration is to merge himself with them on his way to absorption in the Great Ocean of Truth.
There is no difference between the will of Divinity and those who have identified their wills with that Divine will; they speak, as it were, with the voice of God. We gain Love, therefore, through these Lovers greater than ourselves. Nothing is so infectious as Love; it is impossible long to resist those who love us disinterestedly. We are fired with their love.