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XV. EXPERIMENTS IN HEART-PURIFICATION
A man went to the provision merchant and asked, "Have you got flour?" The shopkeeper said, "Yes." The man asked, "And sugar?" The shopkeeper said, “Yes." The man asked, "And butter-oil?" The shopkeeeper once again replied in the affirmative. The man said, "Well, you've got all the ingredients, why don't you prepare sweet pudding to sell?"
The shopkeeper said, "Brother! All the ingredients for preparing sweet pudding I have, but I don't know how to prepare it. I have not the skill. If I start preparing the pudding without first acquiring the skill, all the ingredients will be spoiled. There would be no pudding, nor would their remain flour, sugar and butter-oil! It would all end in a mess."
All production requires skill. Without skill nothing can be produced.
We have been talking about a change of heart. A change of heart is eminently desirable, but if we do not know how to go about it, if we are not acquainted with the process thereof, we shall never be able to achieve it.
Transformation of consciousness is not an easy task; it is the most important task though. A change in the psyche is in fact what we mean by a change of heart. When consciousness changes, a change of heart takes place of itself. If consciousness remains untransformed, nothing is changed. And no change in consciousness is possible without first mastering the technique thereof.
Two big tasks confront us-firstly to transform general consciousness and secondly to change human consciousness. Both are important. A number of laws have been discovered to govern the functioning of the material world, but to find out universal laws governing the world of consciousness is much more difficult. A material object has no consciousness. To discover the laws of the unconscious is easier, because an inert objcct does not change. However, the conscious is eternally changing, and it changes so fast that no onerule applies. All the rules framed go by the board because consciousness is never still. The smallest living creature makes use of its volition; it makes a leap and the rule is overthrown. There is no leap in the inanimate world; it is possible only in the animate. The former has no will; the latter has it. This freedom to act is a living being's most characteristic virtue. To find out laws governing conscious living beings is therefore a most difficult undertaking.
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