From IIM Ahmedabad To Happiness

Author(s): Vijay K Jain
Publisher: Vikalp Printers

Page 98

FROM IIM-AHMEDABAD TO HAPPINESS
are life."
It is not the mere knowledge of His words that is meant by the bread of life. Knowledge is only the raw material from which spiritual food can be prepared. Unless a flame of affection warms the cold words of doctrine into a savory food that rekindles the energies of the spirit, the mind becomes easily satiated and sometimes nauseated with instruction.
The Word often speaks of the food of spiritual life. This is what is meant by the food which Noah had to store in the ark before the great Flood, and by the grain stored by Joseph in the cities of Egypt before the seven years of famine. From infancy the Lord provides it in abundance, as innocence and simple faith, as the seeds of all future happiness and understanding. He stores it so deeply within the mind that man cannot reach in and dissipate it. It comes to the surface only when we are in forgetfulness of self. It is locked up for emergencies which the Lord alone foresees; and released when we begin to feel a spiritual hunger which we know as a love of truth. Then it comes down as manna from heaven.
But those who 'hunger and thirst after righteousness,' shall surely be filled. They who long for a better understanding of the purposes and duties of life and for a purer heart may see the sphere of charity reach out towards them from all sides, offering them refreshment of spirit. They discern the bread of heaven in the abundant truths of the Lord's Word. They see how the Lord prepares a table before them even in the valley of shadow, in the presence of their enemies, so that their cup runneth over. For wherever we live according to the truth and do His will, there charity and use are ours for the seeking, with delight and food for the soul.
But the Lord tells us to pray, not, 'Give us bread!' but 'Give us this day our daily bread.' A wise father does not give a child their entire patrimony at once. Our heavenly Father grants us spiritual food in abundance, but only as much as we can receive and are able to use. We cannot ask Him for the bread of heaven only to lay it aside unused, or in order to hoard it and hide it. But we ask to be sustained in the tasks immediately ahead, ask for strength and illustration in the state we are commencing to enter, for a clearer perception of the
86