Selected 100 Letters by Shrimad Rajchandraji

Author(s): Shrimad Rajchandra,
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Prabhavak Trust Hubli

Page 42

SELECTED 100 LETTERS
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benefit. A firm spiritual aspirant strengthens his faith gradually by more contact with saints and gets fixed in his real self.
The living soul should not think of or follow or adopt a religion by his own imagination or by the guidance of his imagined spiritual saint. He should hear it from one who is well fixed or settled in his pure self and then he should propitiate it.
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36 (416)
Mumbai, Aaso, V.S. 1948
There are many many kinds of meditation The best of them is one in which the pure self principally manifests and that only deserves to be called meditation and such meditation mostly can be performed only after self knowledge. The self knowledge can be correctly obtained from the enlightened saint who is the embodiment of self knowledge, by seeking his shelter or contact and by appreciating his contact with great honour and affection or love. A man has contacted such spiritually self knowing saints many many times in the past but he unfortunately did not recognize them nor did he decide that he should surrender whole heartedly to them for his liberation because such saints are self realized enlightened saints, and this is the real cause of his migration from birth to birth. About this I am quite firm.
The three main faults or defects of a living soul for not allowing him to recognize the enlightened spiritual guide are to my knowledge the following.
1) The pride he feels in believing that he knows and understands
the path of liberation (Under this influence he does not feel the need of surrendering to any self-realized saint for his liberation)
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2)
SELECTED 100 LETTERS
He loves his belongings more then the love and affection for the spiritual enlightened guru or guide.
3) He prefers to keep away from the enlightened saint, afraid of public opinion, afraid of being defamed by people around him or being humiliated by them. So he does not meet the saint with the honour and respect he deserves.
Above three causes keep a living soul quite uninformed about the greatness of spiritual guides. He feels he is like them and he values the teaching and scriptures of the enlightened saints from his own wrong standard or imagination. By only superficial study of the scriptures he tries to explain them to others in many imaginary ways. This defect is already covered by the above listed three defects or a man obstructing his clear path to liberation. The material cause of the source of all these three defects of a person is his whimsical nature and non-contact with spiritual guide and contact with uninformed so called teachers or spiritual guides.
I who do not desire from you any thing but that you may anyhow get spiritual knowledge and experience, want to inform you clearly that you still love these three defects to more or less extent and specifically the first one that you know something you understand something about real religion and you still cherish greatness in acquiring many worldly valueless things. These defects lead you astray in your knowledge and meditation for securing the guidance of the enlightened spiritual saint. Therefore turn to your real self as best as you can and remove all the defects I have listed above and be indifferent to all worldly consideration. This is for your benefit as known to me.