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have articulate language, the capacity for abstract thinking, and the freedom to choose and to move ourselves in the forward direction. But we have to recognize the forward direction, we have to confront ourselves, come to know ourselves.
So now, having concentrated on the object, the seed, we must turn to the subject, which is ourselves. The eternal question that stands before man in all ages and in all parts
of the world is this: "Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? "For centuries, all the seers, saints, sages, prophets and philosophers have been pondering this one question. Circumstances have changed, but the question has not changed. Civilization has been going through many stages and great turmoil, but this question remains standing before each and all of us, like a mountain. For this question, there is no purely verbal answer. If there were, we would have a beautiful statement and we would not have to keep searching. The secret is that we have to go deeper than mind or words. Those who have seen, become silent. For the answer, there is no vocabulary, no verbal expression. We find it in the silence of meditation.
Friends, the universe wants something from you. You have your place in this cosmos. You are significant. Each day you are adding something to the world---your thoughts, your emotions, your words, your actions. The same light that was in the enlightened masters and great teachers is in you. The same spark, the same flame is there, only they used it to their full capacity. I believe that you will not find out who you are without meditation. I do not mean any one specific form of meditation, for according to the Jain principle of relativity, different meditations open different doors to reality as realized during certain epochs and in certain places. However, meditation is that which leads us from the small self, the ego, to the large Self. Ego is perverted power. We need the love and the light of the larger Self that reaches out to all mankind, to all living beings. With this light and love we grow the fruit we were meant to bear and are capable of bearing, as our gift to the world.
Constantly we need to keep in mind the immortal question of who we are, for at various stages of life our purpose may be different. At one stage it may be to grow alone; at another it may be to raise a family. All levels and varieties of human effort and contribution are necessary to consume karmas---bearing children, raising them, letting them go; studying art, composing music; or perhaps deciding, as Albert Schweitzer did, that music is not enough, and going on to establish a hospital in Africa. We may leave the world for an hour a day, or for ten years, and then return. Having learned who we are, we are ready to give all we feel by making our contribution to building the earth.
Only you can decide on your focus. You may change your mission, or retire from one and go into another one more satisfying. Do not think about age. Some of you will find your goal earlier, and some later. Only not to find it at all is the tragedy! It is the intensity of experience that matters, not the length of time. Moments can often be more enlightening than years. But each of you is here to nurture the seed of divinity within yourself.
Now let us glide into meditation, and enter the divinity within.... We are one whole, one with the seas and the stars, one with life.... Let us meditate and find the bliss of being part of the whole, the full inspiration of our receiving and giving....
Let us enter meditation by first concentrating on the thought, "The whole tree is in the heart of the tiny seed."
