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82 Twelve Facets of Reality
You may put yourself down. You may focus on the dust which has collected around your soul instead of on the clean mirrorlike quality of your soul itself. And if you accept yourself as a sinner, you will live in that false nature. You will carry guilt wherever you go. Identifying yourself with that which binds you, how will you be able to free yourself from it?
So remember that sin and guilt do not belong to you. Keep before your mind's eye a beautiful image of yourself. Think of yourself as arogya, as a powerful dynamic energy, in complete spiritual health. In this way, mental uncertainty and confusion, which are the causes of most diseases, will disappear.
As you meditate, your belief in your innate purity will come not only from somebody's encouraging word, but from an inner glimpse. When you are alone, sitting by a calm lake, and nothing is bothering you, how do you feel? You watch the mellow evening slowly unfold its colors. How peaceful and blissful you feel! Your real nature reveals itself. Why? Because nothing is disturbing you.
That precious feeling may last five minutes, ten minutes, half an hour, but at least it can give you a glimpse. What lasts for a few minutes is able to last for an even longer time. It is a question of extension. So a brief glimpse gives you some conviction in your inherent peace. It gives you the courage to ask, "If such a glimpse was possible for a few moments, why not longer?" That kind of conviction is going to last long. It is not borrowed from anybody's assurance or promise; it comes from experiencing what is yours. According to your own experience, you move forward into deeper knowledge of your own Self.
