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Cintās: Reflections
689
between the communities being other than very feeble at present in the case of the majority of sadhvis. Now, in order that a desire for unity should exist, it is necessary that there should come into being, firstly, an awareness of the existent ignorance, mutual indifference and, sometimes animosity and, next, the realisation that this failure in understanding makes for sterility and furthermore that division is opposed to the spirit of the dharma.
b) Āśās: Hopes in anticipation of a renewal
Each of these hopes corresponds to a point queried above. It does not suffice to dislodge prejudices; one must also be able to visualize a renewal and have an unshakeable hope that it will come about.
- Hope that the sādhvis, receiving an initiation into svādhyāya and dhyāna, will thus assimilate the essence of the dharma and that, through them, its uniquc clements will be more universally known, so that it will thus play its part in the spiritual renewal of humankind.
- Hope that the gurunis, following the example of the heroic pioneers, may succeed in combining harmoniously knowledge and praxis and may never relax their efforts to train their disciples with wisdom and maternal sollicitude. Meetings between guruņis and conferences bringing them together would be a desirable dvelopment.
- Hope that the sādhvis together with their gurunis may succeed in introducing, by successive stages, salutary changes in their way of life.
- Hope that the sādhvis may be brought to a full flowering of their own beings by a return to the essentials of the spirit of the dharma. To help them in this, it would be necessary, not only that the gurunis be true spiritual mothers, but that the upăśrayas be conducive to recollectedness.
- Hope that the sādhvis may know how to distinguish between the spirit and the letter of the dharma and rid themselves of what is of secondary importance and mercly burdensome.
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