An extract from Love is the Way to Self-Transcendence
by Hari Prasad Shastri
...There is an urge in the heart of man to love, to appreciate, to pursue beauty, to lose himself in the arms of truth, to melt in an embrace in the moonbeams of goodness. A desire for self-transcendence is innate in a living man. Is that life useful in which the spiritual wealth is not acquired? The Shruti [revealed scriptures] says: 'A knower of Self goes beyond sorrow.' As long as there is any consciousness of a want, of a restriction, of our freedom of appreciation, as long as our soul is subject to the invasion of ignorance in the form of malice, envy, jealousy, our soul is not fully alive. Power needs murders and massacres for its upkeep, propagation of lies for its preservation, and moral suicide for its stability, if there can be any stability at all.
It is the life of the soul that matters, because there is a possibility of a real enjoyment of life in its manifold aspects if the soul is fully alive. A man, to save his life, permits the amputation of his arms. So must a man, to keep his soul alive, permit the eradication of the cancer of inordinate desires, of enjoyment, possession and power.
The soul thrives in the inner solitude and in outer sympathetic affection for all. Knowledge is the food of Gods. Plato calls inquisitiveness the very source of life.
As a bud opens into a blossom, discarding its narrow form, so does the soul grow into Jivanmukti [spiritual liberation in life] by disidentifying itself from the superfluous coverings of worldly possessions and desires for power. Once Shri Dada was asked to see a patient who was suffering from many diseases. There were several Vaidyas in attendence, each prescribing a treatment for a malady he was supposed to be suffering from. They asked Shri Dada what he prescribed for. He said; 'My friends, don't prescribe for any disease, but save his life, which is most important.' Similarly, they teach their children to be wealthy, famous, powerful and sometimes learned, but what everyone needs is the means for an expression of the whole soul of man...