An extract from Discovering Infinity in the Finite

If we ask the question: 'How is it possible to be peaceful and happy?', we find there is a relative answer and an absolute answer. What do we mean by a relative answer? In the world, there is a multitude of counsellors each prescribing ways and means to make us feel better, usually at a price. Some may do genuine good and bring about a lasting relief to particular problems with which we are burdened. They may show us a way forward that really helps, and turn out to be friends in need. But rarely, if ever, can our helpers and advisers lead us to that position where we can declare: 'I have found perfect peace', or 'I know that true inner joy which nothing can mar and which needs nothing outside for its rise or its continuance.' Yet such testimonies are found in the words of those who have awakened fully to the spiritual dimension of life, which transcends all misery and limitations. As the holy classics proclaim, the knower of Truth goes beyond sorrow.

Whether or not our advisers are spiritually awake, the effectiveness of our treatment depends on us: our attitude, flexibility, wish to evolve and willingness to follow instruction. Our response to psychological first-aid of any kind depends on our will and co-operation. We may respond very well to a path of inner development, but the pivotal factor is neither the teachings nor the teacher, but ourselves, that is, those reserves of character, drawn from within us. If we are helped, it is because of our own response, our own need and our own efforts.

How deeply rooted are the reserves of character and spirituality that are treasured in the being of man? We said that in order to be peaceful and happy, there is an absolute solution which is different from the tentative support we get from friends and helpers. The real scope and richness of our inner resources is only brought to light with the help of those who have themselves discovered the deeper truth about their own being. In reality, our inner resources and hidden wealth have no boundary. They belong to what one teacher has called 'that region of Self-experience which knows no horizon'. There is infinity hidden in the finite, immortal divinity at the source of our mortal personality. The root of the mind and emotions, the source of our inner life, is spiritual.

We can prove this to ourselves through practice and inner enquiry. The life and consciousness in us is not other than the divine life and consciousness of the Lord. The sea-water trapped in a rock pool seems to be a little world of its own, unrelated to the great sea. A naive person may even believe that he can revisit the pool tomorrow and that it will be filled with the same water. But the water really has no limited individualized identity. It is one with the sea, and will merge with the sea once the tide sweeps back in.

So, too, man’s individual life is ever at one with the infinite ocean of divine life and is destined to realize its oneness with the All. Our inner resources have their origin in something that is far deeper than the material, mental or intellectual planes. These planes of experience are compared to outer coverings. What they apparently cover is the central light of our being — the nameless, the infinite, the reality, pure consciousness. This is the true inner wealth, the foundation of peace and the home of happiness...