f our endeavor in the life spiritual. Because, spiritual life is nothing but the life that we lead in the bottom of our being, and not the life that we live in our rooms or in our offices or colleges or factories. What our conscience speaks is our spiritual voice. And if our conscience is not honest and pure, well, you will see the sure outcome of it, an utter failure in the spiritual path. It is difficult to be true to one's conscience, because of the circumstances under which people generally live. The pressure of society, the needs of the body and the weaknesses of flesh are such that it is difficult to be true to one's conscience. It only means that it is difficult to live the spiritual life, to have divine characteristics imbibed into our personality, and to be a devotee of God; in short, it is difficult to realize God.For this purpose--the purpose of overcoming these unavoidable limitations of our personality--the remedy is to contemplate on the lives of saints. To be a man of God, is to be a fool in the eyes of the public. This seems to be a necessary outcome of turning one's face towards God. The greatest fortress of our pleasure is our own personality-consciousness, our egoism. We have many other pleasure-centers, no doubt; but the greatest among all of them is what we call dignity of personality, self-respect. This self-respect was unknown to great masters and saints. They respected God and so they were humiliated in the eyes of people, put down as 'no-ones' in the eyes of the world. What torture and what suffering they underwent--it is something terrifying, if you think over it. We have only to read the lives of a few saints of the past. While it is easy to think that we believe in God, it is really difficult to be true to ourselves. No one can love God, unless one is prepared to die, wholly and totally, to the so-called good, beautiful and pleasant in this world, to this body and to the ego....
