ETERNAL NOW

 
Life is not meant to be rich in spiritual significance at some distant date, but it can be so at every moment if the mind is disburdened of illusions. Only through a clear and tranquil mind is the true nature of spiritual infinity grasped — not as something that is yet to be but that already has been, is, and ever will be eternal Self-fulfillment. When every moment is rich with eternal significance, there is neither the lingering clinging to the dead past nor a longing expectation for the future but an integral living in the eternal Now. Only through such living can the spiritual infinity of the Truth be realized in life.

It is not right to deprive the present of all importance by subordinating it to an end in the future. For this means the imaginary accumulation of all importance in the imagined future rather than the perception and realization of the true importance of everything that exists in the eternal Now. There cannot be an ebb and flow in eternity, no meaningless intervals between intermittent harvests, but a fullness of being that cannot suffer impoverishment for a single instant. When life seems to be idle or empty, it is not due to any curtailment of the infinity of the Truth but to one's own lack of capacity to enter into its full possession....

Spiritual life is not a matter of quantity but of inherent quality of living. Spiritual infinity includes in its scope all phases of life. It comprises acts that are great as well as acts that are small. Being greater than the greatest, spiritual infinity is also smaller than the smallest; and it can equally express itself through happenings irrespective of whether they are outwardly small or great. Thus a smile or a look stands on the same level as offering one's life for a cause, when the smile or the look springs from Truth-consciousness.

There are no gradations in spiritual importance when all life is lived in the shadow of Eternity. If life were to consist only of big things and if all the little things where to be omitted from its scope, it would not only be finite but would be extremely poor. The infinite Truth, which is latent in everything, can reveal itself only when life is seen and accepted in its totality.