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We are all seekers, seekers of Light and seekers of Peace. Each one of us is a seeker in his own way. Each one is spiritual according to his capacity and according to his present necessity. Somebody may be more spiritual than somebody else because he has opened his existence more completely to his inner light. When the sun rises, if we open the doors and windows of our house, naturally we get more sunlight. In the spiritual life also, when we open the door of our heart, then more Light can pass through from our inner being.

In the outer world at every moment we expect something from others or from ourselves. Very often we do nothing for others, but still we expect quite a few things from them. We may work very hard for others or for ourselves and yet not get anything in return, but we expect. At every moment we expect. But we are making a deplorable mistake here. We should expect only from the right person, and the right person is God. If we knock at the wrong door then we shall never get the result. We have to knock at the right door, which is God's Door: our spiritual heart.

Now we have to know what we can expect from the spiritual life. If we expect from the spiritual life the things that we expect from our material life, our mundane life, then we will be sadly disappointed. If we follow the spiritual life in order to fulfil all our teeming, countless desires, to become the richest or most famous person on earth, or to become the supreme sovereign of this world, then we are not fit for the real spiritual life. But if we follow the spiritual life to get peace of mind, or because we love God, then we can expect results: we can expect Peace, Light and Bliss in abundant measure. Just because God is inside the spiritual life and His constant Blessing is being showered on all seekers, a seeker can expect a most comfortable, pleasant life, a life of name and fame. But if he wants to follow the real spiritual life, the life that needs only God, that needs only Peace, Light, Truth and Bliss, then he will not care at all for earthly possessions and earthly achievements.

The world has everything to offer us save and except peace. We can travel the length and breadth of the world and still not find real peace. So where can peace be found? It is deep within us. In the inmost recesses of our heart we all have peace, but unfortunately we have not discovered it. How do we discover it? We discover peace through our constant prayer and meditation. But if this prayer comes only from the physical mind, it will not be very soulful. Only if it comes from the very depths of our heart will this prayer be soulful, and only then will God be bound to answer it.

In the spiritual life, if we can pray well, if we can meditate well, then peace of mind, light and delight are bound to dawn on our devoted heart, searching mind and illumined soul. In order to follow the spiritual life, we must lead a life of purity. Otherwise, like a bad student, we shall always fail our examination and remain in the same class. But if we can establish purity in our physical body, in our vital and in our mind, then we will pass our examination with great honours.

How do we establish purity? We establish purity in the physical through the feeling that we do have inner Light, through our conscious awareness of our inner Light and through the feeling that this Light is eagerly waiting to come to the fore. When we have established purity in the physical, the success we have in any sphere of life becomes permanent. But if we have not established enough purity, then nothing is permanent either in our ordinary life or in our spiritual life. We establish purity in the vital by opening ourselves to the soul's Light. When we have established purity in the vital, the life of aggression leaves us and is replaced by the life of dynamism, vital dynamism. Vital aggression destroys everything but vital dynamism creates. It builds a new world for the seeker within us. When we establish purity in the mind, we consciously and deliberately annihilate doubt, fear and anxiety in ourselves. When we have established purity in our mind, we notice that we do not cherish even an iota of doubt, an iota of suspicion or any wrong, undivine, obscure, unlit or impure thoughts. How do we achieve purity in the mind? We do this by constantly offering our mind to our heart, our spiritual heart, which is in constant touch with the soul. When the mind gets illumination from the heart it has free access to the soul's Light. We can also derive abundant purity from our concentration, meditation and contemplation. But those who do not want to go through this discipline, even those who are not following a strict spiritual life can establish purity in their life, through proper breathing.

The moment we speak of breathing, we find that people become frightened. They feel that if they do not breathe properly, they may get into serious trouble. But I wish to say that even if you do not get a spiritual Master who can teach you how to breathe properly, there is still a way that you can regulate your breathing. It is through constant repetition of the name of your chosen deity or of God. This repetition is called japa. If you can repeat the name of God constantly during your prayer and meditation, automatically the sincerity of your japa will regulate your breathing. There are many, many who do not have spiritual Masters to teach them the Indian methods of pranayama, or breath control, but they learn to breathe properly on the strength of their most sincere repetition of God's Name.

A child, before his mind is developed, before he knows what thought is, breathes in properly, systematically, in a divine way. But when he grows up, when his mind develops and he enters into the hustle and bustle of life, he loses this capacity. The spiritual life is actually a conscious return to our divine childhood. In the spiritual life we must always feel that we are children of God, chosen children of God. It is a child that makes progress. A child is always open to new feelings, new ideas, new dreams, new ideals. In the spiritual life also, a seeker is always open to higher truths, higher thoughts, sublime ideals and soulful aspiration. It is the bounden duty of the parents to take care of a child. Likewise, in the spiritual life, when we consciously become children of God, it becomes His bounden duty to guide us, mould us and shape us in His very Image.

Dear seekers, dear brothers and sisters, I wish to speak on hope from the spiritual point of view. Since we are all seekers, it is our soulful aspiration that one day our divine hope will be fulfilled. And what is that hope? That hope is God-realisation.

What is hope? Hope is man's preparation for the unknown. Hope is man's aspiration for the unknowable. The unknown right now is man's ultimate achievement; the unknowable is God's eternal Now.

Hope is man's inner effort. An ordinary man is not aware of this inner effort, but a seeker of the highest Truth is fully aware of it. This inner effort inspires the seeker to see something new, to feel something new, to say something new, to do something new and, finally, to become something new.

When I smile, I see something new around me. When I cry, I feel something new within my heart. When I pray, I say something new to the higher worlds. When I meditate, I do something new for the inner and the outer worlds. When I surrender, I become something new: God's chosen instrument.

In the spiritual life, hope is newness. In this newness is our self-transcendence. Our self-transcendence is God's Pride, His supernal Pride in us. And God's Pride lives in our conscious and constant gratitude.

Hope and faith are two intimate brothers; they always go together. Hope nourishes faith and faith treasures hope. Hope dreams of God-Beauty in God-Reality. Faith dreams of God-Reality in God-Beauty. Hope pulls the heart of tomorrow into the body of today. Faith pushes the body of today into the heart of tomorrow. When tomorrow's heart enters into today's body, man's aspiration is crowned with success. When today's body enters into tomorrow's heart, Heaven's vision is crowned with success. Man's success is the victory of God's Compassion-Light. Heaven's success is the victory of God's Realisation-Height.

To hope is to see with the eye of the heart. To hope is to make the heart captain the vital and the body. To hope is to send darkness-night into exile. To hope is to feel the presence of the inner sun. The inner sun is; the outer sun becomes. When we live in the consciousness of the inner sun, we reach the highest Height of God's Silence-Light. When we live in the consciousness of the outer sun, we become one with the sound-life of God's manifestation on earth.

In the spiritual life, hope is humility's light. At the present state of evolution, human humility is a forced humility. But divine humility is soulful, spontaneous humility. Humility is God's Dream-Boat that reaches His Reality-Shore. Humility is God's Beauty in man's reality

When a spiritual pilgrim starts walking along the road of Eternity, his hope is nothing but humility's light. Eventually it is transformed into divinity's birthright. Then finally divinity's birthright is transformed into Infinity's Smile, Eternity's Light and Immortality's Life.

Divine hope is our soul's promise to the eternal Supreme that here on earth we shall realise Him fully, reveal Him fully and manifest Him completely and perfectly. Again, there are mundane hopes or undivine hopes. We want to become a multimillionaire overnight. We want to lord it over the world and see the supremacy of our dauntless vital. We want the whole world to be at our feet and accept light from our mind. The world is in darkness; we alone are bathing in the sea of light: this is our firm conviction. Therefore, we feel that we are in a position to offer light to the world at large. We feel that we have everything and we are everything; our only hope is for the world to be at our feet. Mundane hope is not like divine hope. It is an unlit desire that binds us. This desire will eventually bring on frustration, which is immediately followed by utter destruction.

In our spiritual life what we now call hope, hundreds and thousands of years ago we called our soul's promise to the Absolute Supreme: Him to realise, Him to reveal, Him to manifest on earth. At that time our divine hope was our soul's promise that we would enter into the world-scene and participate in God's cosmic Play as conscious players. When we entered into the spiritual life, slowly, steadily and unerringly this promise came to the fore from within. Gradually in our awakened consciousness the power and light of this promise began to loom large. Now we do not see hope as a promise; we feel it as a necessary preparation for our God-manifestation on earth.

In the ordinary, unaspiring world, hope is often no more than building castles in the air. But in the spiritual life, inner hope and the inner cry which we call aspiration always go together. Here our hope is playing the role of a divine harbinger. Hope is like the dream which is always just one step behind the reality. God is using His beckoning Hands to lead and guide the aspiration of the seeker to the destined Goal. God is sailing His Dream-Boat to the Golden Shore of the ever-transcending Beyond.

The hope of a human child is to get the highest degree or diploma. The hope or climbing aspiration of a divine child is to receive and achieve Peace, Light and Bliss in infinite measure. A seeker's hope is his aspiration-light and the Inner Pilot's hope is Perfection-Delight. Each individual seeker represents a conscious and constant promise to his Inner Pilot. Similarly, the Inner Pilot represents a conscious and constant promise to the individual seeker. In his aspiration-light, the seeker enters into the Supreme's cosmic Dream to play his unique role in God's Drama and manifest God in God's own way. Through His Perfection Delight, God enters into the seeker's aspiration-light to give him what He eternally has and what He eternally is. What He has is the Golden Boat that carries humanity's excruciating pangs; what He is is the Golden Shore of Infinity, Eternity and Immortality. Again, He Himself is the Pilot and He Himself is the Boat that carries humanity's excruciating pangs and teeming ignorance, imperfections, limitations, bondage and death to the Golden Shore of His ever-transcending Beyond.