Reaching the Abiding Peace of the Immortal Self

But even then you should not be satisfied. You should strive to reach the final and highest state. There should be no rest, no peace of mind or contentment until you reach the state of complete mergence with God and the realization of his oneness. These days you are only aspiring to obtain rest for your body and trying to get a little peace of mind. But this is not good. You have to reach the abiding peace of the atma. This is your true self, the immortal self, the one universal self. When you become reunited with it, you become peace itself. Your individual self has to merge with the universal self. Then the long journey is complete and permanent bliss is realized.

A river is born from the ocean and ends in the ocean. But how did the river originate? Initially some of the water of the ocean turned into clouds. Once the ocean water becomes a cloud there is separation and duality. Clouds are separate; ocean is separate. The water of the ocean is saltish. After it turns into a cloud it becomes sweet. But now the water which has become a cloud comes in the form of rain. You can say it is a rain of love, because this rain water becomes a river and with great enthusiasm rushes to rejoin the ocean. This may be compared to the state wherein a great anguish and aspiration develops to get nearer and nearer to the final goal.

When you are in that state you yearn with all your heart to reach the native land from which you have become separated. In the case of the water in the form of a river, it is impelled to merge back into the ocean from whence it came. Only then will it have reached its goal. Such is the pure non-dualistic state of total mergence with the source.

You are born as a human being and you have lived part of your life as an ordinary human being. But you have chosen to take up the path of spiritual life. You find yourself seeking out the company of spiritually-minded people. You find yourself listening to the great scriptural stories describing the sacred characteristics of the Lord. But now, you find that this is not enough. You yearn to have a direct vision of the Lord. Even then, you are not satisfied with just that. Merely having had the opportunity to see and talk with the Lord you still do not find that your happiness lasts. But when you finally get fully merged and united with him, then you gain the complete fulfillment you have been seeking. Then you are one with the unending peace and bliss that is the Lord. This was the teaching that Krishna imparted to Arjuna on the battlefield.