Versatile Genius

Kapali Speaks

(By Prabhakar Nulkar)

(Compiled from Sastriar's Writings)

Enthusiasm is the fulcrum of action in the case of many men and women. If that is chilled even a little, the activity itself stops.

Remember that life is never a series of successes and joys alone, even failures and miseries have their uses in God's scheme.

No gale stays on, it moves, passes on at an incredible rate of speed. All the time, it does its mischief, leaves its impress; but we survive, that is luck as they say.

That anything can happen at any time is a terrible truth in this world.

The sincerity with which you approach determines the results. This is the law of the subtle workings of nature.

Those that fear most are—by reaction the most cruel.

One who lacks happiness within finds no happiness without. He feels dissatisfied with everything. The most common characteristic of such persons who have no 'antah sukha' is fault-finding and tyrannising over others.

Those who talk most loudly of their own defects and deprecate themselves are usually the most self-conceited.

Fear ultimately develops into hatred. Fear gives rise to a suppressed anger which later hardens into hatred:

Fear, anxiety, apprehension—these are very common features of everyday life in the world.

Every one finds, here or elsewhere what he wants. He sees what he seeks to see—good or bad. Other things do not catch his eye.

Self—examination requires courage.

To receive, to treat and to send off people with consideration and politeness is a quality natural to the great.

In all matters—spiritual and temporal—when anyone asks for help or favour which is being done to him, it fills the needy heart with spontaneous feelings of happiness and gratitude if the benefactor disarms him, makes him feel that, after all what he asks for is nothing much and that the joy of giving on the part of the donor is much more than the joy or contentment of the other.

To trust people, to note only the good side of others, is a sign of laxmi-kala, receptivity to forces of happiness and prosperity. Cynicism, distrust and other allied qualities indicate the opposite opening.

One without thought has no cares. One without desires has no grief.

Capacity gives satisfaction or contentment, trpti, not pride, to a healthy mind.

To move freely with little minds is to invite their insolent disdain.

Those who circulate an opinion coining from others usually share that opinion.

Gratitude is a psychic feeling. Rarely one in a hundred is capable of it. What passes for it in life is usually a pretense of it–something of what has been humourously described as 'an expression of a lively expectation of greater favours to come.'

To offer bribes is tantamount to taking them. For, to corrupt another for one's own selfish ends is as sinful and unspiritual, if not more, as corrupting oneself. To pollute oneself is one thing, to pollute another for one's selfish purpose is another and much more despicable.

A constant critical attitude to others is usually a sign of unfitness for spiritual life, where the building up of one's inner perfection is the first occupation.

There are men who would not tolerate from others even a fraction of what they themselves constantly inflict on those around. It is akin to simian psychology. The monkey delights in playing pranks on others but it violently resents even a casual stone-throw at it.

It is a healthy principle to make it a point to notice only the good things in the person whose lot is cast with ours. His weaknesses may be remembered after he is gone, so that one does not suffer any pull nor exert any push towards the departed.

Before we, criticise others for their 'bad qualities', it is necessary to look at ourselves and see if none of these qualities are not seen in ourselves at some time or other. The fact is all these 'qualities'—good and bad—are part of the Universal Nature and when these waves come over, they victimise whoever is open to them at the moment. They manifest themselves through them. These 'defects' etc. do not specially belong to any particular individual.

Nirahankara, absence of ego, is indispensable; often you think you have no ego left. Remember, wherever there is a stress on your part, there lurks the ego.

Ego and desire are the main roots of all suffering in the world. Man is obsessed with his own importance, his own self and can't bear the other egos. He busies himself with the affairs of others, solely with a view to satisfying himself of their relative inferiority and his own superiority.