I have some thoughts on carnival, on the crazed energy which entrances inhabitants of the city, of the general unity underlying chaos and clarity, but I will leave them all for later, and turn instead to words from those far wiser than myself.
Tonight, I am inspired by the eloquent words of an Indian sage, taken from the Autobiography of a Yogi (51-2), by Paramahansa Yogananda, and published by the Self-Realization Fellowship:
"I have long exercised an honest introspection, the exquisitely painful approach to wisdom. Self-scrutiny, relentless observance of one's thoughts, is a stark and shattering experience. It pulverizes the stoutest ego. But true self-analysis mathematically operates to produce seers. The way of 'self-expression,' individual acknowledgments, results in egoists.... Truth humbly retires, no doubt, before such arrogant originality.
Man can understand no eternal verity until he has freed himself from pretensions....Struggles of the battlefield pale into significance here, when man first contends with inner enemies! Omnipresent, unresting, pursuing man even in sleep...these soldiers of ignorant lust seek to slay us all. Thoughtless is the man who buries his ideals, surrendering to the common fate....
To love both invisible God, Repository of All Virtues, and visible man, apparently possessed of none, is often baffling! But ingenuity is equal to the maze. Inner research soon exposes a unity of all human minds...An aghast humility follows this leveling discovery. It ripens into compassion for ones fellows....Only the shallow man loses responsiveness to the suffering of others' lives, as he sinks into the narrow suffering of his own."
And later, page 58,
"Solitude is necessary to become established in the self, but masters then return in the world to serve it. Even saints who engage in no outward works bestow, through their thoughts and holy vibrations, more precious benefits on the world than can be given by the most strenuous humanitarian activities of unenlightened men. The great ones...strive selflessly to inspire and uplift their fellows."
I would like to copy many more passages, but with due respect to copyright, which allows quotes only for book reviews, I will leave you with only this, giving the book thusfar five stars, and encouraging you all to pick up a copy for inspiration.
