Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 1

The Base of Sincerity

THE great, perhaps, the greatest secret of life – uttamam rahasyam, to quote the familiar phrase of the Gita-consists in finding, in coming in contact with and remaining in permanent contact with this centre of our being, the nucleus of our living. And curiously, if we are alert and observant enough, we discover that this mysterious thing is not very far to seek. There is hardly any developed human being who has not had, some time or other in the course of his life, a feeling or perception that he is free, he is happy in a miraculous way, as if he is above or away from the vicissitudes of external life, nothing touches him and he is unique and self-fulfilled, he is on the summit of his being, in the topmost form of his nature. However fugitive that experience may be, it is the kernel of his being that reveals itself for a moment, the central consciousness that moves, guides, inspires and supports his whole life-and all his other lives too-although till now from behind the veil. That is what we call the Divine in the individual, the Inner Controller, antaryāmin, the conscious being ever seated within the heart, purusa sadā hŗdi sannivista.

Once this centre has been aspected – in whatever manner, to whatever degree, even faintly and feebly-one has always to come back to it, as the mariner to the pole-star, try to connect all external happenings as well as one's inner movements with this fountain-head. That is to say, one must think, feel or do nothing that is contrary to the truth it is, that is not in accord with its rhythm and law: indeed one must always endeavour to think only that thought, feel only that feeling, do only that act which is the spontaneous and inevitable outcome and expression of that innermost and topmost reality.

That is the definition of sincerity: to be transparent and

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single-pointed to your soul-consciousness, to your deity. And that also is the only way by which there can be realised in you, the highest and largest, the most intimate and absolute harmony you are capable of and that is demanded of you. The perfect organisation of the individual life can be obtained in and through the harmony inherent in the central reality, in the natural order of its activities. In the scheme or pattern laid out in the inmost consciousness, each element has its own orbit and its own quantum of energy, each force its. allotted function: the will in each is exactly commensurable with what should be the expression in it of the total reality, each is the whole and rounded articulation of an aspect or figure put forth by the central truth in its self-display. As in a musical theme, each note has a definite pitch, amplitude, tone which give it its perfect form in order to constitute a common pattern – the highest pitch, the largest amplitude or the most vibrant tone is not needed, not only not needed, would be a bar on the contrary – even so, the individual man when he attains perfection realises in himself a harmony which gives the true expression of all his limbs, the fullest and fairest expression of each and every one as demanded by the divine role destined for him.

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