Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 3

THE ordinary consciousness takes for granted the things that exist as they are. It does not question; it finds everything very natural and as a matter of course. It sees and expects to see the same old familiar things repeated and is not struck by any extraordinary note in them. That is the unconsciousness of the ordinary consciousness. But when you begin to be conscious, when you look about and gaze at things, you awake, as it were, from sleep, and begin to question, to wonder: why is it like this, how is it so, what is it, to what purpose etc. etc. Normally you see the sun rise, rain fall, earth rotate – but you do not spend a thought over any of these objects or happenings, except so far as they are useful or simply nuisance. But when there is a light in you and you become conscious, conscious of yourself and of things around you, everything acquires an importance, a sense and you are full of wonder, wondering at a wonderful creation. The more you advance, the more the light grows in you, all the more your wonder increases. As your awareness increases, your interest too increases. A new beauty surrounds, flows out of every object and event. You do not take things for granted and let them pass mechanically, but greet everyone of them as a guest, with whom you wish to make acquaintance and be familiar, each one having a message for you and yourself something to deliver. That is a source of inexhaustible delight and of ever increasing knowledge.

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