“Imagine yourself on a journey. You have lost your way.
“You are at the crossroads. You cannot turn back, because you came from there, and you cannot go forward, because you do not know where to go, and you cannot stay where you are, because that is not your destination. At that time, an intense desire develops within you that someone should come and show you the way.
“Nature intervenes and you find a Guide who leads you to your destination.
Gumrahi khud manzile maksood ki hai raihnumaa
Khizr mil jaate hain jinko raastaa miltaa naheen
Losing thy way is in itself the means to reaching thy destination,
For surely a Guide will appear to show the way!
Intense desire fills a person with such strength that it attracts the destination to itself!
“In God-realisation, the intensity of desire becomes a reflection of that thing which is to be attained. It was such an intense desire that brought Buddha to Nirvana.
“In the Bible such a concept is dwelled upon as:
‘Knock and it shall be opened unto you.’ ‘Seek and ye shall find.’
Shri Nathji would say:
Before a man begins to drink wine, he has before him the bottle and the cup and the wine. After he has drunk the wine, there is intoxication within him, and he forgets the bottle and the cup and even the act of pouring and drinking. There is then only a feeling of intoxication within him.
“Similarly, before a man reaches the shore, he is aware of the ship and the ocean and the storms. But once he has touched shore, there is only the shore before him and nothing else.
In a like manner, before man reaches God, he has the world and its sorrows and joys before him. He uses the world like a ship as a means to reach God; and once he has reached God, there is only God and nothing else!
“Your intense desire for God shall become like a ship that will take you to God.”