In childhood I went through a partial loss of eyesight;
but I never knew that.
I used to think,
perhaps vision is something like this -
perhaps everyone sees the world just like me.
One day I took a pair of glasses from a playmate and put them on;
and voilà! Everything was instantly clear.
Then I felt, as if I suddenly came close to everyone else;
the joy of seeing everything clearly and closely,
as if I suddenly gained the whole world twice as much by this -
and yet, I had no idea I was carrying around so much loss for so many days.
Just like this visual closeness, there is a spiritual closeness.
Whoever I approach with that kind of (spiritual) closeness, holds my hand and says: 'you've come!'
We have air, water, the sun, the moon -
they are our great friends;
they are doing so many things for us;
but they are not holding our hands, they are not saying with childlike joy: 'you've come!'
If we were able to go close to them spiritually,
if we were able to listen to their childlike utterances,
and receive their heartfelt touch,
we would have immediately understood how great those small gifts were, compared to all other gifts they were already giving us.
I have been living among all these people all my life;
but these people are not holding my hands, these people are not saying: 'you've come!'
I'm wandering in this world - encased, as it were - within a hard shell.
It's just like a baby bird right before its birth;
it's encased within the egg,
and not yet been born,
although it has come to the earth.
Spiritual birth is nothing but the birth from this egg of semi-dark consciousness.
And it is with this birth that we will become twice-born1.
And only this birth is the right kind of birth in this world -
the birth of individual consciousness in the Eternal Consciousness.
Only then the baby bird receives complete protection under its mother's wings;
only then a person receives that Everything, everywhere.
How wonderful that success must be!
And how indescribable the joy!
We don't know that success or that joy,
but don't we at least catch its glimpses every other moment in life!
Spirituality doesn't give us much;
but it removes our indifference, our inertness.
Only then we perceive the Eternal Consciousness in our individual consciousness,
and the Eternal Spirit in our individual spirit.
When we perceive that way,
no confusion remains anymore,
as to the fact that everything indeed comes from His Eternal Joy.
From a blade of grass to a complete human being -
wherever in this world my mind is indifferent,
it is to be realized that our own spirituality has been constrained under those circumstances.
When our consciousness, our spirit radiates everywhere,
we feel all the spirits in this world by our spirit alone;
not by our senses, not by our intellect, and not by any scientific argumentation.
That complete feeling is a strange sensation.
Even if I deeply feel this tree in front of me as that Universal Spirit,
my whole individual consciousness becomes filled with joy.
Since I don't usually see the tree that way,
even as my gaze falls on it, I pass by casually, saying:
'Oh it doesn't matter to me';
the spirit of this tree never enters my spirit to raise it to Universal Consciousness,
to make me the rightful inheritor of that Joy.
It is the same with human beings.
We don't look upon fellow human beings with the vision of the Spirit -
we view them through senses, through argumentation, through selfishness, through our family and friends, through our habits and prejudices -
we view them as one of our family, as one of our 'friends in need', as one with whom there is no relationship, or as one of a special kind -
so our introduction ends right there, and the door closes right there,
we cannot enter any further -
and my spirit cannot clearly call that person a spirit too.
If it could, it would have held hands and said: 'you've come!'
The final goal of all spiritual endeavors is clearly mentioned in the Upanishads:
Te Sarvagam Sarvatah Praapya Dheeraa
Yuktaatmaanah Sarvamevaavishanti.2
The gentle enter everywhere, as they are united in Spirit, and as they have received that Everything everywhere.
This power - the power to enter everywhere - is the last one.
To enter is the same as being united.
When all the coverings of desires, of habits, of prejudices - are removed,
our individual spirit unites everywhere with the Universal Spirit;
it indeed enters everywhere.
Reaching that Universal Spirit is essential,
because otherwise the individual spirit stops merely at the door -
and gets trapped in its own mortal shell -
Amritam Yadvibhaati, He who reveals Himself within everyone as pure nectar, remains ever-unreachable by the individual soul;
it observes everything except Aanandarupamamritam - Pure Joy, full of Immortal Bliss.
And this entering of the individual spirit in the Universal Spirit everywhere in this world - indeed - is the final goal of our struggle.
We must realize it is this path alone that we are treading every day.
This cannot happen as long as spiritual blindness and inertness persist within us.
Only the spirit can manifest the Spirit.
Every day we need to understand -
little by little the gate is opening,
and our reach is expanding.
We are mixing more freely with everyone else,
slowly but surely all conflicts are being resolved,
the Universal Spirit is manifesting Itself every day more and more clearly -
in dealings with people, and in day-to-day activities.
Previously there was an insurmountable partition of 'I'-ness that ruthlessly divided me and everyone else -
that partition is slowly dissolving and fading away;
the Light of the Infinite is manifesting Itself more and more clearly through the transparent sections of the partition -
I'm not improperly influencing anyone anymore,
I'm not cutting anyone off anymore,
the mental blocks that used to exist between me and another person are being removed every day.
Bengali original: http://tagoreweb.in/Render/ShowContent.aspx?ct=Essays&bi=72EE92F5-BE50-4057-6E6E-0F7410664DA3&ti=72EE92F5-BE50-42D7-EE6E-0F7410664DA3