It is only in still waters that we can see our reflection. Swami Vivekananda in his lectures on Raja Yoga, describes the mind-stuff (chitta), and how impressions, desires, observations and thoughts all disturb the stillness of the mind-stuff. He also describes methods of bringing it to a status of stillness, in which the individual can step away from the call of the vital desire nature or the mental processes, and thus, be receptive to higher forces and levels of interfacing with the universal reality.

Today's world provides people with both an obstacle and an opportunity when they try to follow their chosen or cherished path in life. The obstacle is based on societal requirement that individuals take up a productive form of work in the world to earn enough money to support their needs for basic necessities of life. In many cases, the skill set and education or training simply is not available to them for the jobs that are accessible to them, or else, to obtain the necessary skills and certifications, the time and cost of acquisition are beyond their means.

One reason we do not have a sense of our purpose or role in the world, generally, is that we do not examine deeply our inner predilections or the trajectory of our lives. We interpret our lives based on external criteria and motives without appreciating that there is another driving force behind that helps to create the circumstances, opportunities and directions we wind up taking in our lives.

Dannion Brinkley told the story in his book Saved By the Light. He was a mercenary, a hired killer. He was struck by lightning. He was pronounced clinically dead. He returned to life. He knew, at that moment, that he was 'sent back' to accomplish a task, a mission. He left behind his prior life and founded an organization called Compassion in Action (C.I.A.) to train people on how to work with those who were terminally ill and in hospice.

We tend to work from the outer to the inner consciousness. We treat the external world as more real and dominant to determine our physical body, our vital nature and our mental development. There is of course a certain amount of truth to this view, inasmuch as the outer and the inner are two sides of the same reality, inextricably intertwined and acting upon one another.

People espousing their philosophy of how to act in the world are often confronted by a disconnect between their statements and their own actions. They frequently tell children, for instance, 'Do as I say, not as I do.' If we assume that the person is not simply motivated by pure self-interest and using his words to capture the support of others, essentially a form of hypocrisy, we sometimes find that the person himself treats his mental adoption of a certain idea, principle or attitude as the reality, without reflecting that his outer actions do not correspond with this inner idea.

Modern day civilization emphasizes some kind of external 'result' that can be measured. Most frequently this is tied to a monetary value, but the world also appreciates and honors, in some cases, those who do humanitarian work, those who lead countries or fight wars, those who create new products, services or methodologies. Scientists are frequently honored for their groundbreaking discoveries. Religious leaders are frequently appreciated for their moral leadership.

There are many methods that have been tried to shift ideas, thoughts, motives and actions in the world. Some of these methods involve subtle, or not so subtle, use of various forms of propagandizing, proselytizing, sermonizing, or dominating others through use of covert or overt force, including brute physical force, vital force, economic force or mental force. There are also those who harness what we may call a religious force or a patriotic force or a force of 'belonging' to a particular group, at a broader level.

It is a characteristic trait of the human ego-personality that we easily see faults and issues in others and in external circumstances, that we fail to see within ourselves. But how do we recognise something outside if we have no way to relate to it, if we do not produce the vibrational pattern within ourselves and interpret it? All of our activities, political, economic, humanitarian, technical, supportive, are essentially meant to comfort or help in various ways in the external life and mitigate suffering to some degree.

When we are feeling weak or limited, we become unhappy, we react with frustration and are discontented with our lot. We feel in many cases oppressed by circumstances. We can become depressed if things are not going the way we expect or want them to go. We can become angry with ourselves, with others, with circumstances, with a general lack of what we desire to see or achieve.

As long as an individual is rooted in his own ego-standpoint, he sees and interprets things from that standpoint and cannot, by definition, 'see things as they are' in the wider creation. There is the famous story of 5 different observers of a traffic accident, each one observing from a different standpoint. They came up with 5 different versions of what had happened.

The physical body and the sense of separateness that it creates for us acts both as a limitation and as a protection from the action of the energies and forces that are constantly moving in the universal creation and setting up vibrational patterns to which we may respond. The physical body itself has developed an immune system to ward off various forces that try to invade and break down the body itself.

Cultured and educated people often believe that they could not stoop to certain actions or be guilty of certain motives in their actions, or simply react to circumstances in a way other than that of their predominant mental view of themselves. They may look down on those who appear to them to be weak, sinful or who give in to impulses that are hateful, greedy, lustful or otherwise exhibit one of the 'sins' that humanity generally recognises as unacceptable behavior.

There is an art to management of people within a company, department or section. Those who are tasked with undertaking this responsibility frequently find it challenging to get the exact right balance to both motivate their team members and keep things moving smoothly forward. If they are too severe or demanding, they breed a sullen and obstinate form of either active or passive resistance, a layer of negativity that permeates the workplace, makes people unhappy and thereby reduces both attentiveness and efficiency in the use of time.

Being a spiritual seeker, and a manager of a business, or a unit or department or program, are not incompatible activities. The question that seekers raise is how to find the proper balance that allows the work, including the management work, that they do, be part of their spiritual sadhana. If they are interpreting that work according to a fixed guideline of "right or wrong", they frequently opt toward a more severe and less forgiving form of management.

There is an apocryphal story involving the Mother, a sadhak and a bullock. The sadhak complained that the bullock was being obstinate and not cooperating. The Mother asked the sadhak to bring the bullock so she could observe it. After doing so, she indicated there was nothing wrong with the bullock. She advised the sadhak that the bullock's obstinacy was related to something inward the sadhak needed to address, and she counseled patience, understanding and goodwill.

The mental framework frequently wants to find an "either/or" option rather than looking at the nuance needed to resolve multiple views of pending questions. Thus, when we are asked to consider achieving a poise of equality in the face of provocation of any sort, positive or negative, we will tend to shift toward a poise of indifference and thereby give up the initiative to action.

When we look back at the history of human civilization, we can see that many ideas have been attempted to try to develop a fair, balanced and prosperous society. Thinkers, philosophers, political scientists and economists have all weighed in with their dreams and considerations about how to perfect human life on earth. We can also see, however, that none of these ideas has actually worked out in practice.

The Mother provides simple, yet powerful guidance about the connection between one's attitude and his digestive system. If we consider for a moment the times when we are 'out of sorts', feeling angry, or bitter, or somewhat sharp and biting in our reactions to others, we can see that in many cases, there is a reaction that knots up the digestive system, we experience various disturbances of the digestion and we feel generally out of sorts.

The mental consciousness believes, first of all, that the particular viewpoint held by an individual is 'correct' and that other viewpoints are 'wrong'. The vital nature wants to assert itself and gain dominance. The limited and linear framework of the normal human consciousness ensures that there will be disagreement, dispute and eventually a state of gridlock where opposing ideas contend with each other and no one is willing or able to 'compromise' because they hold their own view to be the correct one.

Someone says or does something we do not like or which we find offensive. They may do things to harm our reputation or our relationships, or they may affect our financial well being, possibly cheat us or interfere with our lives in some other way. The natural reaction is one of anger, even "righteous anger, " In some cases we feel that our stomach knots up, we lose our peace of mind, we cannot sleep, or we experience other symptoms of anxiety or nervous tension.

What we see in others in many cases is a mirror to what we contain within ourselves. We understand what is taking place because we are able to receive the vibration and internalize it and translate it into something that resonates in our being. In Western psychology there is a concept called 'projection' whereby someone 'projects' onto another person those traits, qualities, motives or actions which one has within oneself, whether openly visible or latent.

The spiritual seeker often finds that he can see weaknesses and faults in others. If he fails to recognise that his reaction may be due to harboring those faults and weaknesses within himself, he can take an attitude of hostility toward the other person who is exhibiting those things. He may try to control in someone else what he does not control within himself.

We go wherever we focus our attention. If we focus our attention on difficulties, we wallow in those difficulties. If we focus our attention on growth and development, then we draw to ourselves those opportunities that support that growth. There are examples. Certain traditions make the rooting out of what they consider to be 'sins of the flesh' through extremes of discipline or even self-punishment through use of whips, hair shirts and the cilice.

The play of the three Gunas is active at all times in the life we live here. We may believe that the aspiration, or an act of consecration overcomes this play, but if we examine closely we can see that, in actuality, even the quality of our sadhana, our spiritual effort, is very much controlled and governed by whichever guna is predominant at a particular time, and they continue to fluctuate, moving us from one 'mood' to another along with these fluctuations.