In the Hours of Meditation

Fear not! All mortal things are as shadows. Unreality dominates all appearance. You are the Reality within which no change abides. Know you are the Immovable One! Let nature play with you as nature will. Your form is a dream. Know this, and be you content! Your soul is stationed in the formlessness of Divinity. Let the mind follow the blinking light; desire rules, limitations exist. You are not mind; desire touches you not. You are contained within Omniscience and Omnipotence. Remember life is but a play. Play your part. You must. Such is the law. Yet, withal, you are neither player, play nor law. Life itself cannot limit you. Are you not limitless! Life is of the stuff of dreams. You dreamest not. You are the Dreamless One, beyond the touch and taint of unreality. Know this! Know this and be free—free—free!!!

Peace! Peace! Silent, audible Peace! Peace wherein the Voice of God is heard. Peace and Silence! Then comes the Voice of God, audible— audible within the Silence!

'I am with you, ever and for ever. Never hast you been nor canst you be from Me apare. I am your Soul. Verily your Soul is I.'

Beyond the universe, beyond all dreams I rest, Self-contained within immensity. And even so are you; ay, even so are you. For I am you and you are I. Leave off all dreams! Come! Come unto Me! I shall carry you across the ocean of darkness and ignorance unto Light and Life Everlasting. For I am these; and you and I are One. You are I! I am you! Go, dwell in Peace! Dwell you in Peace! Again when the hour cometh, in the stillness and in the Peace you shall hear My Voice!—the Voice of God— the Voice of God! ______

Again the hour is at hand. Day merges in the evening time. Everywhere without is quiet. Nature herself is at peace. And when nature is at peace, more peacefully does the soul retire into the inner chamber of the heart. More readily also. Let the senses and their activity subside. Life, as it is, is short; desire is rampant. Give at least some short time unto the Lord. He asks for little, only this, that you shall know your Self; for, verily, knowing your Self, you come to know Him. For God and the Soul are One.

Some say, 'Remember, O Man, that you are dust!' True, of the body! Even of the mind is it true! But the higher, the mightier, the truer, the holier revelation reads, 'Remember, O Man, that you are the Soul!' 'Indestructible and imperishable are you alone, O Soul!' So speaks the Lord. All else wanes. However mighty the form, it perishes. Death and destruction are the lot of all form. Thought is subordinate to change. Personality is of the weaving of these thought and form. Therefore, stand aside, O'Soul. Remember you are the Self beyond both tought and form. All virtue resides in this consciousness, 'You are One with God.'In this alone are you immortal; in this alone are you pure and holy.

Try not to become the master. You are the master! There is no becoming for you. You are, O Soul! However sublime may seem the process of becoming, the hour shall come when you shall know. 'Progress is in time,' but 'Perfection is within eternity.' And you are not of time. You are of eternity.

Is there Divinity! Then, 'Tat Tvam Asil!'— meaning, 'You are That! You are That!' Under- stand that which is the Highest within you. Worship the Highest! And the most perfect form of worship is the knowledge that you and the Highest are One. And what is the Highest? That, O Soul, you call God.

Throw all dreams into oblivion! Having heard of the Self within you, the Self you are, understand! Having understood, perceive! Having perceived, know! Having known, realize! Having realized, then—'Tat Tvam Asil!'—which is, 'You are That!'

Retreat from the world! It is the embodiment of dreams. It together with the body—verily, these are the nests of dreams. Shall you be a dreamer? Shall you be bound for ever in the bondage of dreams?

'Arise! Awake! and stop not till the goal is reached!'

So speaks the Lord in the Silence—in the deep, deep Silence when only His Voice is audible. Hari! Om Tat Sat! 'Go you in Peace!' Beyond all, ay, even within all appearance of form reigns the Spirit. Its nature is Peace, Peace, Unutterable Peace!

The Voice of God, speaking, saith in the Quiet Hour, 'Remember, ever remember, "Only the pure in heart see God!" Purity is the first requisite. Even as they who are governed by desire are intense therein in their passions, even so be you pure; even so, do you have a passionate longing for purity! Search deeply and steadfastly for purity. It alone assists. Call to your mind that great prayer of My servant, Prahlada, unto Me, "O Lord, that same intensity of love that worldly people have for the fleeting objects of the senses, give to me that same intensity of love for Thee!" Purity is the antechamber to the Lord’s Presence. Before you thinkest of the Lord, think of purity. Purity is the key by which the doors of meditation that lead into the Abiding-Place of the Most High, are opened.

'Throw yourself upon the Ocean of My Strength. Strive not! Seek not! Know that I AM. This knowledge, added with complete resignation unto My Will shall save you. Have you no fears! Are you not in Me! Am I not in you! Know you that all this passes which men deem so great. Death is everywhere, swallowing up the forms of life. Death and change ensnare and bind all things - save the Spirit. Know this! Purity is the method of this knowledge. It is the foundation-ground. With purity comes fearlessness, freedom and the realization on your pare of thine own nature, the reality of which I AM.

'Let the tempest blow, but when desire burns and the mind vacillates—then, THEN call upon ME! I shall hear. For, as My servant hath said, I hear even the footfall of an ant. And I shall speed unto you. I do not desert them who call upon Me sincerely. Call upon Me, not only sincerely, but steadfastly as well.

'I am not the universe; I am the Spirit beyond it! The universe is as a carcase unto Me. I am concerned with the SOUL alone. Be not deceived by the external magnitude of things. Divinity is not in form, not yet in thought. It is the purified, free, spiritual, blissful, form-emancipated, thought- emancipated consciousness which knows not, nor can know, any stain or sin or bondage or limitation. Within the innermost, That are you, O Soul. Realization shall come to you with regard to this. It must. For such is the Sure Goal of the soul’s life.

Remember, remember I am with you! I am with you! I, the Lord, am with you! I am as Strength to all your weakness; I am as Forgiveness to all your sin; I am as Love to all your search for Me! I am your Self! I am your Self! Put off all other thoughts of Self! For in the thought that your Self is in any wise different from the Self of Me lies all ignorance and all weakness. Arise, you Shining One, know that I am your Self! I am your Self.

'And purity is the pathway to My Presence! Herein is your salvation! Hari! Om Tat Sat! 'Peace! Peace! Peace!'

— Rishi Banerjee
July 2023