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their own hands. They say that they censure and oppose the mind for its fickleness and unsteadiness. But inconstancy is a sign of life. Those who are afraid of life and eagerly wait for death, welcome sluggishness, since they see peace and restfulness in it. But let me tell you that peace resulting from sluggishness is unreal. The sluggishness of the mind is self-destructive. What appears as peacefulness there is but the quietness and desolation of the cemetery. The restlessness of life is definitely preferable to the stillness and quiet of the cemetery. It is not the quietness enforced by suppressing the mind, but the peace that evolves itself by a thorough understanding of the mind, that is worthwhile, that is worth having. Only such a peace can lead us on to greater heights. Dead quietness leads to matter, to the earthly and the material, not to God. It is essential to have a lively placidity, an active silence. Only that which is lively can become the doorway leading to the sublime life. That is why I do not advocate suppression of the mind or approve of the efforts to subdue its restlessness to attain peace. Never sink into such a mire of stupidity and stagnation. There is already enough sluggishness in the world and you can graciously avoid augmenting it further. I want a mind that is lively and peacefully calm as well. As we saw earlier, only that peacefulness can be live and quick which you acquire without losing the unsteadiness which I call mobility. Where the quietude of the lake is futile, that of the flowing river -- of the river that is conti-nuously flowing towards the multitudinous seas -- is worth striving for. If that is possible, man can reach the Supreme Soul. I assert therefore that you need not be sorry that the mind is unstable; never censure it; never consider it your enemy. You should rather be thankful to it, for, but for it, you would have long since become a stagnant lake. If the mind had not been fickle you would have taken up a seat on the top of some rubbish heap engrossed in concentration. If the mind had not been fickle, the greedy would be hovering for ever over the object of their greed, the deluded over the object of their delusion
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