This is part of His Divine Grace's quote published in the Newspaper earlier this year. 

The first line translates: Examine yourself always.

The 2nd line translates: Failures are not for you.

When I first came across this quote, I read it as failures are not for me if I put in effort in finding out more about myself. Well if I know myself well, I will know my strengths and weakness. This in turn will help me deal with other people and situations. Thus, get better in avoiding failures.

Well, this is not bad an understanding I believed, but I gained a better spiritual insight when I read a chapter from a book by Paramahansa Yogananda.

My reflections based on the book:

Search yourself through meditation

This will lead to realization about the Self,

That the spirit is free

Realization leads to detachment of the Self from the body,

And that the Self doesnt experience failures and pain

This book came to me in a most unexpected manner, and it came at the time I needed answer to my many questions about spirituality. What is faith? Can faith be developed? How can I believe in something without questioning it? We're always told that we need to do prathanai (petition) with complete faith. But how can I do that when I don't understand what faith really means? I asked some people these questions, and they were not able to help me. Someone told me to put this question forward to Guruji through prathanai. And I tried it.

I got my answers.

I visited a friend at her place that week, and found the book on her coffee table. Picked it up and opened it. The first thing I saw was a chapter titled "Faith".

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