It is upon the purity of the mind that the health, both of body and of mind, chiefly depends. The process of purifying the mind does not differ very much from the process of cleaning or washing any object. Water poured upon any object washes it, and if there is a spot which cannot be washed away by the water, some substance which can take away that spot is applied, to wash it thoroughly. The water which washes the heart is the continual running of the love-stream. When that stream is stopped, when its way is blocked by some object which closes the heart, and when the love-stream is no longer running, then the mind cannot keep pure.
As water is the cleansing and purifying substance in the physical world, so love is on the higher plane. Sometimes when it is difficult for love to take away some impressions that are disagreeable, which block the way of the love-stream, they may be washed away by some element that can destroy them. The whole life is a chemical process, and knowledge of its chemistry helps one to make life happy. Unhappy people, being unhappy themselves, cannot make others happy. It is a wealthy person who can help the one who is hard-up, not a poor person, however much desire that person may have to help. It is the same with happiness, which is a great wealth; and those who are happy can take away the unhappiness of others, for they have enough for themselves and more besides for the others.
Earthly pleasures are the shadows of happiness, because of their transitoriness. True happiness is in love, which is the stream that springs from one’s soul, and those who will allow this stream to run continually in all conditions of life, in all situations, however difficult, will have a happiness which truly belongs to themselves, whose source is not without, but within. If there is a constant outpouring of love, one becomes a divine fountain, for from the depth of the fountain a stream rises, and on its return it pours upon the fountain, bathing it continually. It is a divine bath, the true bath in the Ganges, the sacred river.
When once one has the key of this fountain one is always purified, every moment of one’s life; nothing can stay in the mind causing unhappiness. Happiness alone is natural, and it is attained by knowing and by living naturally.
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