A large number of people were waiting for the apprearance of their beloved guruji. Finally, he came and the crowd grew restive, still, they remained seated in an orderly fashion. Guruji, much pleased by such show of veneration, began to walk amongst his disciples. Suddenly, a man threw himself at his feet. Guruji beaming with pleasure, helped to lift the prostrating man.

Out came a flashing gold chain in guruji’s hand, which he tried to put round the neck of this man. Unfortunately, the chain was too short. Finally, guruji gave up and handed over the gold chain to his doting disciple. I wondered why the guruji couldn’t make the gold chain longer if he indeed had created it in the first place, as he pretended to have done. This prgoramme was beamed live.

Why do such cheap tricks influence us ? We search far and wide for excellence in other fields, but when it comes to the spiritual knowledge, so many of us meekly surrender to whoever can make a fool of us. No wonder unscrupulous people are there to take advantage of this weakness bt pretending to have mystical powers.

How does one search for truth, for God – the Absolute Truth ? Essentially, we need to take guidance from the time-tested scriptures, like the Bhagavad-Geeta. One can also, though rarely, get guidance from a realized soul. For this, one has to search far and wide, as it is not easy to find such enlightened people.

This search for truth is really not easy at all. Only very resolute persons can succeed. Mahatma Gandhi was a good student of truth. It is a long, seemingly endless, journey and mostly one has to trudge a lonely path, as Rabindranath Tagore sang (Ekla chalo re). Other people may not initially look kindly at such attempts, treating the practitioners as strange, may be crazy.

The senses shall give trouble, as they do to everyone ; one has to tolerate their urges. Light at the end of the tunnel would not be visible initially and many temptations shall distract, like the desire to get worshiped. Doubts shall come and one may wonder about the utility of the whole exercise. No wonder Lord Krishna states in the Bhagavad-Geeta that only a small percentage of the mankind shall make such attempts and only a rare person shall succeed.

The search may even take several births, but there is no loss in such attempts since one start in the next birth from where one left off in the last one. The search must go on slowly and through step-by-step process. Meanwhile, one needs to keep oneself encouraged.

How can one be sure that one is succeeding ? Truth shall be revealed slowly. So, one would have insight to many problems and one would avoid acting foolishly under illusion. God shall protect and guide ; one can actually experience this. Fear shall go and mood of peace and bliss shall descend, if one perseveres.

The quality of life shall improve and one would enjoy powers, like a clear vision. And once having reached a good position, the senses shall quieten down, and light at the end of the tunnel shall be visible. It is worth trying.