If man were a mortal, flesh-and-blood creature with only physical needs to satisfy, then a life spent in satisfying these needs should be the most satisfactory of lives. But it is the least satisfactory. Something in you is more than flesh-and-blood. Something in you is wings. Something in you is song. Something in you is Spirit. What are the longings of your heart, the aspirations of your mind? Consider them well, for they reveal the pattern in which you were formed. They are the voice of your true Self, demanding expression. For this, you were formed before Abraham was! And all the forces of heaven and Earth combine to bring this true pattern in you to fruition. There is something in you that tells you you were meant for more than all you have achieved, no matter what that may be, something in you that will be satisfied with nothing less than greatness. I t may settle for less, but it is not satisfied. It may be covered over with years of dusty mediocrity, of compromise and resignation to necessity. But it is there. Something in you is Spirit, and it hungers and thirsts after spiritual things righteousness, usefulness, selflessness. It is not content merely to live; it has to live well! You are more than body, more than mind. These may be altered, but there is something in you that cannot be altered. It is immortal. It is incorruptible. How do I know that this is there? Because I have caught glimpses of it. I have looked with loves eyes. Sometimes we think we would believe if only we had a sign. "Give me a revelation, God!" We cry, "O Lord, let pass a miracle!" This I believe: anyone who sincerely asks for signs will have signs. Pray, pray steadfastly, and you will have prayers answered. But do not seek for God to show Himself in supernatural ways and forget that He is constantly showing Himself in natural ways. God is the unusual, no doubt; but God is usual too. Do not seek the burning bush and miss the bushes glowing with bloom in your own backyard. Do not look for God in the heavens and pass God by in your neighbour without speaking. Do you seek a miracle? What is more miracle than morning, when the light comes streaming back to Earth? Or spring, when death is overcome by every greening clod? A star is a miracle, and it is closest to you of all that is. You are a miracle. Every moment of your life is packed with miracles. It is all right to ask for signs, but to build on signs is to build on sands, for it is to build on appearances. We have to go deeper than appearances, even good appearances; else the first adversity will sweep our faith away. We cannot much of a faith on the fact that we happen to be having a comfortable, pain-free existence. But there is knowledge of God, there is faith in life that has nothing to do with appearances. For fundamentally, God and life are not something we know with our brain but in our bones, in the very morrow of our bones, the morrow of our spirit. I do not need to convince the hare that bursts from my feet and bounds quickly away that life is good. He knows. He may be wet and cold and alone and shelterless and hungry, yet he knows. Every frantic leap he makes is a living affirmation of life. The hare knows deep down so do we all that one moment of life is worth infinitely more than all non-life (if such there could be) in the world. If eternity had no other meaning, it came alive with meaning the moment life appeared in it.

- courtesy Akhand Jyoti