It means that, on the one side, there is the ordinary life with its ordinary aims, a life centered around our petty desires, gains and losses, relationships based on satisfactions of the flesh, the usual absorption in selfish interests, family, chasing money and ambition, running after pleasures of the palate and lust etc. There is in it also some place for God, some kind of ‘spiritual practice’ sometime, but more as a means to glorify the life of the ego.
On the other hand there is the life turned towards the Divine, to serve, love and realise the Divine, lived for a higher Ideal, a greater truth, centered around the highest aspiration, a life of progress, of ascension, of a seeking for higher things.
The muddle is when one mixes these two aims and is pulled by these two kinds of life strongly. It is important therefore that the heart settles upon a decisive choice of one or the other. Otherwise, in the absence of a clear and decisive choice once and for all, the will that is given to us to make the choices becomes weak and paralysed turning one into a plaything of forces and circumstances.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
