The spiritual life, in the beginning, is like a small plant in the nursery that needs to be guarded and nurtured with special care. That is why it has been well advised that in the beginning, and this beginning may last until 12 years or more, one has to carefully prepare oneself providing proper and timely nourishment to the soul within us. It is the soul that responds first to the spiritual call. But the other parts get distracted by the old pulls and tend to cover the flame of aspiration growing within. These parts, especially the vital needs the old food and if its demand is too insistent then one has to sometimes restrict the temporary satisfactions of the vital that it seeks through the company of people and chatting with them. It is best avoided as these vital interchanges tend to mix our growing inner life with the poison of the world with its attendant consequence of forgetfulness of the true aim.
However a time comes when the seed and plant of spirituality is firmly rooted in the soil of human nature. It has begun to grow into a tree. Then the rules of the game change and one can go anywhere, meet anyone and instead of being affected by others one begins to influence others. Yet the rule in the beginning should be to minimize the company of those who lower the consciousness and those whose company pulls us down. This does not mean isolating oneself in some ivory tower, rather a universal love and goodwill for all is very much the nature of the spiritual man. But until this develops it is best to safeguard the new life by putting the Mother between us and all whom we meet.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
