by Nalini (Edith Tipple)

Swami Prabhavananda

I can hear him now,
my small and loving but fiery Bengali guru,
raising his voice for unequivocal direction:
“Keep your mind on your highest Ideal!”
And he would reiterate: “By hook or by crook.”
That is, by any means possible –
in whatever mind-set or activity you might be engaged.

Worship is not only ritual;
it is the act of offering all you are and have and do to the Highest.
Study is not only reading books and scriptures;
it is absorbing ideas, practically, working with them to make them your own.
Discrimination is not only the discernment of what is Real today
and will remain so tomorrow;
it is the clinging to the fundamental of Truth.

Is there truly, then, a way to keep the main thing the main thing?
Yes, there is.
By deploying every ounce of energy we possess
every minute and every second of every day
in service to the very Highest and Unchanging concept we hold.
What challenge could be more fun?
What else is this life for?

EDITH DICKINSON TIPPLE lives in Santa Barbara, CA and has been a member of the Vedanta Society of Southern California since 1963. She is Editor of What the Disciples Said About It, Realizing God and A Challenge to Modern Minds and is a contributor to Prabuddha Bharata, Vedanta Kesari, Samvit, and American Vedantist. She can be reached at edithtipple@gmail.com.