The search for knowledge should be distinguished from the search for truth. They are not the same thing. The first is acquired, the second is experienced. Just as there are stringent laws that govern the study of the outer world, there are equally rigorous laws that govern the discovery of the inner world.
India has traditionally been a storehouse for the development and dissemination of truths from the inner world through self-realised spiritual masters who have from times immemorial been responsible for spreading awareness of these principles. Outer science deals with knowledge while inner science deals with truth. The former is objective while the latter is subjective.
The Guru enters your life to take you in that direction but this time consciously and with awareness. More than prayer, pilgrimage, japam, tapam, puja, meditation and other forms of spiritual practice including mastery of scripture, it is the Grace of the Guru alone that opens the gateway to liberation.
These principles of Sanatana Dharma need to be widely disseminated so that they are widely understood. We must not blindly follow the West. As Mata Amritanandamayi once said: “We are blindly imitating the West. We should be proud of our dress, food, music, family relations and culture and heritage. It is okay to adopt certain things from the West, but let’s not brush our culture away like rubbish. In fact, we are not adopting the good habits of the West—like their strong work-ethic—but are only adopting the very things the West is spitting out.”
“When we blindly follow Western culture, it is like Shiva dressing like Brahma. Blindly imitating another culture is dangerous.” Amma then said that in all her world travels, she has not seen a country that is imitating the West as much as India. “With our songs, our clothing, or behavior, our food, our cinema—in every way we are imitating,” she said.
The people of Western society thought that by indulging in worldly life, they could enjoy more freedom, but now they are finding out that that is simply not true. It has only served to destroy their mental strength. We should develop a pride for our culture.
Don’t try to become the image in the mirror. Become yourself. When you try to imitate the image in the mirror, you become a stranger to yourself, you become an orphan.