THE WAY TO BLESSED LIBERATION.

"There are four soldiers who guard the road to liberation. They are Patience (or peace of mind), Atmic Inquiry, Contentment, and Association with the Wise. If you can succeed in making one of the above a friend, then the others will be easy. That one will introduce you to the others. Without gaining their friendship, they will not. permit you to enter upon the road to liberation. So by all means, gain the friendship of one of the above and start on the road to liberation, for without liberation there is no end to rebirths. Association with the Wise will mean to you, what Garuda Mantra means to the persons who have been bitten by the Cobra. (In India people are cured of the cobra's poisonous bite by chanting Garuda Mantra). Once that wisdom is attained then that person is safe—no harm can come to that person. No one can achieve that blissful state by merely inquiring about the Atmic Wisdom. It must come through self experience or through the help of a Guru. Merely reading books of wisdom breeds more ignorance. Keep in mind that it will be much better to live by begging food from the outcasts, than to live an ignorant life. O Ram, if only one of the four guards is made your friend—namely, Patience is mastered—then all your miseries and sorrows will fly from you as darkness flies from the light. Those who have mastered patience will never be upset by poverty or wealth. They will remain the same in peace or war. They will not make a distinction between birth and death. These noble people will be higher than the man of mere knowledge, and will surely attain liberation. May thou, O Ram, attain patience! If Atmic Inquiry along with patience should be developed, then surely the state of the highest wisdom will be acquired. This Atmic-inquiry enables one to understand cause and effect, which is the seed of rebirth. One must rid themselves of all doubt by the power of discrimination, which is always a shining light. One should always make inquiry of, 'whence came I?' 'Whence came the universe?' Such inquiries dispel that dark cloud of ignorance.

"Contentment is the Noble who will set us free of all grief, for such arises only from the sensual objects of desire. One who has mastered noble contentment will always be happy. His mind will ever seek the Atmic Wisdom. Persons of contentment will ever be worshipped by all mankind.

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