Prayer

It is never in vain that an ardent and sincere prayer is addressed to the Divine’s Grace. When, in our despair, we cry to the Divine, always He answers to our call. We pray that the Divine should teach us ever more, enlighten us more and more, dispel our ignorance, illumine our minds.

Joy

As soon as the presence of the psychic consciousness is united with the aspiration, the intensity takes on quite a different character, as if it were filled with the very essence of an inexpressible joy. This joy is something that seems contained in everything else. Whatever may be the outer form of the aspiration, whatever difficulties and obstacles it may meet, this joy is there as though it filled up everything, and it carries you in spite of everything.

Cheerfulness

Cheerfulness is the salt of sadhana. It is a thousand times better than gloominess. Never grumble. All sorts of forces enter you when you grumble and they pull you down. Keep smiling. I seem always to be joking but it is not mere joking. It is a confidence born from the psychic. A smile expresses the faith that nothing can stand against the Divine and that everything will come out all right in the end.

Beauty

Beauty is Ananda taking form—but the form need not be a physical shape. One speaks of a beautiful thought, a beautiful act, a beautiful soul. What we speak of as beauty is Ananda in manifestation; beyond manifestation beauty loses itself in Ananda or, you may say, beauty and Ananda become indistinguishably one.