As aspirants, what are the patent and latent qualities within us that we must be wary about? Bhagawan lovingly guides us today with a simple example.
Aspirants must never entertain hatred against those who point out their defects, for that is as bad as hating the ‘good’. The good has to be loved and the bad discarded. Remember, the bad should not be hated. It has to be given up, avoided. Only people who can do this can achieve progress in meditation and spiritual wisdom. Conceit, jealousy, the passionate (rajasic) exhibition of one’s superiority, anger, the craving to inform oneself of the weakness of others and their failings, trickery — all these are obstacles in the path of meditation. Even if these are not patently exhibited, the inner impulses urging one along these wrong directions are latent in the mind. A room which has been kept closed for a long time and has become just-ridden and foul-smelling, needs to be opened, cleaned, and made habitable by elaborate sweeping and dusting. In the same manner, the mind too has to be cleaned by meditation.
– Dhyana Vahini, Ch 14.
