Why should we work on truly transforming ourselves?

In this world, it’s not possible to make use of anything without transforming it in one way or the other. You cannot eat rice without converting paddy to rice grains and cooking it! Similarly, you cannot have cloth without transforming cotton into yarn and weaving it into cloth.

Likewise, human beings also need transformation in three things: The first is bodily transformation; the second pertains to the mind; and the third relates to the Atma! The Atma (Divine Soul) is changeless. It is only the body and the mind that require transformation.

How does transformation take place? For instance, if we ask the question whether silver can become God or stone become God, the answer is ‘Yes’. When a sculptor converts a piece of rock into a beautiful idol to be worshipped in a shrine, what was inert and worthless becomes sacred! This is transformation. Similarly, an idol made from silver becomes an object of worship.

Thus, everything which is petty and worldly can be transformed in course of time into something sacred and divine. Such transformation is very necessary.

– Divine Discourse, Jul 14, 1984.