May 29

It’s a Big Demand

W hen you are on a pilgrimage, you depend totally on God. You don’t depend on your credit cards, your hotel bookings, your taxis. Nothing. You just give yourself into the hands of God. “God, I’m coming to You completely empty-handed. You do anything You want with me.” There is a great benefit in that. Only then do you realize that God is with you every minute. You feel God as you would feel your own breath, your own heartbeat. Even one little distraction is enough to keep you from experiencing that presence.

Saint Ramakrishna gave a very beautiful, very simple example of this. When you want to thread a needle, you have to insert all of the fibers at the same time. If even one tiny fiber sticks out, the thread won’t go in. All of the fibers must be well twisted and concentrated; then it is easy to thread the needle.

So if even one little fiber gets distracted, separated from your concentration, that will prevent you from entering into God. It’s very difficult to achieve this kind of concentration. That’s why you don’t see many great sages and saints around. How many are ready to give up all these little distractions for God?

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