The Inner Life

Life, in every creature, is an unseen and hidden reality; whatever of life is seen outwardly is but its working and partial manifestation. When the atheist fails to understand what life is, he attributes it to matter. But the source of life is life, and lifeless matter cannot produce life. Only those who have an intimate relation with the Source of Life can understand this mystery.

We cannot grasp the real inner life of any creature, because it is hidden under a partial manifestation of itself. The full manifestation of the spiritual life is possible only in the spiritual world, for this material world is insufficient for its full expression.

We know an animal, for instance, only from the outside, without understanding what it is in itself. The animal has warmth, movement, growth, and other signs of life. These only we see and not the life of which they are the outward signs. We can know a thing outwardly without knowing what the thing is in itself. But, by living in Him who is the Source of Life, we can know Him as He is in Himself according to our needs and capacities. By knowing Him thus we come to know ourselves who are created after His “image and likeness” and also the real nature of our inner life.

The spirit of egotism hinders us from attaining a knowledge of reality. We should not be like Carneades, who said to his teacher: “If I have reasoned rightly, you are wrong; if not, O Diogenes, return to me the mina I paid you for my lesson.” Carneades was not willing to admit his mistake. In any case, he wanted to lay the blame on his teacher. If he was right, the teacher was wrong. But, if he was wrong, even then the teacher was wrong, because he had not taught him to argue correctly.

It is very difficult to explain the deep experience of the inner life. As Goethe has said: “The highest cannot be spoken.” But it can be enjoyed and put into action. This is what I mean. One day, during my meditation and prayer, I felt His presence strongly. My heart overflowed with heavenly joy. I saw that in this world of sorrow and suffering there is a hidden and inexhaustible mine of great joy of which the world knows nothing, because even men who experience it are not able to speak of it adequately and convincingly. I was anxious to go down to the neighbouring village to share that joy with others. But, because of my physical illness, there arose a conflict between my soul and my body. The soul wanted to go, the body lagged behind. But finally I overcame and dragged my sick body and told the people in the village what Christ’s presence had done for me and would do for them. They knew that I was ill and that there was some inner compulsion which urged me to speak to them. Thus, though I was unable to explain all that Christ’s presence had meant to me, that deep experience had been translated into action and men had been helped. Where the tongue is lacking, life, through action, reveals the reality. As St. Paul says: “The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (2 Cor. iii. 6).

As some insects with their antennæ feel their surroundings and distinguish between hurtful and useful things, so spiritual men, through their inner senses, avoid dangerous and destructive influences and enjoy God’s sweet and life-giving presence; they are constrained by their blissful experience to bear witness to God. As Tertullian has said: “Whenever the soul comes to itself and attains something of its natural soundness, it speaks of God.”

Almost every one has an inner capacity—some more, some less—to sense spiritual truths without knowing how they have attained them. As some one has said: “They know without knowing how.” For instance, Colburn (1804-1840), when six years old, was asked how many seconds there are in eleven years. In four seconds he gave the correct answer. When questioned as to how he had arrived at the answer the boy said that he did not know; all he could say was that the answer came to his mind. Just so God reveals spiritual realities to those who seek to live according to His will.

The will to live, which is present in every man, is an impulse urging him to carry life to its perfection, that is, to that state in which the purpose of God for that life will be fulfilled, so that he will be eternally happy in Him. On the other hand, to those who are without the experience of the joyful inner life in God, life is a burden. Schopenhauer was one of these; he said: “Life is hell.” There is nothing strange in such people wanting to commit suicide. As a result of the teaching of the Greek philosopher, Hegesias, many young men committed suicide. Also several philosophers, like Zeno, Empedocles and Seneca, put an end to their lives. But the strange thing is that their philosophy did not show them how to remove those things which made them unhappy, instead of destroying their lives. Such is the philosophy of the world (James iii. 15). Although some, who are tired of this life on account of its struggles and anxieties, may repress the will-to-live, they cannot get rid of the will-to-believe. Even if they have no belief in God or in any other spiritual reality, they have at least belief in their unbelief, though Pyrrho said: “We cannot even be sure that we are not sure.”

The inner life of personality of man cannot be freed by changing the place or by killing the body, but only by putting off the “old man” and putting on the new man, thus passing from death to life. Those who go astray, instead of satisfying their inner craving in the Creator, try to satisfy it in their own crooked ways. The result is that, instead of being happy and satisfied, they become miserable. For instance, a thief who is stealing and hoarding things as a means of happiness is not only missing his happiness, but by his acts of theft destroying the very capacity for it. That capacity is deadened by his sinful conduct. And if he loses the sense of the sinfulness of theft, and his conscience does not feel remorse, he has already committed spiritual suicide. He has not only killed the capacity, but has killed the soul, which had the capacity.

Real joy and peace do not depend on power, kingly wealth, or other material possessions. If this were so, all men of wealth in the world would be happy and contented, and princes like Buddha, Mahavira, and Bhartari would not have renounced their kingdoms. But this real and permanent joy is found only in the Kingdom of God, which is established in the heart when we are born again.

The secret and reality of this blissful life in God cannot be understood without receiving, living, and experiencing it. If any one tries to understand it only with the intellect, he will find his effort useless. A scientist had a bird in his hand. He saw that it had life, and, wanting to find out in what part of the bird’s body the life was, and what the life itself was, he began dissecting the bird. The result was that the very life of which he was in search disappeared mysteriously. Those who try to understand the inner life merely intellectually will meet with a similar failure. The life for which they are looking will vanish in the analysis.

In comparison with this big world, the human heart is only a small thing. Though the world is so large, it is utterly unable to satisfy this tiny heart. Man’s ever growing soul and its capacities can be satisfied only in the infinite God. As water is restless until it reaches its level, so the soul has not peace until it rests in God.

The material body cannot keep company for ever with the spirit. After fulfilling its purpose for some time, as the instrument of the soul for its work in the world, the body begins to refuse, through weakness and old age, to go along with the spirit any further. This is because the body cannot keep pace with the eternally-growing soul.

Although the soul and the body cannot live together for ever, the fruits of the work which they have done together will remain for ever. So it is necessary to lay carefully the foundation of our eternal life. But the pity of it is that man, by the misuse of his freedom, loses it for ever. Freedom means the capacity to do either good or bad deeds. By constantly choosing to do bad deeds, he becomes a slave of sin and destroys his freedom and life (John viii. 21, 34).

By giving up his sins, on the other hand, and by following the truth, he is made free for ever (John viii. 32). The works of those who are thus made free and spend all their life in His service, that is, of those who die in the Lord, will follow them (Rev. xiv. 13). To die in the Lord does not mean death, for the Lord is “the Lord of the living and not of the dead,” but to die in the Lord means losing oneself in His work. As the Lord said: “Whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it” (Luke ix. 23).

If any one lives and dies in evil and darkness, it is not the fault of the Lord, because He “lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John i. 9). The difference between a good life and a bad life is like that between diamond and coal. Though made of the same substance, carbon, there is a vast difference between them. The diamond reflects the sun’s light with glowing beauty, while the coal remains dark and dull even in the brightest sunshine. Just so the Sun of Righteousness is reflected by good and bad men. There is no defect in the Sun, but only in the sinner.

Man’s state is like that of the earth. We think the sun sets and turns itself away from us. But the real fact is that the earth moves away from the sun. The earth would collapse into space if it were not being continually drawn by the sun towards itself. Just so the Sun of Righteousness draws all men to Himself by the attraction of His love (John xii. 32).

When a member of the body is hurt or wounded, the whole body is busy healing it. In the same manner, if we are in Christ and He is in us, then He will, by His divine life, heal our wounds of sin and grant us the joy of sound spiritual health.

When we receive this new life, we should not think that we are set free from all kinds of temptation and trouble. The fact is that, by receiving this new life, we have become separate from the world and there will be more conflict and struggle than before. But the difference will be that, whereas these temptations and troubles were unbearable before, now they become means of blessing and joy. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God” (Romans viii. 28).

Besides this, the struggle is necessary for the growth and perfection of our hidden capacities and qualities. He who has granted life to us will help us to win victory in this holy war, so that by overcoming the world, death, and Satan we may enter into His eternal kingdom.

We ought to make the best possible use of God-given opportunities, and should not waste our precious time by our neglect or carelessness. Many people say: there is plenty of time to do this or that; don’t worry. But they do not realise that, if they do not make good use of this short time, the habit formed now will be so ingrained that when more time is given to us this habit will become our second nature and we shall waste that time also. “He that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much” (Luke xvi. 10).

Now it is meet that every one should fulfil in his life the purpose of his Creator and spend that life for the glory of God and the good of others. Every one should follow his calling and carry on his work according to his God-given gifts and capacities. “There are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit” (1 Cor. xii. 4,11). The same breath is blown into flute, cornet, and bagpipe, but different music is produced according to the different instruments.

In the same way the one Spirit works in us, God’s children, but different results are produced, and God is glorified through them according to each one’s temperament and personality.

In this world there is very little harmony between the inner and the outer life. But, if we live according to the will of God, then the time will come when there will be perfect harmony between the inner and the outer life for ever. The outer will be exactly like the inner and the inner exactly like the outer. And by His grace we shall become perfect like our Father in Heaven.