The Psychic Being Brings Cheerful Focus to the Spiritual Sadhana

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In his novel Martin Chuzzlewit,
Charles Dickens exposes us to a

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character who is perpetually
cheerful, Mark Tapley.

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We meet him in a comfortable
situation, working at an inn

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with a warm relationship with
the proprietor of the inn with

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whom he is in love and who is in
love with him.

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He recognizes that this cheerful
attitude may be conditioned by

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his favourable circumstances and
posits that he will only know

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the steadfastness and character
of himself and his cheerful

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responses to life if he can
maintain that attitude in

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difficult circumstances.
He purposely chooses to give up

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the comfortable situation and
place himself in life

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circumstances that will
challenge his ability to be

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cheerful.
He passes the tests he set for

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himself and prove that he is
able to face everything that

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life confronts him with while
maintaining his basic and

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characteristic positive
attitude.

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Poverty, life and death
circumstances, being cheated by

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con men and facing all kinds of
adversity did not shake him.

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What Charles Dickens illuminates
here is an important lesson not

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only for life in the external
world, but also for the way we

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confront obstacles, setbacks,
difficulties, delays, and

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diversions that can come up
during the spiritual practice.

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Srioro Bindu and the Mother
remind us that the basic element

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of cheerfulness comes from the
opening of the psychic being,

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and it's shifting the attention
away from the external ego

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personality to the spiritual
purpose and focus.

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It is the vital ego that suffers
under the blows of the world.

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The psychic being can appreciate
and understand that when there

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are issues or obstacles, they
are part of the process of the

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transformation process and need
to be taken in stride.

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The psychic naturally turns its
focus towards the divine and

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thus attracts the support and
energy that comes from the

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divine, just as the sunflower
turns its face towards the sun.

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Srioro Bindu observes quote
Cheerfulness is the salt of

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sadhna.
It is 1000 times better than

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gloominess.
It cheerfulness puts you in the

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right condition for the psychic
to work, and without knowing it,

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you grow in just the right
perceptions and right feelings

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for the spiritual attitude.
The mother adds quote.

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All depression and gloom is
created by the hostile forces,

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who are never so pleased as when
throwing on you a melancholy

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mood.
Therefore face your troubles

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joyously opposed with invariable
cheerfulness the obstacles that

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beset the road to
transformation.

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The best means of routing the
enemy is to laugh in his face.

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You may grapple and tussle for
days and he may still show an

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undiminished vigor, but just
once laugh at him and lo, he

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takes to his heels.
A laugh of self-confidence and

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of faith in the divine is the
most shattering strength

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possible.
It disrupts the enemy's front,

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spreads havoc in his ranks, and
carries you triumphantly

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onwards.
The converted vital feels a joy

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in the process of realization.
All the difficulties implied in

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that process it accepts with
gusto.

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It never feels happier than when
the truth is shown it and the

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play of falsehood in its lower
nature laid bare.

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It does not do the yoga as if
carrying a burden on its back,

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but as if it were a very
pleasurable occupation.

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It is willing to endure the
utmost with a smile if it is a

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condition of the transformation,
neither complaining nor

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grumbling, it endures happily
because it is for the sake of

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the divine that it does so.
It has the unshakable conviction

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that the victory will be won.
End Quote.

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Reference Sviro, Bindu and the
Mother Looking from Within,

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Chapter 5, Attitudes on the
Path, pages 141 to 142.