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All endeavour,
of any kind, involves three stages: theory, practice and attainment. The
Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita are systematic treatises on these three
processes of consciousness, the latter particularly being designated under
this scheme as the science of reality (Brahmavidya), the practice of self-discipline
and meditation (Yogasastra) and the union of the individual and temporal
with the universal and eternal (Krishna-Arjuna-samvada). The seeker of
Truth should not be in a haste. He has, first of all, to conceive and arrange
his ideas of the principles on which the efforts are to be built up. Secondly,
he has to plant these systematised principles in his own personal life
as the central constituents of his very existence and activity, thereby
transforming his day-to-day life into an embodiment of the fundamental
principles contemplated earlier and established in consciousness. Thirdly,
there should be a patient waiting for the result to follow, whatever be
the time this fructification of effort may take. Care, however, has to
be taken to see that the practice is flawless, dispassionate, free from
all ulterior motives unconnected with the aim, and that the principles
underlying the practical process have really got soaked into one's being.
With these conditions fulfilled, the goal is certain to be attained, like
the ripening of the fruit in a tree that has slowly grown into maturity.
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