We Must (Notes on Self-Improvement)

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India belongs to a culture that does not believe in rights. Our people being holistic in vision and rooted in values, rise up to perform their duties: thus everyone gets their rights. This is our heritage, this is our heritage, this is what we must live up to.

In this journey of self-mastery, We Must, authored by Swami Chinmayananda, is a perfect companion to guide, instruct and inspire. A compilation of the thoughts of the great Master on self-improvement, it is witty, engaging and potent. The book says ‘The liberty to work or not to work does not belong to us. Our luxurious freedom is in choosing to work rightly in the spirit of love, dedication, and sacrifice. ‘This, We Must.

If we are available, the greatest achievements are possible – We Must. Let us be Ready, Willing and Available – We Must.

These notes which were originally published in the Tapovan Prasad, the Indian monthly journal of Swami Chinmayananda, have been edited and gathered together in this edition.

About these notes Sri Swamiji himself had earlier written, 'The Hindu schools of philosophy are unique in themselves in that they are not only the philosophy which can be studied, but they have in them also the techniques by which the philosophical perfections, indicated by the sages, can be brought into the actual experience of the student.'

'The texts and their commentaries communicate to us the glorious ideas and ideals. These perfections can grow into a 'vision of life' only when the student gets involved in these ideas and ideals. The scriptural beauties then grow to become an inspiring vision of the heart only in those who try to fertilise them with their own essence. When through such energetic, personal involvement which gets transformed into the inspiring vision, the student, thereafter, must learn to expose himself to their magical influence. This exposure can only be while the student lives his life in the usual fields of his endeavours. It would be a tragedy if at this moment in a precipitated hurry, the student detaches himself from all his striving, and, in a false attitude of renunciation, runs away from the world of social contact and communal activities. It is in these very fields he must continue his work, but with a difference.

When the student lives thus for a sufficiently long time in all sincerity and ardour, he slowly gathers into himself the spiritual courage to become totally committed to his new way of life. Such a one can no longer be tempted away to live lesser values, or to waste his energies in the fields of dissipation and self-destruction, personal satisfactions and aggrandisement. Such a heroic pilgrim alone can reach the temple of truth, the acme of self perfection.

In this revealed path of self-development, which is inherent in all the Indian philosophies, there is an attempt on the part of the student to sublimate his own weaknesses, to beautify his own perversions, to straighten his own crookedness. This conscious effort of self-improvement calls forth a diligent attempt, consistent effort and continuous vigilance. All effort toward self perfection is through life and its daily jerks. Hence, in the following note some clues have been given at random suggesting what we must necessarily strive for while living our day-to-day challenges in life.