Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Q. Just as a child cannot help growing, so does a man, compelled by nature, make progress. Why exert oneself? Where is the need of Yoga?
There is progress all the time. Everything contributes to progress. But this is the progress of ignorance. The circles of ignorance may be ever widening, yet it remains a bondage all the same. In due course a Guru appears to teach and inspire us to practise Yoga and a ripening takes place as a result of which the immemorial night of ignorance dissolves before the rising sun of wisdom. But in reality nothing happened. The sun is always there, there is no light to it; the mind blinded by the "I am the body" idea spins out endlessly its thread of illusion.
Q. If all is a part of a natural process, where is the need of effort?
Even effort is a part of it. When ignorance becomes obstinate and hard and the character gets perverted, effort and the pain of it becomes inevitable. In complete obedience to nature there is no effort. The seed of spiritual life grows in silence and in darkness until its appointed hour.
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