This Sunday, in an uplifting and thought-provoking discourse, Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj shared a series of spiritual pearls that offered both inspiration and hope for travelers on the spiritual way.

As we set off on our journey Homeward, he said, we tend to think we are beginning at the base of a mountain, and the journey ahead seems far and unachievable. Since the physical world is all we know, we compare the spiritual journey with the journeys we have taken in the world outside, applying our experiences from the physical world to the spiritual journey; and as we come across obstacles and pitfalls, we become disillusioned and begin to question if we will ever reach our goal.

The physical world we live in is based on time and space, said the spiritual Master. By contrast, the journey to God is a journey to the timeless. It is a journey to a domain that is beyond the bounds of both time and space. Thus, when we use what we know from the physical world, it can become a deterrent on the spiritual path.

When the great saints and mystics touch our lives, they help us understand that we do not need to scale the highest mountain, venture into outer space, or perform feats in the outer world to reach God. God can be found within us. Through teaching us the technique of meditation, they help us take our attention away from the outer world and focus our attention on the worlds within—the worlds that lead us to God. Through grace and guidance, they awaken us to what is already our reality: that we are soul, a part of God, and that God already resides within us. They help us understand that having been born in the human body, we are not beginning at the base of a mountain.

We already have a one-to-one connection with God, and it is up to us to simply focus our attention in the right direction so that we may experience God for ourselves. Herein lies the important role of meditation in our spiritual journey. As we connect with the Light and Sound of God within, we take steady steps toward our goal of oneness with God.

This evening, speaking about the nature of fear at the International Meditation Center in Lisle, the spiritual Master explained that fear sets in when life doesn’t turn out as we’d like it to, or when we anticipate that something wrong will happen in the future. Fear, he said, arises when our mind throws thoughts in our direction as a mechanism to keep our attention away from the current moment, by either keeping it in the past or causing us to worry about the future.

Fear happens in our lives when we are unable to make the best use of the current moment, which is called the “present” because it is a precious gift from God. Fear keeps us from focusing our attention on God and will keep us from being spiritually aware of ourselves, deterring our advancement on the spiritual journey.