When fruit ripens on a tree, it must be plucked. If left unpicked, it falls of its own accord or is eaten by birds and beasts. So too does fruit ripen in the mind. The question is: what is the fruit of our mind? The fruit of the mind is the desire to do good. The moment sweet fruit appears in the mind, we must grasp the shears firmly and prune away all that is dead and excess from our conscience. In some communities, before marriage, one need not merely change one's clothes; one must also trim the nails and shave the head. The soul seeks to find sweet fruit; therefore, we must cast away all that is superfluous and unnecessary around the fruit, keeping only the essence of the fruit itself for the soul. In the very act of work, we must cut away all those obstacles and hindrances that would rob the soul of God's love. When we can rid the body of base qualities and kindred impurities, then our physical and mental health, and thus our spiritual health, will begin to flourish.
The cleansing of human sin comes slowly, not overnight — whether of the body or of the soul; it comes through gradual improvement, through effort — and very slowly at that. In the Bible, we see angels ascending and descending Jacob's ladder, and all of them have wings; yet they do not fly, they climb step by step. There is a lesson to be learned here. Even if one knows how to fly, sometimes to find one's way, it is better to walk slowly, learning the many obstacles in the path. In this way, the capacity for walking grows. When the soul ascends from sin to the ladder of devotion, it shines like light. Yet darkness does not vanish in an instant at its appearance; it fades slowly, gradually. Experience teaches us that illnesses healed slowly heal well; diseases of body and mind arrive with the speed of a horse, all at once in a rush, but they depart on foot, at their own leisurely pace.
Therefore, to awaken one's own soul, we need courage and patience. Those who see many faults within themselves, follow the path of devotion for a few days, and then think that nothing is being accomplished, that they are not advancing a single step — and, troubled and discouraged by this thought, are tempted to abandon everything and retreat — such souls cannot hope to find knowledge of the self, knowledge of God, or the realization of Brahman. And on the other hand, those who imagine on the very first day of beginning the practice of cleansing that they have been freed from all manner of faults and have become utterly pure seekers — meaning, before the mind has been properly formed, before wings have even grown, they try to fly — they too do not escape grave peril. Those who are withdrawn from the doctor's care before the illness has healed are truly placed in great danger. One must never rush onto the path before the light has come.
The work of purifying the mind cannot be finished before we die; nor should it be. Our completeness, then, lies not in grieving over our small faults, but in struggling against them. We cannot fight what we do not see; we cannot overcome what we do not fight. The absence of such feelings is no mark of our achievement—our true achievement is in not nurturing them. And we must remember this too: when they wound us, it does not mean we have made peace with them. Truth be told, we sometimes need to be wounded in this spiritual battle so that we may become humble, so that we may feel the measure of ourselves. Yet we are never truly defeated unless we lose our life or our courage.
Now, petty faults and small transgressions cannot rob us of the life of grace; for a person loses that life only through mortal sin. The chance to make amends is almost always there—people stumble because they do not know how to seize it. So it comes down to this in the end: we must not lose heart on account of our faults. He whom cowardice and despair cannot seize is never truly vanquished. In life's struggle, this much is our consolation: we shall prevail, we truly shall—provided we have the will to hold fast our resolve in battle.