Fix your goal which should be complete oneness with God. Rest not till the ideal is achieved.

It is very essential for everyone to fix his thought, at the very outset, upon the goal which he has to attain so that his thought and will may pave his way upto it. It has been observed that those on the path of spirituality who did not fix that final state for their goal have definitely remained short of the mark, because, before arriving at the final point, they mistook one or the other of the intermediate states to be the final point or the Reality, and stopped there. Thus they suffered merely for not having fixed their goal. Even in worldly matters so long as a person does not keep his object in view his efforts are never so intensified as to ensure success. It is an admitted fact that a boat cannot ply direct to the destination unless the helm is applied to it. Treating this human form as a boat and the space it is plying in as the ocean of spirituality, it is but essential to put up the helm in order to be able to ply through the vast ocean successfully. In the spiritual field the helm is our strong determination which helps us to steer on to the destination. There may certainly be countless whirls at places, but the strength of our will and confidence helps us to overcome all of them and proceed on straight to the destination. Now since our eye is fixed upon spirituality, we take up the ideal which is the highest and which can be nothing but that associated directly with the Absolute. Thus to reach the Infinite Absolute is one of the primary duties of man. But so long as the goal is not fixed in one's thought it is very difficult to complete the journey successfully. Divine help does come, no doubt, but only when the Supreme is convinced of devotee's earnestness of purpose. When the reaction creates a stir in the Infinite it indicates that he has concentrated his thought in the Great Being. (This brings to our view the example of the lover and the Beloved). It means that the distance between the devotee and the Lord is reduced, and the idea of remoteness begins to fade away. Our nearness goes on increasing upto the final limit where the very feeling of aloofness, having merged in the Reality, becomes completely extinct and assumes the form of the Latent Motion that existed at the time of creation. In this way our merging in the state becomes permanent and lasting. Our swimming in the Infinite Ocean now starts, which brings us to the real life, which comprises the influences of the ocean we are now swimming in. It is thus clear that the firmness of will and determination to reach the goal helped us to arrive at the destination, with the result that we got firmly established in the final state. How this most difficult problem was so easily solved by virtue of the correctness of our goal and the firmness of determination may not now be difficult to understand. Our intention to reach the goal promoted our efforts, and since the Ideal was the noblest, the interest for it went on increasing till it developed into a strong craving. Then we began to feel impatient for it. When we get into this habit, the tendencies of the mind are diverted towards it with full vigour. Thus we come to the conclusion that for the attainment of the objective we have to create in us intense longing or extreme impatience, which forces our passage on to it, just as the Latent Motion did at the time of creation.