God is often the last to receive attention on one’s daily agenda: ” As soon as I get time, I will meditate. ” Where does that time go? Yet anyone who performs the highest duty of knowing God is automatically guided in accordance with God’s will in the performance of the roster of other lesser duties. It is disastrousto seek prosperity at the cost of health or to seek health while entirely neglecting to strive to be successful and prosperous.

But since God is the source of all power, it is right to seek Him first, for, with God, health and prosperity are added; but with the acquirement of health and prosperity alone, God is not attained. So the commitment of ardent renunciants to seek God first by forsaking material goals is the consummate life; for God, once attained, enriches one with imperishable life and eternal opulence.

Whatever be one’s vocation in life, one needs to feel his connection with God. The cultivation of a spiritual life requires solitary places for divine communion. God can be felt easily in inspiring scenic surroundings free from noise. Man’s mind is usually busy with the sensations of sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. Sound is the most distracting sensation. The sight of material objects or material activities also snares man’s attention. But by closing the eyes, one can quickly get rid of the sight sensation, whereas freedom from sound sensations can best be attained by being in a quiet place. The novice devotee who attempts to meditate in noisy surroundings finds his time of ” silence ”  entirely taken up in battling the restless thoughts the noises arouse. In a quiet atmosphere, one can go deep into the silence without any preliminary skirmish with the sensations of sounds. However, if a person makes a super effort of will, he can concentrate in spite of such distraction.

In noisy places there are also people to interrupt one’s meditative endeavours. The vibrations of their restless thoughts and activities pass through the body of the meditating individual and keep his energy rushing toward the senses instead of being released to flow toward God. While it is very helpful to the beginner to meditate on quiet occasions and in solitary places, this does not mean that one should not meditate unless one has a chance to travel to a place of solitude. A room in one’s home where nobody will disturb the meditation period is all that is really necessary. (p.428) One should repair to that room and create his own inner quietness by deep meditation on the Infinite.

Once God is contacted, no outward disturbance can bother the soul.