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1. Wise men from the East, coming from a far country, were led by the star to the Sun of Righteousness. These men who came from far away realised the desire of their hearts by seeing and worshipping the King of Righteousness, while in a sense His own people, the Jews, rejected and crucified Him and lost their blessing. People from East and West come to Him searching for Reality, and, finding Him, worship Him with heart and soul and lay themselves in sacrifice at His feet. By this sacrifice they inherit eternal life in His Kingdom. Christians, on the other hand, who are in a sense His own people, reject Him by word and deed and suffer untold loss. The wise men from the East did not stay long enough to hear the teaching of Christ and to see His miracles, His crucifixion, His resurrection and ascension, and therefore they did not have any message for the world. In the same way some seekers after Reality do not live in blissful fellowship with the Lord and experience His life-giving and saving power; so they have no message for the world.
2. “Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath” (Matt. xxv. 29). If a man has not, how can anything be taken away from him? He may not have any talents or responsible work as these have been taken away from him because of his negligence, but there has been left to him at least his capacity to distinguish between the real and the unreal. Even this power of discernment is taken away from him because he does not use it. After that, his conscience becomes numb and dead. Nothing is left to him.
3. There are some, whose power of discernment is so dead, that when they fail with their delicate scientific instruments to trace out the beginnings of life in this world, then, instead of believing in God as the source of all Life, they begin to think that germs of life fell down from meteors—surely an impossibility. If the dead matter of the world cannot produce life, how can meteors, made of the same kind of matter as the world, give rise to life? If matter in the meteors is different from matter on this earth, then how can germs from meteors grow in this world, where the environment is so different? The truth is, where there is God’s Presence, there is Life. In water, whether hot or frozen, there are living insects. In hot springs, living creatures are found. This is the result of God’s creative presence everywhere. He creates life under all conditions.
4. Truth or Reality is known by its fruits. He who acts in accordance with Reality enjoys, while thus acting, the fruits as well as in the future the ultimate good of habits. Reality alone can satisfy the craving of the soul.
A man, however fallen into sin and degraded he may be, likes and appreciates Truth. A liar, for instance, may tell lies himself, but he does not like that other people should tell lies. Another man, however unjust he may be himself, is annoyed if other people are unjust. This means that unconsciously there is in their natures a desire for and an appreciation of Truth and Justice, because it is Truth who has created them so that they might enjoy bliss by living for and in Truth. If they act against Truth, they shall suffer, because it is against their nature as well as against the nature of the Truth who has created them.
5. Truth has many aspects. Every one, according to his God-given capacity, reveals or gives expression to, different aspects of Truth. A tree may appeal to one man because of its fruits; to another because of its pretty flowers. Men appreciate and explain those aspects of the tree which appeal to them. So the philosopher, the scientist, the poet, the painter, and the mystic, each according to his capacity and temperament, will define and describe the different aspects of Reality by which they have been influenced. It is not possible for one man to have an all-embracing view of Reality and to describe all its different phases.
6. We have to look at a thing from different sides to find out whether it is true or not. Otherwise misunderstanding and error will arise. When we look, for instance, with one eye at a straight stick from one of its ends, we have no idea of the length of the stick. In order to get a right idea of the stick, we have to see it from different sides.
He who searches for Reality with his whole mind and soul and attains it, realises that before he began to search for Reality, Reality itself had been searching for him to bring him into its blissful fellowship and presence; just as a lost child, seeking for his mother, realises, after getting into her lap, that she had begun searching for him with deep motherly love even before he thought of her.