Even if the whole world tells me otherwise, I do not feel anything about it. Spiritual certainty is something which nothing affects."
The reporter asked, "Is it impossible to understand spiritual matters intellectually?"
"Spiritual doctrines can be stated in intellectual terms. Intellect is a great help in the experience of the heart. If someone who never had a headache asks you to explain it to him, you will try to explain intellectually what it is. But to make him understand it, you would have to hit him over the head. He gets a headache and knows what it is.
"There is nothing irrational in spirituality. Explanation can be made so practical that it can be lived. Christ said, 'Leave all and follow me.' It means leave your limitations and live my life. He meant that it was the practical way.
"Mysticism is thought to be something supernatural and out of human grasp. It is not so. You may be doing all your worldly duties and at the same time be a mystic. It depends on how you arrange your actions and whether you lead a proper life."
"Mahatma Gandhi, for example?"
"Gandhi is a mystic in a way. Everyone is a mystic in his own way. A real mystic's life is practical for everybody leading life properly.
"Mysticism has connection with every phase of life, if properly expressed. If not, there is a reaction which cannot be called mysticism. Thus love that is handled badly through jealousy is converted into hatred. Mysticism if adjusted rightly can help all nations now at war, while if handled otherwise it would make matters worse.
"Mysticism means experience of the soul on higher planes. And the highest is attained through this experience."
The reporter thought over this for a few moments and then said, "But what is needed to bring peace is material adjustment among nations, economic and political changes. Has this doctrine any relevance to that?"
"Material adjustment can be made with spiritual understanding. If people were made to realize that all the trouble is due to self-interest, then automatically material adjustment would follow."
"Is economic adjustment possible so long as human beings are what they are?" the reporter asked.
"Economic adjustment and human nature are co-dependent. If it is realized that the trouble is due to self-interest, the problem would be solved. It is easy and simple. Yet because of this ease and simplicity, the task is also difficult.