If lived, religion cannot but make us better and be an influence for the better on our surroundings. And as we rise higher in spiritual knowledge our life will also express higher and nobler ideals. If we come to know God in spirit and in truth, our life will be the embodiment of spirituality and truth. Then we will know God as the Reality, the enduring Soul, in all bodies. In every person good or bad we will see God more or less obscured by an ignorant personality. That is the glory of the spiritual man that he sees God everywhere and always. God can never be hidden from him, no matter behind what manifestation He is. And so the bhakta’s life will be filled with the feeling that he is always in God’s presence.
But like everything else, this is an accomplishment born of previous practice. The scholar has to study many years before he becomes a scholar; the artist also has to work many years before he can count on success. It is so in every department of life, and the spiritual life does not offer any exception. The successful devotee is one who has tried long and hard. Often, forgetting God, he stumbles and falls, but remembers Him again, gains his footing and rises up. So at last success has come.