True simplicity denotes purity and frankness. Simplicity does not mean drabness or narrow-mindedness but is an essentially positive quality — the capacity to direct one’s attention steadily towards a goal, to the exclusion of complicating diversions.
Sri Ramakrishna said, One cannot realize God without
sincerity and simplicity.’ When we cry out to God for grace and approach him in
true childlike love, humility, and trust, he engenders a real change in our
lives. This change will be lasting if we continue yielding to his grace,
through faith and humble submission.
The basic characteristics of any aspirant to God-realization
are: simplicity, purity, and intense longing for God.
Sri Ramakrishna used to say that simplicity is a virtue one
attains only aft er many lives of severe austerity, and that simple-mindedness
takes one easily to God.
‘God sees into the mind of a man, without concern for what
he is or where he is. He who yearns for God and wants none other than God, to
such a man God reveals himself. One should call on him with a simple and
innocent heart. Without sincere yearning, none can see God. One should pray to him
in solitude and weep for him; only then will he bestow his mercy.’
True mystics are simple and identify themselves with one and
all. Their life is harmonious and instils peace in others.