Perfection

By Hari Prasad Shastri

We all love perfection in virtue, truth and beauty, some in themselves and some in others—mostly in those who are dead. The ordinary view of perfection is an abundance of some great power, talent, wealth and so forth. But what is the yogic view of perfection?

In a relative sense, we are perfect if we have established harmony in our mind, if we are devoted to the cultivation of Dharma, and we give our soul to God in perfect devotion to serve living beings to the best of our capacity. In the absolute sense there is no perfection in Maya, the realm of relativity. As long as one is subject to change, not self-imposed, one is not perfect. We do not like to criticise a saint of God, but the fact is that no saints call themselves perfect. Neither St Augustine nor St Francis attributed perfection to himself. In the absolute there is perfection and not in the realm of relativity. Atman is perfection and not Maya.