Swami Venkatesananda

Unfoldment ... Happens!

Some flowers unfold quite fast. You see them as a bud in the evening, and the next morning they are open. You would almost think that if you had watched them for half an hour, you would have observed them opening up; but this is not so. This development happens so smoothly that the stages are unobservable. The unfoldment does not happen spasmodically - it is gradual, yet continuous.

That is true development. The total flower - not just one part of it - opens up slowly, imperceptibly, without the blowing of trumpets, "Look, I am going to open, to develop!" It unfolds beautifully and subtly, because the fullness or the developed state of perfection was already inherent in the flower. It did not have to call for perfection. Even in the bud stage, perfection was there already.

Therefore the unfoldment has to happen. Only when we realize these basic principles in our own unfoldment, can we avoid frustration. There can be no hurry in development, no haste in unfoldment. It has to happen.