[Part
Eight] Your
problem of wanting something from others might be attributed to sane habit
forming attitude all along during past, which should be corrected carefully. It
is rather wrong to accept anything from others when you do not repay it. However,
to accept gifts from your parents is alright, yet you must repay adequately
lest these result in karmic debt. I
have noted about your problem for which you are advised to draw a thick curtain
over the past and just forget everything which has since passed as no amount of
repentance or resentment can do it. You must start a new pattern of life, the
commandments which would enable you to progress physically, mentally, and
spiritually with the grace of the Master.
There
is nothing to fear you should forget all about your past and start anew. Just
learn to live in the living present and making best use of time at your
disposal. The precious moments of earth life spent in meditations and honest
work, count much for inner spiritual progress. You
are furthermore advised to please refer to the various circulars and messages
since released from time to time which will enrich your spiritual understanding
and many things will become clear to you with the grace of the Master. Too
much talking dissipates spiritual energy. You should try to control your speech
by resorting to Simran of the Names silently. You will be able to tide over the
difficulty and improve in due course. Think twice before you speak. Think out
as to what you speak is true, kind and necessary. Forgive
and forget is the best motto. I
have noted your thoughts about others. You may please note that all are not
perfect as yet. Nobody should stand between you and the Master. You are advised
to refer to my Birthday Message since released and sent to Mr. Khanna for
arranging its distribution amongst all your dear ones over there. A sense of
close fraternity and brotherhood amongst the children of the Father brings in
more of inner joy and jubilation, much sublime and serene in essence. When two
lovers of the Master get together in His Name, both foster inner loving
devotion and humility. You
should not grieve at the loss of divine presence of the Master Power, but try
to consolidate your scattered attention by attuning within with the Holy Naam.
An intense longing of the soul and burning desire to meet the Lord within
invokes His mercy. When the heart wells up and involuntary tears flow, much of
the inner dirt and dross of the mind is washed away. Pride
should be replaced with a keen sense of self abnegation. You should try to
increase the time for meditations gradually so as to have the target of two
hours every day in the larger interests of your spiritual progress. It
is high time you should bid farewell to your scepticism and devote yourself to
holy meditations with great zeal, deep faith and renewed earnestness in
accordance with the instructions given in my letter of January 31. Your
present trials and tribulations are a passing phase and you will soon overcome
them with the grace of the Master. You will gradually have greater control over
your feelings and emotions, such as vanity, greed and lust, and develop instead
virtues of humility, contentment, chastity and love. You will give up your
habit of judging others and start adjusting yourself to their weakness, shortcomings, either by overlooking or
affording constructive help to them. By this adjustment, you will bring much
sunshine and happiness for yourself as well as for all those around you. If you
think with a calm and cool mind, you will realize that most of us have not
became perfect as yet. Nobody should therefore stand between you and the
Master. A sense of close fraternity among the children of the Father will lead to
inner joy and bliss so sublime and serene in essence. When two lovers of the
Master get together in His Name, they foster inner loving devotion and
humility. Disobedience
to the holy commandments by the child disciple affects inner progress adversely.
An implicit faith and obedience invokes divine grace. If
there is no other alternative (on innoculating child) and medical law enjoins
these may be had if absolutely necessary as a safeguard for health. I think
there may be some alternative in Homeopathy.
Faith
evolves in gratuitous hearts full of divine bliss and harmony. Any moment you
feel depressed you should resort to the counting of manifold blessings granted
to you by the gracious Master Power. It is a great blessing to be accepted and
initiated into the Mysteries of the Beyond when you pass your earth life
joyously under the protective guidance of the Master and insure perpetual bliss in the Beyond. The
letters should be short and to the point on which further clarification is required. The
looking into the eyes of others should be avoided lest you are affected by
their radiation. Eyes are the windows of the soul. It helps you a lot to remain
aloof from the harmful effects of others lives when you can attune within with
holy Naam undisturbed. Forget
the past and never care to probe into it lest you be caught in unnecessary
hallucinations thereby breeding morbidity and gloom. Always look ahead for the
very best you can achieve by sincere and honest effort... There
is no objection to your using one of the Master's quotations on the back of
your personal calling cards. It
is difficult to go through life without going through the motions of give and
take. It is this very give and take which has to be worked out by the pilgrim
soul that brings us back to this world. There is no harm in accepting small
gifts from those with whom you come into contact in your business or family
connections provided that you have been or are in a position to do them some
service in a direct form. For example, your boss may give you a token of his
esteem at Christmas. Likewise, small gifts may be exchanged during this season
of goodwill among a family. However, it is not wise to accept gifts from
acquaintances, business or otherwise, who are outside your areas of immediate
contact with whom you have no give or take.
Man
has got himself so enmeshed in mind and the outgoing faculties that his release
from them can only be brought about by struggle and perseverance. - His plight
is, in a way, similar to that of a bird that has been kept in a cage for so
many years. Even if you should open the door of the cage, the bird will be
loathe to fly out. Instead, it will fly from one side of the cage to the other,
clinging with its talons to the wire mesh, but it does not wish to be free and
fly out through the open door of the cage. Similarly,
the soul has become so attached to the body and the outgoing faculties that it
clings to outside things and does not wish to let go of them. It does not wish
to fly through the door that has been opened by the Master at the time of holy
initiation, at the threshold of which
the radiant form of the Master is patiently waiting to receive the child
disciple. True discipleship does not start until one has risen above body
consciousness. It
is from this point that the disciple will feel not only comfort, but will begin
to experience the joy and bliss that awaits him in the Beyond. He will have as
his companion the charming radiant form of the Master, who is ever at hand to
impart the guidance that is so necessary in order to avoid the pitfalls on the
way. Until this point is reached, the disciple is, as it were, on probation,
but such probation that cannot be severed. It is during this probationary
period that the soul will feel some discomfort. It has become so besmeared with
the dirt of the senses that it has lost its original purity of heart and is not
fit to be raised up out of the prison house of the body. Even
though the door has been opened, it is so attached to the things of the outside
world that it does not wish to be free. It is only when the soul begins to
regain its original purity of heart and mind that it can at last want to be
free of the desires of the flesh and outward attachments. The loving Master
tries to avoid all possible discomfort to the child disciple by explaining what
are the vices to be avoided and the virtues to be developed in order to regain
this purity. Unfortunately,
more often than not the words of the Master do not sink in and little or no
action is taken by the disciple to amend his ways. Therefore, the Master Power
must take firmer measures to bring home to the disciple the importance of the
truths that have been explained in words. Hence the discomfort that is
sometimes felt by the dear ones in their day-to-day living. If implicit
obedience would be given to the commandments of the Master, all difficulties
and discomforts would vanish. If a child gets itself so dirty that only way the
mother can wash it clean is by using a scrubbing brush, can it be said that the
child will feel comfortable during the scrubbing process? It will only feel
comfortable after the scrubbing has ceased
and it is shining clean and pure. Help
and protection is always extended by the Master to His followers. He looks
after their comforts in every way, both outer and inner. Even the effects of
the reactions of the past -- from the gallows to an ordinary pin prick -- so
much concession is given. As the mother sacrifices everything for the sake of
her child, even so does the Master sacrifice everything for the sake of His
children. The follower in fact does not dream of what the Master does for him.
He fills his followers with His own thought, with His own life impulses. When
we remember Him, He remembers us with all His heart and soul. He is not the
body. He is the Word personified, the Word made flesh. To get the full benefit
of the Master Power, the disciple must develop receptivity. It is impossible to
develop receptivity until implicit obedience is given to the commandments of
the Master. When you pay heed to the Master's commandments, then that is a sign
that you are growing in love for Him and the more you grow in love for Him, the
more receptivity you will develop. When
you begin to develop this receptivity, all discomfort will vanish and you will
truly begin to tread the Path in the firm assurance that you are on the right way,
together with the loving companionship of One who will demonstrate more and
more his greatness and His power on each step of the way until you find that it
is the very God Himself who is your Guide and mentor, who will never leave you until he has safely escorted
you back to the true home of the Father.
While
on the way, one of the main functions of the Master is to wind up the back
karmas of the disciple. It is through conscious contact with the sound current
only that the karmas of back lives can be burnt away. This process is started
at the time of holy initiation, at which time the disciple is given a contact
with the light and sound principle, or God-into-expression Power. To avoid
opening a new account of bad deeds, the disciple is enjoined to lead a clean
life and weed out all imperfections in him by self-introspection from day to
day. This is the sublime principle behind keeping the diary, which the disciple
is asked to maintain in order to become aware of the shortcomings which stand
in his way to God. Ego
is the self-assertive Principle in man that makes him feel that "I do
this, or I do that." When one rises above body consciousness and knows
himself and he becomes a conscious coworker Of the Divine Plan, he sees that he
is not "the doer" but is a mere puppet in the hands of God, he will
cease to be responsible for his actions and will become Jivan Mukta, or a free
soul. The ego in man is part of the grand delusion that he is laboring under.
It will cease to act or will be nullified only when a great degree of purity
has been attained by the disciple, in which all of his actions will reflect the
Master in him. Like Christ, he will proclaim "I and my Father are
one." All
beauty and glory lie within you. Once you have learned to rise above body
consciousness and transcend into the Beyond, you will regain the knowledge of
former lives. The Overself or God, which is the Controlling Power in the body,
is within you. The Master is also within you. You have but to invert your
attention within to find that both are one and the same. The main helping
factor to realize this Truth is to give implicit obedience to the commandments
of the Master. It is the work of the Master to give His children that which is
in their best interests. Everything
will be given to you in due course of time if you follow His behests and live
up to what He says - Every day you are given tasks which are intended to help
your spiritual growth. Unfortunately, most people look for a very special assignment
to be given to them by the Master personally before they accept it as a task
from the Master. They do not see hat their day-to-day dealings and behaviour
with other people in their work, the responsibilities they have to assume in
their other mundane duties and how well they fulfill them, are all tasks given
by the Master. If you watch closely your reaction to situations that confront
you in life you cannot but be aware of how much you have grown spiritually.
This is the most important part of spirituality as far as the disciple is
concerned. He must first complete his course in "MAN MAKING" with
full honous before he can be given higher tasks to carry out. All
those who are initiated into the Mysteries of the Beyond by a Living Master
were destined to become His disciples. It is not a question of one choosing the
Path or the Path choosing the disciple, but rather one of the isciple's
background. You
are correct in your assumption that the Path of the Masters is the path of pure
bhakti. The pearl of divine knowledge can be preserved securely in the casket
of bhakti -- or loving devotion. Bhakti in its pure and pristine form is Love
Divine. But
one must practice the elements of all Yogas (though not in their extreme degrees)
in order to obtain the fruits of this Path. For example, the practice of Hatha
Yoga is inherent in the fact that we must lead a clean, chaste life, living in
accordance with the laws of nature by eating satvic foods, to ensure that the
body gets a reasonable amount of exercise and abstain from all harmful habits
of activities that will affect our physical health. Similarly, the arts of
Gnani Yoga, and Raja Yoga are inherent in the diary form that you are asked to
maintain every month. The observances of non-violence (control of anger),
truthfulness, and chastity are all
qualities that must be built into the mental habits of the mind and become
second nature, before the mind will be purified from its present dross and
dirt. The correct practice of these ennobling virtues will give you the full
fruit of Gnani Yoga, which is self-knowledge. The
form of Bhakti that you are asked to develop has nothing to do with the
emotions. You are asked to develop love for and faith in the Master and to obey
his commandments. If you can do this (and it is by no means easy to obey the
commandments of the Master), you will have that Bhakti which will give your
soul its freedom far quicker than the most accurate practice of Raja or Gnani
Yoga can give you. |