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James Forte We all seek
careers in the world when we should be seeking careers in heaven, of which only
companionship with the God is worthwhile. We all ask for our bodies to be
honored among men; but who seeks to have his soul called by God to receive and
share only his presence hidden form the eyes and prestige of men? –including
other initiates. But yet we are
still in this world with various responsibilities and duties pressing upon us.
These by themselves indicate the situation is usually complicated by the
presence of desire, deep ingrained propensities and strong elements of fated
karma. If we pay attention only to those legitimate duties and accept the
positive aspect of the implied course of our lives, showing respect, love and
the joy for God and his creation, then no extremes of behavior, such as ascetic
disciplines in diet (fasts and unusual diets, etc.) and behavior (vigils,
pilgrimages, etc.) need or should arise. This is because Master has outlined a
process of self and God realization which controls and transforms the
destructive and outward going tendencies without smashing the vessels of our
lives which are necessary platforms for the spiritual discipline itself. Only
God could be so gracious to save life without harming any part of it. Thus
every man is to fulfill his positive nature in the world and in the spirit.
Only God could describe in few words a way of living pleasing to Him and
profitable to the soul a way which is a possibly for all men regardless of what
caste, creed, nationality, cultural, or ethic background they may be. As God created
so many different species of creatures, so external, differences of life
according to time, place social cultural and economic circumstances among men
are permitted as these are the ways of men. But by bringing each initiates to
the center of his being all are given a common root while the branches seek our
different reaches of the world sky as impelled by their fate karmas. Because God is
one the way to Him is also uniquely singular. Because it is in the spirit, it
offers no worldly modes. Because it deals with the essential unity of existence
as a matter of actual experience, true brotherhood among men is possible for
they have one father who is the indivisible life force in them all, and indeed
in all creation. God leaves men
to dress as they will, according to the culture in which they find themselves,
and goes directly to the heart of the matter: a man’s thoughts, words and
deeds, which are the true reality of mans life. Of these he asks only ; purity
–“Take nothing which is not yours”; compassion –“Give where needed”; Humility
–“Know that God is the doer”; Love for all –“Harm nor the heart of another,”
and devotion to God –“A man goes wherever he fixes his attention.” So gently, so
lovingly, so sweetly, God touches our hearts and quickens them to life,
awakening our besmeared and fogged consciousness to its true nature. The way
opens up so simply. The final
problem is man’s total weakness to help himself. If he could have helped himself, his history would be a different
tale. For this God sheds his grace. His love, in a sweet current, a waterfall
of enlivening light, pours forth and finds its true from in the word and on
earth as the God man, that wondrous door to the eternity of God ‘s love. Men
help each other and so God comes as a savior prince to convey grace and
guidance; not just in this dense world of matter, but all t creation up to the
home of God himself and from there to be projected into the infinite. So the God man,
immense of spirit, showers the world with mercy and gives all who ask a contact
with the divine grace itself experienced by the individual soul as shabd or
sound or word. As his glance
sweeps across the world great clouds of mercy fly out to the remotest corners,
great cataracts of love pour down and every longing soul gets solace and every
seeking soul gets salvation, eternal companionship with God. Man cannot by
his own will attain to God, for then that which took him to God would be equal to
God. Only God’s grace can save a man, only a humble man can receive such grace.
Such grace is God himself. We meet Him as the true guru and our heart becomes
eternally happy, for at last we are going home. All praise,
love and devotion to the Godman. The treasure of the universe. |