The higher Values of Life

VIII

We take the physical aspect as the most precious thing in life. But the awakened one says:

What are they doing? They are not caring for their own Real Self. They are not sparing any time for that, and just spending all their hours for the physical body and its environments and intellectual accomplishments.

The reply may be, we have to leave this body, but we are doing everything to maintain it, to procure for it or for its relations every convenience possible. Well, who will tell us what to do then? For that we will have to sit at the feet of Somebody Who has solved that mystery of life for Himself. It is a practical subject.

In the Gospels, we have: 

Think not that I am come to destroy, but to fulfil the law.

This fulfilment of the law has ever been, and shall ever be, the mission of all True Prophets. This is what all the scriptures tell us. We have been reading all these things. Whenever Masters came, They did not give any thing new to the world. Excellent observers as They were, They saw things in the right perspective and awakened people to Reality.

Their clarion call always is,

Awake, oh man – what are you doing?

The Vedas say:

Awake, arise and stop not till the goal is reached.

We are sleeping, as it were. Our superficial life is nothing less than sleep. We are identified with the bodies. We have been receiving impressions from the outside, through the organs of sense, so much so that when we close our eyes we see the same impressions reproduced. When we go to sleep, those very impressions are again reproduced within us in the form of dreams. We live a sort of superficial life, blind to Reality.

We are in physical bodies. We are conscious entities. We are so much tied up with mind and matter that we cannot differentiate ourselves. We have to leave the physical, transcend the astral, go further beyond the causal, super-causal, and reach the True Home of our Father. That is the True Destination for each one of us.

What have we done for it? We have simply devoted ourselves to the physical bodies and its relationships. This is what the Masters are always telling us. They do not say we should leave the world altogether and sit in the wilderness and follow the life of a recluse. Not the least.

They say:

You have physical bodies. Maintain them. These are the temples of God. Keep them clean and tidy from outside and inside.

Again, They say:

All right, you have an intellect. Develop intellectually as well. But, remember, you are souls, the indwellers of the bodies. Just know yourself so that you may know the Overself. You will know yourself only when you rise above body consciousness.

We are now, as it were, identified with the body. We cannot differentiate ourselves.

So there are different values of life. The physical body has its own value, the intellect has its own, but the Spiritual Life has the highest of all.

Out of the 24 hours of the day, we pay so much attention and spend so much time for the development of the physical side and its environments and intellectual attainments. We should also devote some time to our development in the way of knowing our own Selves. This is what all Masters have stressed.

Now the question remains: How? All the scriptures speak of the Kingdom of Heaven; and they say that it is within us. How to enter the Kingdom of God? How to open the Inner Eye to see the Light of God? We will now touch the Inner Aspect of man. The higher Inner Possibilities, when we transcend body consciousness, enable us to enter the Kingdom of God.

There are many mansions in the house of my Father.

There are planes and planes. How to traverse them? That is the subject we will deal with next. How to open the Inner Eye to see the Light of God of which all the scriptures speak?

I am not advocating any particular religion. You remain where you are. To live in some social religion is a blessing, because without it there would be corruption in the world. In the absence of it you will have to form another society. Just follow the right import of the scriptures, what they teach us.

They all tell us to love God, to love all humanity. If you love all humanity, we cannot rob them, we cannot kill them; other things follow of themselves. Along with that, we must follow ethical lives. We must know ourselves, who we are.

The Sermon on the Mount deals with the outer way of living with your fellow man. Christ also referred therein to the Inner Light, how to enter the Kingdom of God which is within us. Christ also warned us against the false prophets. They come like lambs, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

The Masters, Who have had that experience with Their own Selves, give out all these gifts of God free. They do not charge anything; they are granted free. God’s gifts are all free. It is man who sells, not God. This is what has been said by all Prophets and Masters Who came in the past.

With all the force of your intellect, you will not be able to follow the right import of Sacred Writings until you come to Someone Who has practical experience of this and Who is competent to give you a first-hand experience. When you have some little experience that way, then you can go ahead.

Today’s subject is over. Next we will take up the Kingdom of God: how to open the Inner Eye to see it and enter therein. We will see what all the Masters and scriptures have to say on the subject. Lastly, we will deal with the most natural way. There are so many ways and means for that, but we will turn to the most natural way, which even a child can follow.