The Birthright to be God

II

You might have had an experience in your own lives of having sat very much absorbed in some thought and when somebody called you, you did not hear it. If somebody comes and sits by you while you are absorbed, you don’t feel who has come and gone. This is the training of the attention, which is called Surat Yoga. When the attention – surat – is set, you might be sitting with hundreds of people and still be all alone. This is what Emerson says. When he wanted all loneliness, he went to an inn where hundreds came and went. This was because he had no concern with anybody; he was absorbed in his own thoughts. If you think that you should leave the world and go to the wilderness, there also you have animals and trees, and your attention is drawn outside. The only thing required is to control all the outgoing faculties. And how to do it you can learn from those who have done it; and by following their instructions.

You might have experienced in your own life, that when you are cut off from everything outside, you feel a sort of rest and peace: not every day, but at times. When you are quite absorbed and cut off from everything, you feel a sense of pleasure, rest, bliss and peace. Naturally, what happens? We are after having that peace prolonged. Naturally we want that. We are children of Light, as I told you. Like a candle’s flame, our source is up. Every man wants to go up. If you turn its face downward, even then it will go up. Our soul is of God, of Light. It is bound by the outgoing faculties in the body. When it is liberated, it will go up; this is but natural. Then, naturally, true rest comes. How? When we withdraw our attention from outside and enter the laboratory of the man-body. When you enter an air- conditioned room after having been in the burning rays of the sun, how rested you feel! It is something like that. You feel at rest. You have some glimpses when Master comes. Not only does He show you how to withdraw from outside and enter this laboratory of the man-body, but He also shows you how to rise above the senses and have some experience of the beyond. When? When there is no questioning of the mind. When the intellect is at rest, that Truth naturally becomes effulgent, and you see Light. If you are questioning why this is so, why that is not so, why that has not come, then your mind is not still. It has to be stilled.

What you feel at that time is the experience of God, in the form of Light and Sound. The Master first gives you an experience of how to rise above this Iron Curtain of the man-body; then, as you practice day to day, you rise above the astral body, the causal body and the supercausal body. Day to day you experience more bliss and joy. Saint Tulsi Das says that when he rose above body consciousness and reached the causal plane and had an experience of bliss and joy, he thought, That is the most and highest of all. But after he had transcended the causal plane into the supercausal and beyond, he said, The causal plane is perhaps only a washroom compared to this.

Those who have tasted that bliss are here in the world, but they are bound – Masters go under the orders of God. They want to go back. When any of us also has some experience like that, we wish to go in there. Why don’t we want to go in there now? Because we find joy and bliss and happiness in outside things. And, moreover, we have never cared to analyse – to go into the matter – of what it is that gives us bliss in the outside things.

We are conscious beings. How can a conscious being have bliss or joy or happiness in material things? But we do feel it – How? Why? We are bliss personified. God is all bliss, all happiness and all joy, and this bliss is also innate in us. So long as we are identified with something, we reflect our own happiness in that thing. When that thing is withdrawn from us, or we are made to withdraw from it, we feel unhappiness. So we should identify ourselves with something which is not changing. And that is God alone. Any happiness we feel with outside things, is not really lying in those things, but in our own Selves. It is reflected in things, so long as we are identified with them.

An awakened soul cries,

O, how beautiful You are! How beautiful, how all-wise!

He sees His wisdom in all things because he becomes a conscious co-worker of the Divine Plan. He sees that it is He who is doing it, not himself.

Naturally the question arises from a new man:

How did you get into this state? You say it is all beautiful; it is all glory; outside and inside, it is all His expression; God is Light; God is everywhere; He is the One who has always been the Doer. But how did you attain to this state? What did you do?

That is a natural question. We are all, I think, seeking that state. The first step is: be truthful. Be truthful. If you don’t tell lies, you will change. Deeds of darkness are committed in the dark. You go and want to do it somewhere where nobody can see you. Anything that requires secrecy is a sin.

Two seekers after God went to a Master. The Master told them, Look here; here are two pigeons. Take them away and kill them someplace where nobody sees you. One was very active: he went around under the shade of a wall where nobody was looking, killed it and came back in a few minutes. The other poor fellow, wherever he went, did not find any place where nobody would see him. From morn until night he went around and around; and he returned in the evening unsuccessful. The Master asked him, What? Haven't you been able to kill it? ‘No, Sir.’ Why? Could you not find any place to do it? ‘No, Sir.’ And who was seeing you? ‘The very pigeon was seeing me!’

Follow the beauty of the sayings, I tell you. Live up to them, each one of you. You must be an ambassador, I tell you. Whoever has got the human body has the birthright to become God, I tell you. There is no exaggeration about it. But the pity is that we don’t follow it.

For that very purpose you will find that you have been given diaries to maintain. What are they for? Be truthful, in mind, word and deed. Don’t make false promises. Don’t think one way and say another. Let your heart, brain and mouth agree. What is the criterion of a truthful saying? That all these three – your tongue (what you are saying), your intellect and your mind – agree with what you have in your heart. Can you then do any evil thing? When you do anything and you are later on asked, ‘What were you doing?’ and you say, ‘Nothing, sir,’ is that telling lies? When you tell one lie, you have to tell hundreds of other lies to cover that lie. How we create more thorns for our own selves! With a truthful man, ask him something at any time and he says the same thing; he does not have to think about what he has to say. But a man who tells lies would have to think, ‘I told this man this thing, that man another thing.’ He is all the time trying to reconcile things. But the cat must be out of the bag!

Even one thing: if you are truthful, you can change. So, naturally we want truthfulness first of all. But not so that anybody sees it: you see it; the God in you sees it; the Master Power within you sees it.

That is why I say,

Be true to your own Self.

If you are true to your own Selves, you are true to your God, to your Master. If you are true to your own Selves, you have none to fear in the world-in the three worlds. This is the first thing that is required.

And further, when some God-in-man, the human pole where He is manifested, puts you on the way and gives you an inner contact, that God-Power is the true Master, not the son of man. That resides within you. Can you do any evil or bad thing, even when a child of five years of age is sitting beside you? You’ll require secrecy. Our Master used to say,

When a child of five is sitting beside you you’ll want secrecy.

If you are going to do some evil thing, you try to avoid being seen, although that very God-Power is within you watching your every action. How can you do any evil? So fear that.

Once it so happened in my life (generally these controversies do come up) that there was a great deal of propaganda against me. Once Master asked me to initiate two hundred and fifty people in the monthly gathering. Competition then naturally arises, and there was a great amount of propaganda against me. I kept quiet, because I was true to my own Self. I knew: God is within me; Master is within me. And it was so arranged that I could not talk to the Master for eight months – such influential people were involved.

Once my elder brother, who was also initiated, was there, and I told him, If you go to the Master, just, by the way, ask Him if there was any sin I might have committed. (But His eyes were giving me support, you see.) He asked Him. Master said, He has not done anything wrong, either knowingly or unknowingly. But strangely enough, so much has passed over his head that he has never come to me to say that this propaganda that is being spread is not right.

I never asked any question of my Master, except two or three when I first met Him. So I naturally requested, I want a few minutes with You.

Oh, yes, yes, you are welcome. So, at night, when everybody was away, He said, Lock the door. I sat by Him and I told Him, Master, I did not come to You because I knew You are in me and You are watching my every action; and You also watch the future trend of my action. That is why I did not come to You. All the tables were turned.

Be truthful, I tell you. This is a very great qualification. We people don’t care. We sell the prophet Joseph for the sake of a few petty monies. You gamble your eternal life with a few mundane things. Be truthful. Have fear: He is seeing; He is watching. These are two qualifications.

The third thing is: He gives you a contact with the Word Power and demonstrates how to rise within and come in contact with the Naam or Word Power, the Light and Sound Principle. Be regular in contacting this, day-to-day. This is the Bread of Life. Don’t miss it.

And what will happen? You will have progress from day to day and have Inner peace and Inner joy. Any outward prayers or performances of rites or rituals you do will become blessed. When you say prayers, you will find Him in front of you. When you read scripture, it will always be vivid to you. Such things you will find. Naturally, you will have all peace. When your soul is withdrawn, it comes in contact with the God Power, which is Light and Sound Principle. The more the outer consciousness comes in contact with the All Consciousness, the more it overflows with joy and peace and all wisdom. God is All Wisdom.

Masters never speak at the level of the intellect; they speak as it comes. Emerson says,

The thoughts which come without thinking are always perfect.

What does the Master do? He loves all, even the sinners. For a sinner, He has more pity and more love, because He considers that he is a child of God. His work is to bring together all children of God.

This is the preparation that you are to make for the Way. But one thing more: a man asks,

You became the Beloved of God. How did you become the Beloved of God? How did God become the Beloved of you?

Take the example of a girl. She has been married. She is devoted to her husband, mind and soul; she is true. She lives according to what he wishes. What is the result? She loves her husband, and also her husband begins to love her. Whatever she wants or needs, or he sees that she wants, he gives it to her and provides her with it without her asking for it. The wife becomes the lover of her husband, and the husband becomes the lover of his wife. This is a worldly example. When the Masters give teachings, they give them both ways.

Those who love God come in contact with Him, and naturally those who go at His beck and call do not do anything of their own free will that is earthly. He becomes enamoured of them. The Masters love God and God loves Masters. But Masters are none other than God in them: that is only a relative statement.

The question arises, how can you become the Beloved of God? Naturally, you can by obeying – just as any female, any girl, would do. When a girl is betrothed and truly engaged at heart, she thinks of him all the time, is it not so? And that reacts in the heart of the other; that abides in him; and he abides in her. That is what develops receptivity. And what does that do? The other one does what he, too, does.

There is a story in India about a Master who fell in love with his student. The student had poor handwriting; he scribbled. And the Master became so enamoured of him that he began to copy that scribbling. This is a feat of love, I tell you. Love has great power.

One Saint prayed:

O God, we have been liberated from the world and from all entanglements and bindings. Now You take care of Your own Self. You are bound more than me!

This is to show how we can become the Beloved of God. How? When we obey Him, that’s all.

If you love me, keep my commandments. Let my words abide in you, and you abide in me.

Only then. We do not even obey the commandments of the Master. If there is no progress or little progress or whatever you get is lost, who is at fault?

The man-body is the golden opportunity that has been given to us. Whoever has the human body has the birthright to know God, I tell you. And we are losing this golden opportunity for nothing, for our little sense pleasures. Now examine yourself and see where you stand.

Then comes one thing more – chastity. What does the husband expect of his wife? Chastity. She should love him alone, for God has given him and united him with her as a companion. She should be devoted to her husband. This is an example in the world. Similarly, a lover of God should be devoted to God and should let nothing else come between him and God. Whatever he does, he does for the sake of God. Whatever the wife does – all the household affairs without any payment or any obligation – is to win the love of her husband, is it not so? This is the chastity of thought that is wanted.

You have been given the diary for truthfulness, for love of God and for love for all. For the sake of God love all.

Love God with all thy heart, with all thy strength, with all thy soul, with all thy mind.

Love all humanity. You see God in your sons, in your daughters, in your husbands, and in your wives. Be true. What is that love that loves one here and then goes to another? That love is no love that changes.

So for the love of God we should love all. He resides in every heart. There is no heart without Him. We should be chaste, devoted to God and God alone, and to no other – even if you love your Master it is for the sake of God in him. The Son of Man body is blessed at which that Power works: That is within you as well. This is how you can earn the love of your husband. He will do anything at your beck and call, I tell you.

Masters have said these things in a worldly way.

One Mahatma said,

The Masters are the workers, the executive officers in the house of God; whatever They do, God does not refuse Them. They are the beloved sons of God.

Rumi says,

If an arrow has been shot down from heaven, Master has the power (Who is the Master? The God in him, not the man-body) to turn that arrow back from the very middle of its path.

The question arises, Is he greater than God? No! God loves Him; whatever He, the God in Him, does, God accepts.

This is what happens.

The Master says,

We are bound, O God. You can liberate us. Who will liberate You? You are bound by the chains of the silken bonds of Love, which are stronger than chains of iron!

This is how we can reach that state. And what does the soul realize? She realizes, I am the most fortunate on earth, and that God loves her. When the wife thinks that her husband love her, how happy she feels! Such a lover of God – or a wife, I would say now (our true husband is God – of the soul, not the body. For the body we have our companions; let our bodies be reserved for them) – feels God loves her. When she loves, she does not do anything. Any lover or wife who is convinced at heart that her husband loves her – how happy she feels! When you feel God loves you, you find you will have nothing to say, even nothing to pray for. Prayer comes out of the heart of a weak man. When he is convinced of his greatness, being in the lap of God, and that God is for him and he is for God and the soul is also God’s, he does not pray. Has any wife, married to her husband, ever cared for how she will be taken care of? That is another thing: in the West married women have now begun to take jobs; but in the East, when a woman is married, she never cares for where the clothing she will get comes from or what she will eat. She says, ‘I am married.’ When you are for Him, it is He Who has to look after you.

Such are the feelings of the lover of God, or the wife. Further, a man goes to her and asks: ‘Well, what experience did you get?’ She has been talking about so many things. ‘What experience did you have?’ Then she gives a reference to the experience she had. She says, I saw grandest suns of suns rising within me. God is all Light. That Light comes when we rise a little above the physical curtain; and then as we rise and shake off the astral and causal shackles, that Light grows more and more and compares in light to billions and trillions of suns.

Even then there is some duality. You see the Light. The seer and the seen are two. We still have to take a further step, mind that.

There was a great sage, Shankara by name. He said,

O God, I know there is no difference between You and me; but I am Thine, Thou art not mine; because a wave can be of the ocean, but the ocean cannot be of the wave.

And when you see that Light of Light, you are absorbed into that Light. You become one with it. This is the ultimate goal. You are absorbed in that Light of Light, and you come into the wordless absorption in the wordless state – call it by any name you like. This is the destination, the goal before each one of us.

We are fortunate we have the man-body. How far have we developed? Most of our life has already passed. Fortunately, with the Grace of God, we have met someone in whom God was manifested, and He put us on the way and gave us some experience to start with. Years have passed. Where do we stand? We are not further because we have not followed the things I told you about.

I am giving you in a nutshell the digest of what all the Masters gave when they came from time to time. It requires no change of religion, no outer school, no rites and rituals. Just rise above body consciousness. Make the best use of the preparatory steps you have before you. They are all meant for developing love and devotion for God. If you abide by them, then you must take heed that the Light which is given within you is not darkness. I have been giving these words to you from time to time in different ways. This is the digest of all that. I had the good fortune to come over here with the Grace of God and to have met you, one and all. I love you, one and all – not for my own part, but the God in me, the Master in me. No obligation. If the Father loves His children, there is no obligation. Similarly, I have Love for you, and I wish you to have love for God in me – and the God in you.

And what should be done? To obey. And you will progress. Fully understand the purpose for which the diaries have been given and live up to it. The more you live up to it, the more progress you will have. Those who have had some fortunate background, but are not obeying these things, will be surpassed by another who is obeying and might have started fresh.

The greatest part of the life of this man-body has already passed; but for the sake of outward enjoyments, we are simply selling Joseph for the sake of a few pieces of silver. So just think carefully; I have nothing to impose on you; I appeal to your common sense for your own good and for my pleasure. Why? My Master – the God in him – gave me this duty. Whether I fail or not fail is not my job; I have to do my best. It is the God in me; and you will be helped without asking for it.

After a week or so I will be leaving physically, though not spiritually. This is the best golden opportunity we have had – these three or four months together. We cannot underrate the physical presence of the Master; but you will have the same radiation from thousands of miles away. God is within you. Master is God-in-man, not the man-body, mind that. That is already within you. Just live up to it; you will derive the full benefit of the man-body, and you will become, as I told you, the Beloved of the Master, too. Thank you.