Aspiration
Before I give a short talk on aspiration, I wish to offer my soulful gratitude to the soul of Australia for having granted me the opportunity to come here and serve her sweet children. I have been here for only twenty-four hours. During this very short span of time, seekers, friends and acquaintances have bestowed upon me their blessingful love, sympathy and concern. For that I am extremely grateful. Also, from the inmost recesses of my heart, I wish to offer my most soulful gratitude to the Dean of Perth. This morning I had the golden opportunity to be blessed by his august presence. His heart's magnanimity has touched the very depths of my heart. With all the sincerity at my command I pray to the Christ-consciousness to grant Mother Earth a few more sincere seekers and sincere lovers of mankind like the Dean of Perth, so that our planet earth can have a better peace, a more fulfilling heart and a more satisfying reality.AUM AUM AUM
My dear Australian sisters and brothers, you are all welcome in my house. My house is my heart, my heart of aspiration and my heart of dedication. My heart of aspiration shall love the divine in you and my heart of dedication shall love the Supreme in you.
As you all know, there are two mighty forces that govern this world of ours. These mighty forces are desire-night and aspiration-light. Desire-night is the love of power and aspiration-light is the power of love. The love of power wants to destroy and devour the entire world. The power of love wants to feed and immortalise the entire world. The love of power is self-love; the power of love is God-love. When we utilise the love of power in our day-to-day activities, we consciously and deliberately bring to the fore the vital and destructive anger in us. When we utilise the power of love in our multifarious activities, then God, out of His infinite Bounty, showers His choicest Blessings on us.
The life of greatness and the life of goodness. We aspire. Why do we aspire? If we aspire to become great, then our aspiration is not the real aspiration. If we aspire to become good, then our aspiration is real divine aspiration. Goodness is the aim of true aspiration. Greatness alone is constant competition. There is no satisfaction in it. By competition alone we can never achieve satisfaction. But if we become good, if we become divine instruments of God, then we achieve satisfaction far beyond our imagination's flight.
God is good. His goodness cannot be separated from His greatness, for true goodness always embodies greatness. The Christ, the Buddha, Lord Krishna — all spiritual Masters of the highest order — were Goodness incarnate. What do we see and feel in them? Greatness as well. So real greatness and real goodness go together. They are inseparable, like the obverse and reverse of the same coin.
The desire-night and the aspiration-light. If we walk along the road of desire-night, fulfilment will always remain a far cry. Our inner and outer expectations will never be satisfied. Yesterday we had a house; today we want two houses. If we get two houses today, we will not be satisfied. Tomorrow we will want to have one more. No matter how many things we possess, we will not be satisfied. Each time our expectation is fulfilled, a new expectation will come to take its place. But if we live in aspiration-light, when we achieve even an iota of satisfaction, we feel that inside that satisfaction one day will loom large infinite, boundless satisfaction. The aspiration-road must be followed. Each individual seeker must live in aspiration-light if he wants satisfaction. If he lives in desire-night, there can never be satisfaction.
Each individual on earth is crying for only one thing and that is satisfaction. But if satisfaction comes, it has to come through self-giving. Self-giving is the precursor of God-becoming. The more consciously and soulfully we can give our body, vital, mind, heart and soul to the Supreme Pilot within us, the sooner we can become an exact prototype of His divine Existence.
God is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. But the sincere seeker is he who feels that God is most divine not because God is all Power, but because God is all Love. It is the love aspect of God that conquers the heart and soul of the true aspirant. When we live in desire-night, we become friends with human love. Human love is always the song of bondage. In human love, we try to bind others and others will naturally want to bind us. There is no satisfaction in this mutual bondage. Human love is eventually followed by frustration, and frustration is immediately followed by destruction.
When we live in aspiration-light, we make friends with divine love. At each moment divine love tries to expand its reality. Divine love is our continuous growth in divine reality. This divine love illumines us, liberates us and helps us to realise the highest Absolute. It illumines the obscure and impure life within us. It liberates the ignorance-bound and earth-bound realities within us. It satisfies the divine realities within us.
Fear is the obscurity within us. Doubt is the impurity within us. When illumination dawns, fear is transformed into strength and doubt is transformed into faith: the life-saving, life-immortalising faith. Insecurity is the ignorance-bound reality within us. When illumination dawns, our insecurity is transformed into all-illumining confidence. Our doubt-reality is transformed into a willingness to open to the inner light and our fear-reality is transformed into a willingness to open our heart's door to the divine realities. Finally, when realisation dawns, the earthbound realities, which did not allow us to accept the divine realities soulfully, lovingly, devotedly and unconditionally, now soulfully surrender to the divine power of the divine realities. When our undivine part surrenders to the divine in us, our entire being becomes absolutely perfect.
Aspiration is the inner cry, the mounting flame. Aspiration is at our journey's start and it is also at our journey's close. Ours is not an ordinary, earthly, human journey. Ours is a divine journey; therefore, this journey has neither a beginning nor an end. It is a birthless, deathless journey. This journey has a goal, but it does not stop at any goal, for it has come to realise that today's goal is only the starting point of tomorrow's journey. Once we start consciously and sincerely aspiring, we feel that we are walking along Eternity's road and that we shall eternally walk along this road, receiving and achieving Light, more Light, abundant Light, infinite Light. We shall offer this Light to the aspiring humanity so that this world of ours can become a Kingdom of Heaven.
Here we are all seekers. We have made an outer promise and an inner promise. Our outer promise is to Mother Earth and our inner promise is to Father Heaven. Our outer promise is that we shall become inseparably one with the excruciating pangs of Mother Earth. Our inner promise is that we shall become inseparably one with the all-illumining and all-fulfilling Smile of Father Heaven. We shall become inseparably one with both our Mother Earth and our Father Heaven and then we shall become a direct link between Mother Earth and Father Heaven. The aspiration of Mother Earth we shall carry to Father Heaven and the Realisation-Reality-Light of Father Heaven we shall bring down to Mother Earth for manifestation. Mother Earth and Father Heaven are both of equal importance. We need Father Heaven for God's supreme Realisation and we need Mother Earth for God's supreme Manifestation. Both realisation and manifestation are of paramount importance. When we realise and manifest, we complete the cosmic Game.
St. George's Cathedral Perth, Australia 2 March 1976