Spirituality — The fount of world peace, The fulfilment of individual spiritual responsibility⁴

Spirituality is aspiration. Spirituality is yoga. When we come to know what we can expect from aspiration and what we can expect from yoga, world peace will no longer remain a far cry. Aspiration is an aspirant’s conscious longing for the deeper Reality. Yoga is a seeker’s conscious oneness with God.

Aspiration leads man to God-consciousness. Yoga offers God-consciousness to man. Aspiration takes man back to the Source. Yoga inundates the consciousness of man with Light, Peace, Bliss and Power of the Beyond.

Why do we aspire? We aspire because we love God and want to be loved by God. Why do we practise yoga? We practise yoga in order to feel consciously that God is our very own. Further, we practise yoga because we feel our Fulfilment here on earth can take place only when we have revealed and manifested God’s Divinity and Reality on earth.

When we aspire we go far beyond the domain of the physical mind and sit at the Feet of God the Light. When we practise yoga we dive deep within and there we see God and talk to Him face to face.

AUM

He who has no aspiration can never free himself from stark ignorance and he who does not practise yoga can neither receive nor achieve boundless fulfilling Light.

Here on earth we have two major instruments: one is the mind, the other is the heart. Now very often the mind that we use is the doubtful mind and the heart we use is the fearful heart. Now the doubtful mind can never, never aspire and the fearful heart can never practise yoga.

True aspiration and teeming human limitations can never go together. True yoga and the life of unlit pleasure cannot go together. Constant aspiration and all-fulfilling Divinity can and must go together. The highest type of yoga, which is the conscious surrender to God’s Will and the Life of God always go together.

Aspiration tells man that he will be able to see the Truth of the Beyond. Yoga goes one step ahead. Yoga tells man that the Truth of the Beyond is inside him, within him.

Finally God comes and God tells: “My child, you are the Truth of the Beyond. You are My Beyond.”

Spirituality is the Fount of world peace. How can spirituality be the Fount of world peace? Spirituality is the Fount of world peace, spirituality is the fulfilment of all responsibilities because Divinity is the birthright of spirituality. When an individual touches the foot of a tree, his consciousness enters into the tree, into the branches, into the leaves, into the fruits, into the flowers. Now who is the tree? God and the leaves, fruits, branches, flowers are human beings. So when you touch the feet of God your very consciousness enters into the infinite beings and His universal Consciousness.

Now each individual has a way of defining peace. A child finds peace when he starts screaming and shouting in the street. That is his peace. In his fulfilment is his peace. When he is out in the street shouting and screaming, there he finds his real peace.

A grown-up person finds his peace is somewhere else. His peace is when he feels that he can lord it over the world.

An old man in the evening of his life thinks that he will get peace if the world recognises his greatness, or Mother Earth her gratitude to him. He feels that he has done so much for humanity and the Mother Earth. He expects something in return. If his expectation is fulfilled then only he will have peace.

Now, peace can never dawn on any individual if it is not properly sought. The child, by shouting, screaming and playing in the street cannot get true peace. He will soon realise frustration in his so-called fulfilment. He will come home, he will pray to God for a calm and quiet life. Then he will have peace.

If a grown-up person wants to have peace, real peace, then he has to realise that not by possessing the world, not by governing the world, will he have peace. But it is by offering to the world at large what he has and what he is, consciously and unreservedly, that he will have peace.

Now the old man who will soon pass behind the curtain of eternity will have peace only if he cherishes the idea that he is not a beggar, he is a king. He was a king, he still is a king. He has offered his outer wealth, his inner wealth to mankind and the Mother Earth. If he doesn’t expect anything in the evening of his life from the world, then his inner consciousness and outer being will be flooded with peace.

Peace, world peace, begins when the so-called human expectation ends. Human expectation in a human way has to come to an end if world peace is to be achieved. World peace can dawn only when each individual realises the supreme Truth:

“Love is the revelation of Life
and
Life is the manifestation of Love“

Here world peace can come into existence when each individual nation can consciously feel that the other human beings, the other nations, need not depend on her. No nation is indispensable. Again if one nation helps another, or other nations, devotedly and unconditionally, then the world will be inundated with fulfilling peace.

Responsibility. Spirituality is the fulfilment of all responsibility. To love the world is our responsibility. To please the world is our responsibility. We have teeming responsibilities. But, when we think of the world, unfortunately we do not think in a divine way or a proper way. The world immediately misunderstands us and we find it impossible to have an inner connection with the world. In spite of her best intention the mother finds it difficult to please the son. The mother thinks of the son in her own way. The son understands the mother in his own way. Owing to a serious misunderstanding neither the mother nor the son get any joy in fulfilling their mutual responsibilities.

We love the world, we have to love the world; it is our responsibility. When we love the world, when we want to fulfil our responsibility, what happens? We try to possess the world and bind the world and, while we are binding, we see that we have already been bound and possessed by the world. Needless to say, splendid was our responsibility’s fulfilling opportunity. But we have badly misused it.

We want to please the world but how can we please the world when we ourselves are not pleased with our lives. When we are not pleased with our inner existence, our outer existence, it is sheer absurdity on the face of it to please others. God has given us a big mouth, we try to please others with our mouth, but inside the heart there is a barren desert. Since we have no aspiration, how can we offer peace, joy and love? How can we offer anything divine when we don’t practise what we preach? Spirituality offers us the capacity to practise what we preach. If we don't follow the path of spirituality we shall only preach. It will be a one-sided game but, if we really practise yoga, then we shall also live the truth. Preaching will bear fruit only when it is practised.

Now, how can we fulfil all our responsibilities? We have tried in all human ways: but we have failed. We think of the world with good thoughts and ideas but the world remains exactly the same as it was yesterday. We love the world, but the world still remains full of cruelty, hatred and so forth. We try to please the world, but the world doesn’t want to be pleased. It has, as it were, taken a vow that it won’t be pleased. Why? Because we have not pleased the One, our inner Pilot, whom we have to please first. Unless and until we have pleased the inner Pilot the world will remain always a battlefield where the soldiers such as fear, doubt, anxiety, worry, imperfections, limitations, bondage, will fight. And we consciously or unconsciously play with these undivine soldiers. Fear, doubt, anxiety, worry and animal propensities can never offer us peace, world peace.

Again, deep within us divinity is crying to come to the fore. There the divine soldiers are our simplicity, sincerity, purity, humility and the feeling of oneness. These soldiers are more than ready and eager to fight with fear, doubt, anxiety and worry. Unfortunately we are not consciously identifying ourselves with the divine soldiers, we are consciously or unconsciously identifying ourselves with the undivine soldiers and that is why world peace is still a far cry. World peace can be achieved, revealed, offered and manifested on earth when the divine Power of Love replaces the undivine love of power.