The eternal seeker

He loves himself divinely. This love is not self-flattery; this love is not self-centred love. This is not the love that he has for the individual ego-consciousness. This is not the love that he has for the body or the vital. This love is not in the mind, where it would be full of suspicion, doubt and separativity. No, this love is in the heart, of the heart. The seeker loves himself because he wants to become a good, divine and perfect instrument of God, so he can play the role that God wants him to play, so God can act in and through him.

He loves humanity devotedly. This love is not an imperfect, selfish love of humanity, but his own self-offering to humanity. In this kind of love, the entire being is a manifestation of divine self-giving. He loves humanity because he feels that each human being is a member of a large family, the universal family, to which we all belong.

He loves God unconditionally. Why does he love God unconditionally? He could easily love God conditionally. He could tell God, "I shall pray to You for five minutes in the morning if You give me abundant Peace, abundant Light, abundant Bliss." But the Real in him, the soul in him will not be satisfied by loving God conditionally. It will not be satisfied to say, "If I do this God, will You give me this?" or, "God, if You do this, then I will do that." The Real in us, the seeker in us, will always try to please God in His own Way. Only then can we actually achieve satisfaction, abiding satisfaction in life. If we walk along the desire-road, no matter how much God gives us, we desire more. Each time one desire is fulfilled, another desire comes. Our constant begging and begging never stops, for the beggar in us will never get satisfaction.

But the seeker in us is a divine prince. He knows his father is the King. Whatever his father has, he also shall have; whatever his father is, he also shall be — at the Choice Hour when he reaches his maturity. When the Golden Hour strikes, the child comes to his father and the father endows him with all his wealth. In the spiritual life, when we have attained spiritual maturity, God gives us everything that He has and everything that He is. What is spiritual maturity? Spiritual maturity is our unconditional love for God, our unconditional devotion to God, our unconditional surrender to God's Will.

Each individual seeker has an intimate friend, a constant companion, a friend who is always with him. Who is his best friend? The Real in him. The Real in him is the eternal seeker, who has an eternal longing for Truth, Peace, Light and Bliss in abundant measure.

A seeker discovers inside himself his best friend. His best friend is the Inner Pilot, his own soul. He discovers the Inner Pilot with his aspiration, the inner mounting cry that is constantly reaching towards the highest Reality. As it is climbing, it is illumining the seeker's unlit ignorance with the Reality-existence. While the seeker's own ignorance is being illumined, he realises that time is of the utmost importance. Each second is a portion of life; life and time go together. When the seeker thinks of time, he sees it as a most precious portion of his own life, and vice versa. His existence is in time and his existence is in life.

There is an earth-bound time and a Heaven-free time. When we live in earthbound time, in each second we have to aspire to see the Reality. In earth-bound time, each second misused is a curse; each second properly used is a veritable blessing. When we enter into Heaven-free time we see that Heaven-free time is nothing other than eternal Love. In Heaven-free time we see Eternity in our hearts: eternal Consciousness, eternal aspiration. In Heaven-free time, everything is here and now. When a seeker makes considerable progress in his spiritual life, he comes to realise this eternal Now. He establishes a free access to this sole Reality, the eternal Now. Then, no matter whether he is on earth or in Heaven, he sees every second as part and parcel of his own illumining Vision. Every moment of God's Divinity, God's Perfection, God's Cosmic Plan and God's ever-transcending Reality is being manifested in and through humanity's success and humanity's progress within each seeker's life.

At this time, the seeker clearly sees the difference between success and progress. In his inner life, he cries only for progress. He sees that success in the mental plane and the vital plane can create unnecessary problems for him. If he is successful, he may be touched by pride. When he is successful, unconsciously or consciously he may try to lord it over others and claim his successes as his very own.

Progress, which is founded in self-giving, is something continuous. This progress does not offer pride to the seeker in us. It only makes us feel that we are moving on our spiritual journey, walking along Eternity's road. Each time progress touches the goal, it sees a new goal farther beyond. It is constantly transcending its own Reality-existence. Eventually, when this ever-transcending process reaches God, it finds that God also is progressing, ever transcending His own Reality-existence.

Soulful, hopeful and fruitful the seeker becomes because his goal is not success; his goal is only progress. While he is making progress, he sees that he is not competing with the world around him, but only with his own unaspiring existence.

Each of us will reach our goal. But each discovery that comes, each goal that we reach, is not and cannot be the ultimate Goal. The ultimate Goal is the realisation of the inner Reality. After that Goal is reached comes the revelation and manifestation of the Goal. So these are three Goals and none of these three Goals can ever be the finished product. Inside realisation is the ever-mounting inner cry, the ever-transcending expansion of consciousness and the constant expansion of the limited self into the divine Self. Similarly, inside revelation is the constant inner urge to reveal Eternity's Goal. And inside manifestation are realisation and revelation; so in manifestation there also is the same process. It is an endless process of the universal Self-transcendence.

Who is our best friend? The seeker in us, our constant inner cry, inner urge. Inside this inner urge, we discover and become aware of the expanding self within us. In this part of ourselves, we eternally remain in God, with God, for God. We remain as Eternity's seekers, the eternal treasures of mankind's aspiration. There comes a time when the seeker in us sees that his entire existence is composed of the inner cry of aspiration. In aspiration is our very existence. At that time, we experience total aspiration. Then the outer reality becomes one with the inner reality. The outer reality is the plant, the tree, the fruit. The inner reality is the seed, the inner seed. Inside the seed are the plant and the tree and the fruit; and inside the plant and tree and fruit is the seed.

In the outer life, aspiration plays the role of the tree. In the inner life, in the inner existence, aspiration is the Reality-Source. The inner world is of realisation. The outer world is of manifestation. The inner world is for realisation. The outer world is for manifestation. By striking a synthesis between the inner world and the outer world, we achieve complete satisfaction and perfect Perfection.

Common Room University House Australian National University Canberra, Australia 8 March 1976