The reality within

Dear friends, dear sisters and brothers, dear seekers, here we are all spiritual people. When I say we are all spiritual people, what do I actually mean? I mean that each individual here has a conscious inner cry. The difference between an ordinary, unaspiring person and an aspiring person is this: the aspiring person does everything consciously, devotedly, soulfully and unconditionally. In the normal course of development we pray to God, meditate on God, contemplate God and love Him soulfully, devotedly and unconditionally. But ordinary people are not conscious of this. When we pray and meditate consciously, we expedite and shorten our journey; we walk along a sunlit path. At that time we are pilgrims, eternal pilgrims, walking along Eternity's road.

Each individual seeker has to struggle inwardly to overcome his inner enemies: fear, doubt, limitations and so forth. Here we are all seekers on the sunlit path, the path of faith: faith in the spiritual life and faith in our existence here on earth. We have faith that what is unknowable today will become unknown tomorrow and known the day after tomorrow. Just because something is unknowable today, we can't say that that very thing will forever remain unknowable. No, in the inner realm we see there is a higher Force that we shall not only one day know but actually become. Right now we feel there is not an iota of light or wisdom within us. But we have to know that we started from Light and Delight in the inner worlds, we travel towards the highest Light and Delight and, at the end of our journey's close, to Light and Delight we return.

A child is one who has faith in the unknown future and also in the past. This same child, when he grows up spiritually, is still not afraid of the past; neither is he afraid of the Unknown, for he has established an inseparable friendship with the Unknown.

Why are we afraid of the Unknown? We are afraid precisely because we feel that the moment we see the Unknown or the Unknown sees us, we shall lose our individuality and personality. On the one hand we are afraid to establish oneness with the reality of the Unknown. On the other hand we feel that the Unknown has no reality and we are afraid to become one with that non-reality. So we are mistaken twice.

The Unknown is not a tiger; the Unknown is not a stranger. The Unknown is our own inner Reality; it is our own, our very own Self. Unfortunately, we do not have a free access to the unknown Reality, so very often it appears before us as a stranger, as something threatening, very frightening. But once we dive deep within and try to establish our oneness with the soul, with that strange and unknown Reality, we come to realise that that very Reality is ours, absolutely ours. Then, in a very limited way, we begin to have some feelings about this Reality; we begin to have some experiences. Just because we do not know a way to other places or other realities, we cannot say that these realities do not exist or that we will create problems for ourselves if we come to know them. Let us think of these realities as secret treasures along the sunlit path. Only for those on earth who aspire will these realities have something absolutely special to offer.

So far we notice that we doubt our inner experiences, we doubt that our Goal can be reached, we doubt our own aspiring existence. In the spiritual life doubt is our worst adversary. Everyone is sometimes assailed by undivine forces during the course of his progress. But when doubt attacks us, when we are assailed by doubt, we are weakened in our entire spiritual system.

When we doubt others, we do not weaken them; but when we doubt ourselves, we can easily see that we are weakened. Each time doubt is allowed to enter into us, into our minds, and make problems for our own spirituality, our inner cry is weakened. Doubt is slow poison. When this poison enters into our system, we don't aspire and we actually lose our inner cry. Therefore, let us try to walk along the road of faith. Slowly, steadily, unerringly we have to walk along the road of progress. With aspiration, slowly, steadily and unmistakably we make progress towards our destination.

We must realise that within us is our Source. There is Eternity within us, a world within us. Without fear, without doubt, we are free to establish our oneness with this Source. Once oneness is well-established, fear and doubt are abolished. At that time, not even an iota of doubt can be visible in our whole life. So it is obligatory for each divine soldier to conquer both fear and doubt. If fear and doubt loom large in our life of aspiration, then we cannot make any progress whatsoever.

After conquering fear and doubt, we notice that impatience with our spiritual progress is our next obstacle. Each seeker at times wants to discover and realise God in the twinkling of an eye. He becomes a victim of impatience. But he has to know that for everything there is a choice hour. We pray and meditate and work devotedly in our selfless service to create a life of aspiration and dedication within us. But he who wants to discover his inmost Reality overnight, or he who wants to discover the highest transcendental Truth in the twinkling of an eye, is bound to be frustrated.

In its own way, in its own time, everything will happen. Everything has an hour of its own. This inner awareness at times goes away and then we make friends with impatience. Each time impatience attacks us we find that we lose something very precious; we lose our inner joy. Wisdom is something very precious. Faith is something very precious. Faith in God's own Hour is very precious. With our faith, with our unshakable, indomitable faith, we discover boundless Peace, boundless Light and boundless Bliss.

Each seeker must develop his own capacity and his own receptivity. Receptivity houses all capacity. Capacity is our growing Reality. When we enlarge our inner reality, we call it receptivity. And when we look about and notice a higher Reality, we have to know that this Reality is bound to increase our inner prayer, inner meditation, inner awareness. Receptivity within us increases and expands when capacity enters into us. Both capacity and receptivity make us a divine instrument of God. Each time we awaken our existence by invoking Peace, Light and Bliss from above, we increase our capacity; and this capacity can again increase our receptivity. This is why we say our receptivity and capacity are inseparable.

Of all the capacities we have, one capacity is of paramount importance and this capacity is peace of mind. This world of ours is wanting in peace of mind. If we are endowed with peace of mind, if the members of our being are endowed with peace of mind, then with this power the darkness that is within us can easily be transformed into total inner Peace, Light and Bliss.

In each seeker, there is a promise to God, a promise to the inner Reality, to the Highest Reality, that he will become a perfect, unconditional instrument of God to play the inimitable role God has created for him. As the seeker advances in his own spiritual life, he becomes more aware of his promise. Inside our promise we see God's transcendental Vision and God's universal Reality, the Reality that we eternally are. Once we are aware of this undeniable Reality, we notice that we are progressing most satisfactorily. Then God, the author of all Good, showers His choicest Blessings upon our devoted heads and our aspiring and surrendered hearts.

Open Stage Theatre State College of Melbourne Melbourne, Australia 9 March 1976