Another type of vital demand is when people try to become very close to me outwardly by hook or by crook. Yet when I give them the opportunity to become close inwardly, they close their heart's door. They only want to be close in their own way. This is the difficulty. If you want to be close to me, I will definitely show you the way. But you say, "No, I don't want to come that way, I want to come this way." You want to come, but you do not want to come by the door that I open for you. Instead of going through the open door as I am asking you to do, you try to go through the closed door.
Some of the disciples are like that almost all the time. They feel that whatever I have asked some other person to do is more important than what I have asked them to do. If I ask them to vacuum the living room, then they will worry about what others will think of them. At the same time, if I ask somebody else to go to England and do something for me, he will not go happily. He will be sorry that I did not give him the chance to vacuum the rug. Meanwhile, the one that is vacuuming will think, "Oh, Guru thinks that I am an idiot. That's why I can't go to England and other parts of the world to spread Guru's Light."
Sweeping the floor or driving me somewhere or going to other parts of the world are all equal if the disciple does the task devotedly. While sweeping, if you do it with devotion, you are getting one hundred out of one hundred. But if you feel that your job is not important, then at that time you also become unimportant. But again, you must not think that the work I give you is really important, and that others' work is unimportant. No, your work is important for you, and the other person's work is important for him. In that way there is no comparison. You will not feel inferior or superior.
Our difficulty is that if someone is doing mental work, then the one who is doing physical work feels miserable, inferior. And the one who is doing mental work thinks, "Oh, Guru always says that the mind is very bad. Perhaps he wants to cheat me a bit, so he's giving this dedicated physical service to somebody else." Look at this tricky mind! Here we see vital demands operating in the mind.
I wish to say to all of you that if I have given you a job on the outer plane, please feel that this particular job is most important for you. And those whom I have not asked to do something, for the time being please feel oneness with those to whom I have given some job. Your very offering of goodwill is most important. If you offer your goodwill, I will give you a hundred out of hundred for your goodwill.From:Sri Chinmoy,Opportunity and self-transcendence, Agni Press, 1977
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