Responsibility human and responsibility divine

Most human beings enjoy self-imposed responsibility, and when they see that responsibility, they say it has been thrust upon them. But, as spiritual people, our responsibility is to listen to the dictates of the Supreme twenty-four hours a day. He may say, “This moment you don’t have to pray and meditate. Just go and give away all the dollars that you have in your pocket or do some selfless service: clean the street.” In that case, we do it. If He asks, definitely we will go and give spiritual comfort to patients in the hospital who are dying. Many things are very good, but we have to know whether a particular good thing is meant for us to do. The Supreme perhaps wants to utilise somebody else to do that very thing. Perhaps He wants to fulfil Himself in and through that other person. Our idea may be very good, very spiritual, but we are standing in God’s way.

If we are not spiritual in the purest sense of the term, whatever we know from the mental point of view, we do. We live up to morality. But far above morality is real spirituality, which means listening to the dictates of the Supreme twenty-four hours a day, all the time. We have to play the role that we are intended to play. Suppose the Supreme wants us to play the role of a slave and we want to play the role of a king. If we take the part of the king because we feel that this part is most meaningful, most fruitful, then the Game will not be successful; it will be wrong, a fiasco.

It is the same thing in the Centre. The Master knows who deserves each post, so the Master gives out each post according to his inner knowledge. Some who do not hold the highest posts are, unfortunately, very sad. If an aspirant feels, that by holding a particular post, he will become very close to the Master or he will realise God sooner than the rest, then he is mistaken. In order to realise the Highest, one does not need posts; it is the aspiration of the seeker that counts most. When the Master gives the best or highest post to someone, it is because the Master has been commissioned by the Inner Pilot, the Supreme, to give it to that person. At that time, the Master knows that he is giving the post to this individual with God’s sanction, so that both God and the Master can work in and through the seeker. If everybody wants to hold the highest post, if everybody wants to become the king, it is impossible. In the cosmic Game, one has to become the king and others have to become the ministers and subjects. Otherwise, we cannot have a cosmic Drama; there is no play. Only if the roles of the play are divided well is the drama perfect.

If the Supreme wants you to meditate at a particular time and at that moment your wife is doing selfless service, you can’t say your meditation or her selfless service is by far the best. She is playing her part and you are playing your part. If you do her job, selfless service, when God wants you to do meditation, who is getting a good result? We shall help mankind because this is what God wants us to do. But our selfless service has to entirely depend on God’s Will. If God at this moment wants us to meditate, we shall meditate. But if God wants us to do something else, we shall do that. This should be our attitude. But if we feel that we can just look at the world according to our capacity, see what is needed and then do the needful, we have to know that this will be just a self-imposed responsibility. Only one thing is needed: aspiration. If we aspire and do only what God wants us to do, we shall be serving mankind in God’s own Way. Otherwise, if we do it in our own way, we only create problems.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Sri Chinmoy speaks, part 5, Agni Press, 1976
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