Love, service and transformation¹

How do we love the world? We love the world with our inner peace. How do we serve the world? We serve the world with our inner joy. How do we transform the world? We transform the world with our inner faith.

Outer peace is a mutual compromise. Two individuals or two nations find no better way to bring about some harmony; therefore, they resort to compromise. There is no inner satisfaction here, but just because the two individuals or two nations have to stay together on earth, they feel that there is no other way. If they have to live on earth, then they have to resort to compromise. But inner joy, inner satisfaction, inner peace remain a far cry.

Inner peace is mutual sacrifice. This sacrifice is founded upon conscious awareness of one’s reality. In this sacrifice, the one finds fulfilment in the many and the many find fulfilment in the one. On the strength of their inner oneness, two individuals on the outer plane make a sacrifice. But when they dive deep within, they feel that there is no such thing as sacrifice. It is the supreme necessity in both of them to please, satisfy and fulfil each other.

Outer joy is nothing more than pleasure, pleasure-life. This pleasure-life is followed by depression and frustration-life; and what looms large in depression and frustration is destruction.

Inner joy is spontaneous satisfaction. This satisfaction we discover in the heart of universal oneness. In order to have inner joy we have to give up the desire-life and enter into the domain of aspiration-life. Only in aspiration-life can we discover the heart of universal oneness.

Outer faith is nothing more than a rope of sand; it crumbles in the twinkling of an eye. With outer faith we cannot sing the everlasting song of the Absolute Supreme. Only in everlasting things can the Absolute Supreme sing His transcendental, universal Song.

Inner faith is our divine conviction. Inner faith makes us realise that we are of God, that we have a Source and our Source is God. Inner faith also makes us realise that we are in God and we are for God. When we discover that we are of God, we feel that our life has meaning. Our life has made a promise to God, and our human life, both individual and collective, must fulfil that promise. What is that promise? That promise is to manifest God here on earth in God’s own Way.

We are in God. What does this mean? It means that we have accepted God’s cosmic lila, His divine Game. We want to participate in His cosmic Game. God the eternal Player invites us and inspires us to participate in His cosmic Game and we want to play in the Game. While playing the game we will enjoy peace, bliss and satisfaction in boundless measure.

We are for God. What does this mean? It means that we have become supremely chosen instruments of God and He is manifesting Himself in an unprecedented manner in and through us. He is manifesting His Divinity, His Eternity, His Infinity and His Reality in and through us on earth.

Each human being has three natures: the animal, the human and the divine. The animal in us is nothing short of immediate destruction. The human in us is give and take, or possess and be possessed. The divine in us is self-giving, and self-giving eventually is transformed into God-becoming. The divine in us grows, glows and flows. When it grows, it grows into the transcendental Consciousness, the transcendental Height. When it glows, it covers the length and breadth of the world and finds its existence in the entire universe. When it flows, it flows in Eternity. At that time, Eternity and the divine Love flow together.

Transformation, service and love. What is transformation? Transformation is the unlearning of the things that ignorance has taught us. This ignorance had a favourite student. That student is the physical mind, not the higher mind or the illumined mind. The gross physical mind has taught us quite a few things which we now want to unlearn. The sooner we can unlearn the teachings of ignorance, the sooner our transformation, the transformation of our entire being, will take place.

Service. Whom do we serve? We do not serve the human in others or the human in ourselves. We serve the divine in others, the Supreme in others. And the Supreme in others is the same Supreme who abides in us. When we serve the Supreme in others consciously, soulfully, devotedly and unconditionally, we feel a kind of expansion. In this expansion we feel that we are no longer just for ourselves, but for all. United we are singing, playing and dancing in God’s Garden.

The human in us does not use the term “service”; it immediately uses the term “help”. But when the human in us thinks that it is offering help, the divine in us knows that this is a mistake. The divine in us serves the Supreme, the Absolute Supreme. The Absolute Supreme does not need help; He has and He is everything. He is Infinity, He is Eternity, He is Immortality. But when we serve Him, our humility grows, our spontaneous divinity grows. We feel that we are tiny drops in the ocean, insignificant, infinitesimal drops. But when the drops enter into the ocean, when even the tiniest possible drops lose their personality and individuality, they become the infinite ocean itself. So it is through our service, devoted service, that we consciously grow into the Vast, into Infinity’s Light and Delight.

Love. Why do we love? We love because our Source, He who created us, has taught us one supremely significant thing: love. This is what He has taught the soul in us, and the soul in us tries to bring this teaching always to the fore. The Supreme is the only teacher and He teaches only one subject, and that subject is love. He has infinite Love and He is infinite Love. Just because He is all Love, eternal Love, He is our dearest, He is our sweetest, He is our All. And because we want to love Him for the sake of love alone, without asking Him for any recompense, He feels that we are His chosen instruments.

Love is the greatest power, the most powerful power in us. But it is divine love that is most powerful, not human love. When a seeker enters into the spiritual life, he feels within and without a flood of love. And when he feels this love, he consciously tries to dedicate himself to the Source. He sees and feels that he is becoming consciously and constantly the perfect embodiment of God the eternal Truth, God the eternal Light and God the eternal Delight.

Each individual seeker is God’s conscious representative on earth. A seeker is he who knows that ignorance-life is not the answer. Aspiration-life, which is the life of love divine — love of God, love of truth, love of light — can be the only answer. A seeker may not be consciously aware that he is infinitely higher than those who are unaspiring. Even if he is aware of what he is and who he is, he may not fully manifest what he has and what he is within. For the manifestation of his inner divinity, he has to aspire, constantly aspire, and become the ceaseless, ever-mounting flame. Right now the flame is within him, but there shall come a time when he shall grow into the flame itself. Once the seeker becomes the burning, glowing and illumining flame, the Absolute Supreme manifests Himself in and through this ever-mounting flame. And in this ever-mounting flame the seeker discovers not only his self-transcendence but also God’s Self-transcendence. He and his eternal Beloved together are transcending, constantly transcending the height of Eternity’s experience and Eternity’s realisation.