Not We But One
De Simple Silence.
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Eruch Jessawala. Ed. William Le Page. © 1977 Meher Baba Foundation
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[modifier] I Am The Lord Of This Place
We have free will to the extent that we choose to remain separated from our true being. There is no other free will besides this. You exercise your freedom either to become his slave or to remain a slave to yourself. That’s the only free will you have.
You have heard of the Perfect Master, Ramakrishna, who lived in Calcutta ? Ramakrishna was a Perfect Master of his age. Once he gave to his disciples the following figure on free will. A frog lives in a well : he has the freedom of all the well, and he thinks that the well is the whole world. He says to himself, ‘I am the Lord of this place, I am the possessor of all, I can do whatever I wish in this world of mine.’ Inside the well the frog thinks that he has free will to do whatever he wishes and to remain as he wants to be. But he does not know that his world is only just a little hole.
So we have our free will, but Baba says our free will is to the extent and limit of that moment when we either consciously seek to realise our true Self, or continue to remain separate from our true Self. That is the important thing Baba has said—you do have your free will ; but that free will is to the extent you can exercise your freedom to remain separate from me, your true Self.
[modifier] All The Time Engrossed In The Infinite
Once there was a famous king, by name Janak, who was also a Sadguru, or Perfect Master. Outwardly he was a great monarch. He never let it be known generally that he was a Sadguru. Only those who could recognise him inwardly knew him to be such.
In his kingdom there was a man, a seeker who had intense spiritual longing. He was as restless as a fish out of water. He could not sleep, he could not eat, he had grown very lean ; but still he had an ego. He however sensed the spiritual perfection of Janak and sought to see him and learn from him. The guard refused to admit the seeker.
The king, however, heard him, and through a servant asked from inside the palace, ‘What do you want ?’
The man told the guard, ‘Tell the king that I am so and so.’
Again Janak heard him from inside, and called out to him : ‘Come when you have left yourself behind.’
The man could not understand. He repeated who he was, and why he had come. Once more Janak replied : ‘Leave yourself behind and then come.’
Still he could not understand. Finally he fell at the feet of the guard and asked him to explain the meaning of the king’s message. The watchman explained it : ‘Drop your « I »,’ he said, ‘throw it off and say « your slave has come to see you ». Keep your « I » aside.’
This the man did, and the king allowed him to enter. He found Janak fully attired in his royal robes, with his crown upon his head, seated with his courtiers at a state banquet with much merrymaking going on about him. And the seeker on seeing Janak living in such luxury, thought, ‘How can Janak be a Sadguru ?’
Janak, who read his thoughts, ordered a cup of milk filled to the brim. Then he called his ministers aside and ordered that throughout the town a great celebration should be held, with music drums and merrymaking everywhere. After this he called for two executioners. When they arrived, he turned to the seeker, handed him the cup full of milk, and ordered him to carry it through the town without spilling any of it. ‘If you spill as much as one drop,’ he said, ‘these two executioners will cut your head off at once,’ and he ordered the executioners accordingly.
So they set out, the man with the cup of milk, and the two executioners, one on his right and one on his left. Through the town they made their way, and all around them there were crowds of people celebrating. Bands were playing, drums were beating, people were singing and shouting and merrymaking, and noises of all kinds were going on. But the man’s mind was so concentrated on the cup of milk that he did not know what was going on around him. He did not even hear the noises.
Finally, they returned to the palace. The king asked the executioners if the man had spilled any milk. They said not. Then he asked the man, ‘What did you see all around you ?’
The man replied, ‘I saw nothing, I heard nothing, I saw only the cup of milk.’
Then the king said, ‘So am I all the time engrossed in the Infinite, and pay no attention to outer things.’
And the man threw himself at Janak’s feet, his thought being only of Janak as his Master and seeking to be accepted as his pupil.
Later the king became publicly known as a Sadguru.
[modifier] Be Content With Your Lot
Above all else, be content with your lot, rich or poor, happy or miserable. Understand that God has designed it for your own good, and be resigned to His will. Remember the present in the frame of the past and the future. You eternally were and always will be. You have had innumerable forms as man or women, beautiful and ugly, strong and weak, healthy and sickly, powerful and helpless, and now you are here again in another form.
Until you gain spiritual freedom you will be invested with many such forms, so why seek temporary relief now which will only result in future bindings later ?
Do not ask God for money, fame, power, health or children, but seek His grace and it will lead you to eternal bliss.
It is said that there was one day a tussle between Shankar, the Lord and his consort Parvati, in the Heavens. Parvati was being reserved and silent with the Lord, and the Lord asked why she was cross with him. She said : ‘How indifferent, how callous you are to your devotees. And this has made me think — is your love for me so very great or are you also callous with me ?’
The Lord replied : ‘What’s the matter ? How can I be callous ? Everyone is well looked after, everybody is provided for.’ (As Meher Baba himself said once : I dare not care not for my lovers.)
‘I assure you that you are callous and indifferent to your closest devotees.’
‘Why, what has happened ?’
And Parvati said : ‘Come and see ; there is a devotee of yours who spends every day chanting your name, repeating your name, and living only on what people give him to eat. He has left the world, he has nothing to provide for his family, he has dedicated his life to you.’
‘Well, that is his lot. And that’s how it should be, it will promote his progress on the path to me.’
But she said : ‘No, I don’t believe in that. You must provide him with some worldly means because he is wholly and solely yours.’
‘What do you want me to do, further than what I have already done in my omniscience ?’
‘I would like you to give him a lot of wealth.’
‘Alright, I will give him a lot of wealth, because you want it that way.’
It seems that even God has to submit to the wishes of the consort !
Well, the devotee used to take a regular path from his hut to the market place where he would beg. And throughout the day and night he would chant the name of the Lord. So while he was walking towards the market place that day, a thought came to mind : I am getting older, and the world seems to be changing, there doesn’t seem to be the same compassion and pity in people as previously. I shall have to do something more in order to draw upon the compassion of mankind. What if I were to pose as being blind ? Then they might be drawn to give me more.
So on the very day that the Lord throws down from the heavens a sack full of gold on the path that the devotee takes each day, the devotee decides to practise blindness. He shuts his eyes, walks with closed eyes so that he can draw upon himself the mercy of mankind, and he walks right past the gold that is lying there on the path.
The Lord looks at his consort and says : ‘See, that is the law of Karma. According to what is determined as your share in life, that much is yours and no more.’
[modifier] Come Follow Me
Always we had followed Baba, just to be at His side, to do whatever He wanted us to do. How can I bring home to you that our mental attitude in following Him had nothing to do whatsoever with any expectations of any sort. We had not come for God-realization, nor for relief from the world, nor to attain a state of that meditation where you stop the mind and remain in Samadhi. No, nothing like that. He asked us to follow Him. He asked us to do a thing, and we did.
Mind would sometimes provoke the question : « Why has He asked us to do this, » but that was a side issue ; we did what He asked. And we did so not through any compulsion. We followed Him because we exercised our freedom to become His slaves. It was not compulsory. He did not press us to do it. He just said : « Come, follow me... come on, will you follow me, will you be with me, would you want to be with me ? »
Eruch Jessawala. Ed. William Le Page. © 1977 Meher Baba Foundation
