29. The Quintessence of Spirituality
(Darshan given on May 18th, 1997.)
Swamiji: There was a bullock cart driver. This is a story. The wheels got stuck on the ground. “God, you are so kind. Whenever there is difficulty you come and help me. Please come and push this cart out.” God came in a particular form and said, “Foolish man, have you not got the strength to push it? You want to sit idle in spite of your capacity to push it? You want me to come and push it. If you feel you have no strength and are paralysed completely, I will come and push it. If you are able to do it, why are you calling me? So you are an idle man, lethargic and selfish, a grabber. Such people should not pray.”
God is very intelligent. He is not a foolish person. He knows your mind even before you start thinking. He is sitting behind your mind itself, so you cannot deceive Him by saying, “Give, give,” and all that. He will give; I'm not saying you will not get it, but you must be prepared for the cost of it. The surrender that is required from your side should be compatible with your expectation of reward from the other side. Your egoism should be wiped out.
Thinking of God is nothing but a process of eliminating personal consciousness as much as possible, and if your personality-consciousness is completely eliminated – you have merged with the whole world and you have become a world citizen – then the whole world will protect you immediately. The world will fall at your feet. You need not fall at the feet of anybody. All the gods in heaven will come. But your heart should be so pure and confident: “I shall get it. There is no defect in me. I am sure I have no defects. I am pure. I am faultless. My asking is pure. I am asking the whole universe because I belong to the universe.” You tell the universe, “Take me into your bosom.” When you belong to your family, your family will protect you, but if you tell your family members, “I care a hoot for you!” then they will say, “Get out of this place!” Like that, it is a family. The whole universe is a family, and God is the Supreme Father. A family cannot survive if one of the members is revolting. You have to be a cohesive participant in the structure of the family.
Everything is a family only. The district is a family, the nation is a family, the state is a family, the whole world also is a family; the entire creation is a family, but everyone, every little item, should participate wholeheartedly for the welfare of the other. There is no such thing as possessing. There is only belonging. You must belong to that which you are asking for. If you belong to that which you are asking for, it will automatically come to you. It is a very subtle matter, highly scientific. You cannot climb to the top of a tree and tell the gravitational force, “Don't throw me down.” Who asked you to climb the tree? You see, the gravitational force is the gravitational force. The gravitational force has no pity. It doesn't say, “The king is sitting on the top. I should not drop him down. And a baby is sitting on the top.” Nobody asked you to climb, and now you are going up and saying, “Don't throw me down.” That you should not ask. The law must be respected, whatever the law is.
A visitor: Maybe you can give me guidance.
Swamiji: What guidance do you want? In what direction?
Visitor: Spiritual.
Swamiji: Spiritual life means a life of love of God. That is called spiritual life.
Visitor: What is love?
Swamiji: When you want a thing immensely, abundantly, that is called love.
Visitor: Isn't love attachment?
Swamiji: It is very good to have attachment to God.
Visitor: So what is God?
Swamiji: God is that which has created the universe. The universe is so big, and God must be bigger than that. So you cannot get attached to that like that.
Visitor: So when I love God, what is it that I love?
Swamiji: Then you should not love anything else, because That includes everything else. The whole universe is included in God, including yourself. You have also gone inside. So everything goes into it, and you develop a universal all-inclusive eternal satisfaction of being all things at the same time, like God Himself. You will be as happy as God Himself is.
This practice of concentrating your mind on that almighty, all-pervading Universal Being is the essence of spiritual life; everything else that you do, whatever else you do in the direction of fulfilling this purpose, is also spiritual. But the main thing is concentration of the mind on God, the supreme Creator, all pervading, in Whom the universe is merged.
Visitor: So what is this thing that I am loving?
Swamiji: You are loving nothing. At present you are loving nothing. You have got distraction.
Visitor: So what is God?
Swamiji: You listen to what I am saying. I have told you what to love. Close your eyes and centre your mind in the eternal all-pervading Being which is as vast as space, beyond space and time, beyond sun, moon and stars, inclusive of all things, majestic, wonderful, very powerful, all knowing, great happiness, ocean of light. Deeply think like that. Then your health will improve. You will be very strong inside in your mind, in your feeling, in your intellect, in your will, in society – in everything you will be very strong. This is the quintessence of spirituality.