Question::
If the ‘goal of life’ is to become one with God i.e.,God-realization, then why is it that everyone is not striving to attain that goal?
(or)
What sort of preparation is necessary for one who aspires “God-realization”?
(or)
Why should one (especially the one with spiritual aspirations) ASSESS or ANALYZE their “beliefs”, time and again by learning from their own experiences?
(or)
How come God-realization necessitates inexhaustible patience?
(or)
What is the difference between multitude, thoughtful person, seeker and an advanced soul wrt spiritual search/endeavor?
(or)
Why can’t everyone appreciate the real worth of “spiritual life”?
(or)
How can one assimilate “true values” into life, rather than merely talking about them?
(or)
Why “practicing true values” has to be given top most priority by those who want to KNOW and REALIZE God?
Answer::
(Extracted from Meher Baba’s literature, which is a copyright of Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust(©AMBPPCT), Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, Bharat/India)
There is no market for providing the ‘realization of god’. And even if anyone were to offer such realization, there would be extremely few customers for it. The world is so immersed in ‘ignorance’ that it has no capacity to assess the value of “spiritual Truth.”
Yet the Masters have again and again tried to help the fumbling and bungling masses of humanity by describing “Godhood” in a language which they could understand. By descending to their level, only some glimpses of that Truth can be imparted.
However, for the most part, those who are thickly covered with ‘ignorance’ remain impervious even to this bestowal, because their ‘minds’ have become STIFF and UNYIELDING due to the usual worldly habits of “thought” and “feeling.”
The world mostly fails to appreciate the value of the really important things. And even, among those who appreciate it, most persons are HELD BACK from deriving any “benefit” from them.
This may be illustrated by means of a story.
A devotee of God spent much of his life in ‘worship’, in one village. After years of worship, there arose in his mind a NEW LONGING to have the ‘realization of God’ as Truth. He became so restless that he wanted to have the “supreme experience” INSTANTANEOUSLY. One day he came to a Sage, who had just newly arrived at that village on a casual visit. Approaching the Sage with great respect, the man said:: “I have wandered as a pilgrim from one place to the other; and I have also visited many sages and saints to get their help and blessings. But I am nowhere nearer the fulfillment of my one desire; and I have waited long enough. Now I approach you in full surrenderance to get from you such light and help as I may.”
The man said this in all sincerity, believing that he was really ready to receive the highest spiritual experience, not knowing that he was really THOROUGHLY UNPREPARED for the receiving of such a vast thing. He did not know what he was asking for.
So, in order to bring home to him how he really needed much further preparation, the Sage first took out of his own robe a precious stone which looked like a marble. Then handing it over to the man, said:: “Take this stone and bring from the market five pounds of vegetables.”
The devotee, who knew not the real value of the precious stone, took it for ordinary marble. And, in his “ignorance”, he began to hesitate, thinking that it was no use starting on an endeavor which, in his view, was doomed to fail. However, when the Sage asked him not to bring in his own considerations, but just to proceed about doing what he was asked to do, he decided to try.
When the devotee asked for five pounds of vegetables in exchange for the stone, every one laughed at him for expecting so much in barter for such an insignificant thing as a piece of marble. One, however, thought that it might be a nice thing for his child to play with, but he offered only four pounds of vegetables. The devotee returned to the Sage with an account of what had happened. But the Sage now asked him to bring, in exchange, five pounds of sweets.
When he went to the market on his new errand, every one again laughed at him. But, there was one who wanted to set a precious stone in his ring; but he could not afford to purchase it from the market of precious stones. Now, though he believed that this stone was only a marble, he thought that he might set it in his ring as a false jewel. So he agreed to purchase it in barter but offered only four pounds of sweets. The devotee again came back to the Sage and recounted to him what had happened during this second attempt.
The Sage now asked him to fetch from some goldsmith one hundred rupees as the price of the stone. When he went to the market on this third errand, every one again laughed at him. One goldsmith, however, thought that it might turn out to be a genuine precious stone; but he offered only ninety rupees for it.
The devotee was now coming to the end of his patience. In all his three attempts, he had failed. So he requested the Sage to put it back on his own robe since he could never succeed in getting for that stone exactly what the Sage wanted.
The Sage, however, now asked him to try to get one thousand rupees from some jeweller. So he went to a jeweller with that stone. The jeweller immediately recognized it to be a really valuable precious stone and knew that its real price could, in no case, be less than twenty thousand rupees. He thought that here was the chance of his life to exploit someone who was totally ignorant about the truth of jewels.
So, in his uncontrolled ‘greed’ and ‘desire’ to exploit to the utmost, he offered only eight hundred rupees, thus losing the real bargain.
Now the devotee lost all his patience; and throwing away the stone, said to the Sage:: “I came to you for realizing the highest Truth and attaining union with God, not for being harassed in fruitless errands. Either give me that for which I aspire or allow me to go back to my own usual duties.” The Sage then replied:
“You can never attain unity with God unless you have inexhaustible patience.
If you cannot stand an ordinary trial like this, there is not the slightest chance of your being able to stand the SEVERE ORDEALS which a real aspirant of the most high must successfully face.
It is best for you to go back to the world. But before you do that, I would like you to gather the MEANING of what you have seen during the four attempts you made to dispose of the precious stone.”
The Sage then continued:
- “The dealer who offered four pounds of vegetables is like the multitude who know nothing of that ‘divine immortality’ which is known as ‘God’. They do not even suspect that one day, they must possess this invaluable treasure.
- The dealer in sweets, who offered only four pounds, is like serious-minded or thoughtful persons, who sometimes become CONSCIOUS that their ‘mode of life’ needs to be changed, but who are CONTENT to accept another ‘false thing’ for the false thing with which they have been fed up. They are not keen about having something ‘real’. All that they want is SOME CHANGE, because they are THOROUGHLY DISSATISFIED with what they have been able to make of life.
- The goldsmith, who offered ninety rupees, is like a ‘seeker’ who KNOWS that there is a ‘higher life’ and wants to have it, but who does not have SUFICIENT EARNESTNESS to make any ‘real effort’ for it.
- And the jeweller, who knew the REAL VALUE of the precious stone but offered only eight hundred rupees, is like an ‘advanced soul‘ who KNOWS the real worth of eternal life, but who wants to have it WITHOUT GIVING ITS REAL PRICE, which is the surrenderance of separate ego-life. He expects to CHEAT the Master by offering to do many other things which fall considerably short of his minimum standard”.
The Sage then closed as follows:
“And you, my dear man, are like those unfortunate ones who refuse to learn from experience.
In your successive errands, you had ample opportunity to note that the stone which I had given you was being valued at an increasingly higher rate, as you went to more and more thoughtful persons. But you still cling to your ‘initial belief’ that it had no value. You further had the audacity to throw away a really valuable thing in your “desperateness”.
You need more experience and need to learn from that experience, and also from the experience of others. Come to me after sufficient experience.”
Those who can appreciate the “real worth of the life spiritual” are few. But even among these few, most persons continue to be swayed by petty considerations to which they feel constrained owing to ‘dispositional inclinations.’ They miss the opportunities of assimilating in their own lives the ‘great values’ which they perceive as being true. The most that they do about these ‘values’ is
- to TALK or WRITE about them for others, or
- think about them as an entertaining way of filling their idle hours.
“Value” is not value unless it is lived. When a man is merely revolving the ‘idea of value’ in the mind, this idea is exactly like any other purely intellectual concept– a toy to play with.
The energy which is expended in mere thinking, talking or writing is like the steam, which escapes through the whistle of the railway engine. It makes noise and is even interesting, but it cannot drive the engine itself, even to the extent of one inch. No amount of whistling can move the engine onwards. The steam has to be HARNESSED INTELLIGENTLY and used in order that it may actually take the engine to its “destination”.
That is why the sages have all along insisted on PRACTICE rather than ‘theory’. This is particularly true of those who want to KNOW and REALIZE God.
– Meher Baba
Source ::
Sparks of the Truth, Pg:: 20-23
© AMBPPCT, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India/Bharat
