"Any fool can be picked up off the streets and made into a Personality if he co-operates with me!"

Master brings about global change by coaxing it out of the human heart. He coaxes them by His Divine Love and by the offer of His unlimited services in their self-development to the highest possible level where they can become perfect human beings - which is only another way of saying that they have become divinised.

This level of human development is what He offers, in return for our cooperation But little do we realise what this single word, Cooperation, really demands of us. It is only as we march on, that we realise that, this cooperation is really an all-embracing thing. We realise that no single facet of our existence can be kept apart from this cooperation Many imagine that cooperation applies to the spiritual life only. They imagine that it applies only to the practice of the method of meditation taught by the Master. But please think over this. Can we be obedient in one aspect of life without being obedient in all the other aspects of our lives? Can we fragment our lives into bits and pieces and claim that cooperation can apply to only one or two of them? This tragic mistake is made by most of the abhyasis, who discover, as they go on, that this word "Cooperation" brooks no dismemberment. It is all, or nothing!

WHAT IS IT THAT CAN MAKE SUCH A TOTALITY OF COOPERATION POSSIBLE?
It is discipline! Discipline alone can make it possible for us to extend Him the total cooperation that He needs, to make us what He wishes us to be, and then through us to bring about the vaster changes which He wishes to bring about. Discipline is the key to cooperation Where there is no discipline, there can be no cooperation either. The two may be thought of, as two sides of the same coin, as it were. It would appear as if it made little difference whether we began with one of them or the other. The only difference seems to be that when we begin with cooperation, discipline begins to become established rather late, if at all. Whereas, when we begin with discipline, cooperation follows immediately of its own accord, naturally.

What is the value of discipline? It is precisely by being disciplined that without even knowing what cooperation implies or what it means, we are able to follow each and every wish of the Master and to act strictly according to His instructions. That is, by being disciplined, obedience follows naturally and makes the very thing (cooperation) that He wants in us establish itself without our even being aware of it.

In the other way, when we try to begin with cooperation we are bewildered because we do not know in which area of our lives we are required to cooperate. We run the risk of making the mistake that we are at liberty to choose the area in which we are required to cooperate, and then find out, often to our annoyance that it was total cooperation, embracing each and every facet of our existence, that was necessary - and that too right from the beginning! The danger is not faced by one who is disciplined, and who is willing to obey the Master in everything, without dissecting his life into parts, and thinking that obedience is necessary only in some parts. Discipline needs no thoughts. Discipline needs no understanding. Discipline needs no explanation. Therefore it is possible for all humans to be disciplined. But the very word 'discipline' seems to evoke feelings of abhorrence, implying - as it seems to do to some persons - some sort of slavery into which they will be ensnared. Can anything be farther from the truth? No. Can there be anything which can lead to one's evolution so easily and so quickly? No. A disciplined person can achieve the goal of human development most easily and most speedily. My Master defined a disciple as one who is disciplined.

As we begin to perceive that we are making progress towards the goal established for us, we are able to appreciate what is being given to us by the Master and to sense that what we receive is infinite. We begin to understand that under no circumstances can there be any question of repayment to the Master for what we have received. At this stage gratitude begins to be awakened in our heart for the Divine gift of Grace that the Master is bestowing on us. From this stage onwards the need for cooperation with the Master in working towards the removal of all complexities from our own system begins to assume greater importance. This cooperation must take the active form of analysing ourselves to see what are the defects in us, mental, moral and spiritual, and try to overcome them with the Master's cooperation. Master is always there to help us in every possible way in all the fields of our activity but unless we cooperate with Him, whatever the stage of spirituality may be, to which the Master may carry us, such spiritual attainment is unable to reflect itself in our outward behaviour and in our life generally.

There has been quite some criticism in respect of highly evolved people, who by their behaviour and general living have attracted public criticism that they are living in a manner not consisting with their spiritual attainment The abhyasis of our Mission must take the greatest care and ensure that by ardent cooperation with the Master they are totally transformed inside and out. If we are able to cooperate with the Master and try to eradicate from ourselves all our shortcomings, our progress definitely becomes faster and the Master's work easier.

HOW SHOULD WE COOPERATE?
Cooperation means rising beyond your physical existence, not giving into the pulls of the lower existence, but rising, with some understanding of the ecstasy of the spiritual existence, and trying to cooperate with the higher, up-flowing path, and forgetting that the lower pull is there. This is where the need for discipline comes that, when food is offered and there is a sitting, we must naturally prefer the sitting, not the food. When we can sleep or alternatively we can listen to a talk on spirituality, we must instinctively, naturally, spontaneously listen to the talk and not go for sleeping, because sleep is the pull of lower life, food is the pull towards the lower existence, and after all we are not asked to be hungry for twenty seven days. It is for a half an hour or one hour or a couple of hours. So this is where the need for self-discipline comes. The most important aspect of discipline is self-discipline.

Cooperation is the first step towards the eventual step of surrender. How to create cooperation? Take interest. So the first principle of Sahaj Marg - take interest! As an abhyasi, take interest in your sadhana, in your evolution, in your ability to reach the goal. As a preceptor, take interest in the work that you have voluntarily undertaken.

Master said, "Take interest not in yourself, but in your work, in your responsibilities, in your evolution." Because when I take interest in myself, as I am today, it is selfish. And I, by that very act of taking interest in myself, put a bar to my advancement, because the interest is in myself, as I am, and I will continue to be what I am. Therefore, my evolution is stopped. This is perhaps one reason why selfishness obstructs all growth. But interest in the work, interest in the Master, interest in the Mission, interest in the abhyasis' welfare, it takes away our interest or self-centredness and projects it outside ourselves. And it makes for sincerity, for ability, for ultimately the Ultimate capacity.

If there is complete cooperation, then the work is easy. Suppose I go on cleaning and the abhyasi goes on adding more and more grossness, then what can I do? So the abhyasi must cooperate. He must modify his life in such a way that it is helpful to his progress. To remove past accumulations is the Master's work. But the abhyasi should be alert that he does not add more grossness by his own thoughts and actions. So, if this process of self cleaning is followed, then by Master's grace a stage can be reached when the formation of impressions no longer takes place, and samskara formation stops. But to arrive at this condition the abhyasi must cooperate.

OBEDIENCE IS REAL COOPERATION:
There is only one way in which we can really cooperate. What is it that obstructs His work when we are conscious of His work? Our wishes, our desires, our ego. So the wishes and desires, that is what we say in the prayer, you see, they are putting bar to our advancement. But when we realise that our desires, wishes, also come from the ego, then we realise that we have to surrender the ego itself to the Master, and the only way to begin this process of surrendering is to obey.

In our old yogic literature, it is said that we should do what the Guru says, and that is the beginning and end of spiritual practice. So if anything will guarantee total success in spiritual life, it is obedience. Because obedience means that we don't think of what He asks us to do, we do it. So, only one who has more or less given up the egoistic attitude can obey the Master. And all obedience is for the sake of the self. It is for your sake that you are obedient. Therefore you practice for your development; you have to develop obedience to make that practice effective for your own development; that develops love for the Master to take you to the highest state of development and one day, that will take you to the Master and make you one with Him.

WHAT IS THE REWARD FOR COOPERATION?
What can be more reproducible than a Master creating a Master? In management schools, well, they create managers but they do not create bosses; but here, you create the boss himself. As Babuji said, "I do not make slaves, I make Masters." So, it is our duty to prove the system's ability and its capacity, as abhyasis upon ourselves, as preceptors upon the abhyasis who come to us, and that is how the efficacy of the system is transmitted down the line as it were. So, it is a double duty we have again. Because, if we are inefficient, if we fail, it is the Master's failure. Nobody is going to say, "You failed or she failed." They say, "What is the system, what is the Ram Chandraji you are talking so much about? Nothing has happened." It is his name, his reputation, it is the Mission's fair name that is always at stake.

So please remember, the organisation exists for you, books are printed for you; if the Master travels, he travels for you. Therefore I pray that all of you should get right understanding of the system, of the Master, of what we are doing. We are doing nothing less than endeavouring to upgrade the humanity to the levels of angels and gods and beyond. It is not an ordinary task, it is not even a superhuman task, it is a divine task in which you are involved. Please understand it and work accordingly.

If an abhyasi wants to become like the Master and become one with him, which is the highest goal of spiritual practice, then this daytime exposure to, and association with the Master, His work, becomes most important. So that is why he had to travel all His life to centers all over the world, and that is why it becomes important that we, as abhyasis, cooperate with Him fully in this aspect of His work.

Do we wish to follow Him upon the noble and divine path of self-development or do we desire to remain here, earthbound, stagnating in this miserable existence, because of our lust for power and material advancement? This is the question that we must ask ourselves.

His plans can never fail because they are plans divinely ordained. Our indiscipline can never affect His work. Our lack of cooperation can never alter His design for bringing about change. All that our lack of discipline can possibly achieve - if it can be called achievement - is our own stagnation, and possibly fall from the levels that He has so benevolently blessed us with. Life will pass us by, leaving us grasping the toys and dolls of lesser aspiration, while those who cooperate in the magnificent venture of participating in change will follow Him into Eternity.