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Humility and Simplicity
Humility
Humility does not mean shyness or self-effacement. Even in India we
find, at least in some of the old houses, you know, they used to have
doorsteps four feet tall, so that you had to stoop to go under them.
That was supposed to be humility. But my Master used to say that if
you are having faith in Him, if you have courage in yourself, confidence
in the work and absolute unshakable will power, in some way they operate
like the four fingers of the hand, you see, the fifth being the Master
Himself. Then there is this attitude that we can walk erect, head held
proudly up, proudly in the sense, not stooping in this false idea of
humility. And that is a perfect expression of the real inner attitude
of humility.
Unfortunately I think all the great religions have combined, or conspired,
to give us a wrong idea of humility. I do not see how a worker can efface
himself. All that he can try is to project the work as his master's
work, and then he doesn't exist anymore. So that is the real essence
of humility: that anything that we do, if we do in the consciousness
that this is the Master who is working, we don't exist and therefore
there can be no arrogance, no pride, nothing is 'us'. If we work in
the consciousness that it is the Master who is working, we cease to
exist. Then how can you be proud or humble? So we achieve that state
where we transcend both the opposites. So, of such a person you cannot
say that he is humble or he is proud. He is what he is. And that is
what his Master made him.
Simplicity
Sahaj Marg says, "Live a simple life in tune with nature,"
and that is common to everybody. Nature is common to everybody, you
see, simplicity is common to everybody. Simplicity does not mean suffering.
Simplicity does not mean enjoyment. Simplicity means reduction of
our needs to the minimum possible. A complex life is one where we
need many things. A simple life is where we don't need so many things.
So we have to try to become simple in our attitudes, simple in our needs,
simple in our life and simple in our approach to even our system of
practice.
When one lives a simple life one has few needs. One who has few needs,
needs not much money - that is easily acquired, morally acquired, acquired
with a certain dignity which goes with rightful earning - one need not
be afraid of the police, the income tax man, or even of one's own conscience.
Then we find this miraculous feature that now there is enough or more
time than we need to meditate, to do our cleaning, to practice constant
remembrance etc.
Always remember that while the minimum facilities should be provided,
we should not give more than is necessary. What Master meant was adherence
to simplicity. Babuji says, "Be simple and in tune with Nature."
What for? Because eventually when you return again to the simplicity
you must be at home there, as you were, before you acquired all these
paraphernalia of existence. All excessive luxuries, excessive attachments
to comforts, they take us away from the main goal of spiritual purpose
and spiritual achievement. And in someway we get bogged down in the
mire of material achievement where we have no possibility of raising.
It is like one of these quick sands where the man sinks deeper and deeper
and one day finds that he is lost.
Simple people cannot tell lies. You rarely find a farmer or a cowherd
capable of telling a lie. Even if he decides to tell a lie, he won't
be able to tell it when he is faced with the situation. He will blurt
out the truth. So the more sophisticated a society, the more lies in
it. It is an unfortunate, shall we say, parallelism, that the higher
we advance in the intellectual level, the more sophistication we achieve,
the more we become liars, cheats, to others and to ourselves. The
more we become simple, in tune with nature, the more truthful we become.
It was Babuji's teaching that unless one is simple one cannot be
sensitive. I mean it is quite obvious to us because if you are wearing
a woolen suit and get into the water, you cannot feel anything, you
have to expose as much of yourself as you can. If you want to feel the
air that is blowing, you should take off your jacket at least. If you
are going to be in an iron suit and expect to feel the air around you
to be felt, it is impossible.
Simplicity means two things. One simplicity we are aware of: that a
machine works with a hundred parts, then the same machine is designed
with fifty parts - it is less complicated. The same machine designed
with twenty-five parts - it is even more simple. Ultimately, we design
the machine with just one part - it's the simplest. And if that machine
can be like that sun - you know, the solar sun, which is generating
its own fuel in a fantastically simple chain of atomic activity; it
burns itself, and in its process generates its own fuel all the time,
you see, and throws out immense quantities of energy - when it can be
a self-sustaining thing, it is absolutely the simplest.
Now I think the perfect level of that, the perfection of that simplicity
is God - who was neither created, nor sustains himself with food, doesn't
need exercise, doesn't need existence, therefore cannot die. We were
born, therefore we shall die. Now I would imagine the simplest, most
perfect example of the ultimate simplicity, that which was never created,
which is indestructible, which is self-sustaining, which has no parts,
no movement, no speech, no language, no thoughts therefore no organism
to express any of this: God.
So when we try to get into the simplicity, simplification of our existence,
as Babuji said, "Be simple and in tune with Nature," we are
only trying to go away from this complexity of the created thing to
the simplicity and the eternity of the uncreated; therefore immortal,
eternal, transcending time, space, causation, everything else.
Simplicity is a sign of total self-contentedness. Such an individual
needs no protection from any thing. He needs no support from any culture.
He needs no authority from any religion. He is himself his own authority
for his existence, for this preachings, for his way of life, for everything.
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