Master Makes Us Understand What Our Goal Should Be
Most human beings do not know their Goal. Even educated ones, even sophisticated ones, they do not know. I have been wondering why this should be so. When we compare the animal kingdom with the human kingdom - the animal life, bird life, the insect life, they come with some sort of a pre-programmed existence - to use computer terminology, they are pre-programmed. They do not have a choice. They come with a programmed existence which they meticulously follow, by means of what we call "instinct;" when we relate it to what our Master said about human beings living as animals, it is because when we come here, we are also to some extent [why to some extent, to a very large extent] pre-programmed by our samskaras.
It is one of my convictions that no human being has any freedom - of choice, of action - until and unless he is able to eradicate, to erase, the programming which his samskaras have imposed upon him. This is precisely the need to seek an external guide, an external superior force, a yogic force which can do that very vital job for us, of erasing the programme, and substituting another programme for us - which starts with the idea of a goal towards which we aspire. So when people ask, particularly in the West, it is very difficult to convince them in today's world of 'do-it-yourself' activity, here is one line of pursuit - the yogic pursuit - which you cannot do without external assistance, for this very vital reason that you have no ability or power to change your programming by yourself.
People who are handling tape recorders know that it cannot erase by itself,
you have to erase it; or by recording something super-imposing on it, the
old one is removed, the new one is imposed. This is the first function of
a spiritually enlightened person to open our eyes to our goal by imposing
- it is not an imposition of will, it is an imposition of knowledge or Jnana
- and say, "My dear friend, you are suffering from this. This is your samskara.
As long as your samskaras exist, you have no choice. When you have no choice,
your mind will not work in a proper way. When it does not work in the proper
way, what idea can you have of your goal? And when you have no goal, towards
what are you going to live, to exist for?
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