Of Preceptors:
My Master was reluctant to give instructions because an instruction must be obeyed, whereas a hint is to be followed with wisdom, with love, because as preceptors we are doing voluntary work, we are not paid for it. There is no compulsion. But please remember that when you volunteer to do something and accept a responsibility, the responsibility is much more awful than that of a merely paid worker. A paid worker can leave. All that he renounces is his wage. And he can always be sacked by giving him compensation in terms of monetary benefits.
But where there is a relationship like ours with the Master, where there is a voluntary - in fact sometimes people wish, crave to serve, you see, - relationship, then the relationship is something beyond a merely worldly relationship; beyond just a human relationship. It is raised to a higher level where things like brotherhood, loyalty, they take on a new dimension of meaning. And there it should neither be necessary for an order to be given, nor for you to work in a spirit merely of obedience. Preceptors are expected to therefore serve the Master not with obedience but with love, something which they wish to do, something which they long to do, something which they cannot refrain from doing. It's like serving your child. No mother thinks that she is serving her child. She is looking after it, protecting it, cherishing it.
Babuji said, "Attach your heart with that of the Master and your mind with that of the preceptor." Preceptor is a guide. Listen to him, obey him, practise what he tells you to practise, but love the Master. Now we have to remember a very important thing. Babuji told me very early in my life, "Remember, a preceptor serves the Master." We do not serve abhyasis. Because if the Master says, "No more transmission," we have to stop. If we do not stop, he will stop it himself. Because the main switch is there. Therefore, we serve the Master. He says, "Take up this person and give him sittings," we do it. If he says, "No, this person is not for you," we stop.
When we serve, when we offer our services to the Master, there is often this immense temptation offered to us by abhyasis. They come to us and say, 'Sir you have done so much for us. You have spent so much of your time on us. You have been getting up at 4 o' Clock and going to bed at mid night, giving sittings and we are grateful to you.' I say this is a temptation because preceptors are human beings and if they get into their heads the idea that they are serving humanity, the first crime in spirituality commences, because none of us is serving anybody except the Master. We are only servants of the Master. It is my Master's desire that I should transmit to the abhyasis. So I do it.
We have to go ahead with a sense of purpose - not our purpose. A preceptor is true to himself and to the Master when his purpose becomes the purpose of those whom he is supposed to serve. Their lives must become your primary concern; their health is your primary concern, not yours; their upliftment becomes your primary concern, not your own. If you are able to achieve that state of being that, "It does not matter what happens to me so long as I can push a few of these people up," then this miracle can be possible that all are masters, otherwise, it is just a name, or a word in a book.
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