A Man Who Can Wait is the Man Who Has Faith

For us in the East, every time you get into a plane it's an act of faith. I mean it literally. Who knows what's going to happen, especially on these long flights - ten hours, eleven hours? In the old days, we took a thirty minute flight, held on tight to the hand-rest, and prayed. Now how long can we pray? Eight hours can we pray? Eleven hours can we pray? So we pray in the beginning, and then try to enjoy the flight. Every time there's a bump, every time there's a course change… most people do it. Only, those who are ashamed to tell the truth, tell lies. So waiting can become a torture if you have no faith - that my Master has begun something, he will surely end it to my benefit, to my ultimate benefit. Therefore one who can wait, is really a man who has faith in the process, in the guru, and therefore that faith yields us the ability to wait, which is nothing but what you call patience. So if there is something which is, shall we say the symbol of a spiritual person - what symbolizes a spiritual person, what characterizes a spiritual person - it is his ability to wait.

A perfect example of that was my Master. He could wait eternally. And that's another thing. You cannot say, "Oh, I have waited five minutes, how long do you expect me to wait?" Waiting cannot have a limit. It's like when you train a dog, "Wait," it has to stay there till you come and release it. What goes for the dog goes for the trainer too. Because when you ask it to wait, and you go and sit down, and surreptitiously look at it, you are also waiting for him to make a move, as a sign of obedience or disobedience. So waiting cannot have a limit. "Oh I have waited twenty minutes, I have waited forty minutes, I have waited three days." We have a limit. Waiting has no limit. Therefore waiting takes on, or partakes of, the character of Infinity. Whereas doing consumes moments of time in small bits, discrete bits, which we call seconds, minutes, hours. So one who waits is able to be in Infinity to that extent. Therefore the Master is one who can eternally wait.

I once asked Babuji, "Several people come to you, take a sitting or two, and walk away. What will happen?" He said, "Oh, I can wait. They have to come back." I said, "When?" He said, "Maybe not in this life, but in their next life they have to come to me. Maybe after four lives, but they have still to come to me." You see, that is the sort of faith that we deal with here.

I think I told you the episode, when once He was doing some work on a plane, and He was very preoccupied. I asked Master, "What are you doing?" He said, "You read what I was doing and tell me." I tried a little. He was working in the future. Then He explained to me that he was working to lay the foundation for the Personality who will appear at the time of Mahapralaya - that is the dissolution of the Universe which, according to calculations in the Indian philosophy is, four million, three hundred and twenty thousand years in the future. And that man you know, had the patience to start the work today! I said, "How do you know it will succeed?" He said, "Only a fool can ask such a question." (laughter) I said, "Well, maybe I am a fool, but please explain how you know that this will happen?" He said, "When I will it, it cannot but happen. Nothing on earth, nothing in heaven can stop that." So that is faith - in himself, born out of faith in his Master. He taught him. In Him he has total faith. Therefore he could have faith in himself. So the ability to wait shows patience and faith. Ability to wait for long periods shows greater and greater faith. Ability to wait infinitely shows infinite faith. So this is the capacity we must develop.

So this is the secret of spirituality. He can wait infinitely. Why should I wait? It is like a man who says, "Oh, there's a bus every ten minutes, you know. I will take the next one, the next one, the next one, the next one, and he is sitting here smoking or drinking, and bus after bus is going by. And ultimately he catches a bus at midnight, gets into Seattle at two o'clock in the morning, gets mugged on the street, and ends up in hospital. So while we should have the capacity to wait for a result, in the faith that it cannot elude us or evade us or escape us, we can hardly afford to wait to begin that process. It is like cooking. Unless you start to cook at a moment in time, you are not going to finish it, "Oh, you know, potatoes take only twenty minutes." "Yes, but darling, when are you going to put the damn thing on the fire?" (laughter) "Oh, it takes only a second to light the fire." "Yes, but when is that second coming?" Isn't it? So instead of a midday meal, you get a midnight meal. Often!

So, faith is what is behind the ability to wait. Faith is that which, according to the proverb, or according to the saying in the English language, moves mountains. I have often felt that the Guru really does nothing in the sense of doing something. And this conviction is growing in me more and more, that He really does nothing. I mean, I don't imply any discourtesy towards my Master. Then what is it that moves His work, His power, to be activated in my favour? My faith. When I have faith in Him, His power has to flow. It is as if there is a vacuum, and His power is pulled towards me. And if I have no faith, and I am only going to His door like a beggar, "Babuji, please give me this, Babuji, please do that, Babuji, make it possible for me to come to the South of France," He throws pieces of bread, like we throw to the beggars, you see. He does not want it.

So this is the secret of spirituality, that without faith in the Master, I think the Master's hands are tied. "How can the Master help one who has no faith in Him?" Even in medicine, it is said, that unless you have the will to live, no doctor can help you to exist. It is your will to live that makes it possible for the doctor to help you. If you have given up the fight for life, that's the end. That is why despair, suicidal tendencies, they are so bad limitations. And now when we have faith because we love the Master, we have faith in Him, like a child has faith in you, your baby has faith in you, why don't you stow it away in the bedroom upstairs, and say, let the bears take care of it? It is your baby! You love the baby and every time he comes and says, "Dad, I want a lollipop," you are waiting - even though you don't have money for it. It is his love, it is his trust, it is his faith in you that you can provide him with his… whatever he eats - that makes you release your love for him, open up your purse strings. So if that is happening between you and your children, what about Him and His children?

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