Impediments to Progress (Cont'd)

Pitfalls of Spirituality: I think the first pitfall we have to avoid is a misunderstanding of what this 'Master' means, because there are many people who come expecting miracles. Expecting, you know, all sorts of wonderful things; magic, instant transformation - thinking that the Master is going to do everything for us. I think that is the first big danger - not understanding what a Master is, and what is his relationship going to be with the abhyasis.

So you see, this first misunderstanding, the greatest misunderstanding, the most tragic misunderstanding, that I can go to a Master and find myself immediately, is the first and the greatest pitfall. "Oh, I have a Master. He will do everything for me." He will help you to do everything for yourself. He cannot do an iota for you by himself. There are cases where he tried to raise people up several points, and Lalaji from above rapped him on the head and said, "Stop this nonsense! You will destroy him."

So, the secret of his inability to do things for us was not his inability, but our inability to help him to do things on us which we are unable to stand. The Master is not limited by himself, or his capacities or his powers. He is limited by us. Each one of us is a different sort of limitation, or a concatenation of limitations to him. One has affection, but will not practice. Another practices cleaning, but not meditation. Another meditates but says, "I don't need cleaning." The man who is very ardent in his practice has no affection for the guru. Those who practice according to the letter of the law do not obey his changed statements, on different occasions, under different circumstances. They say, "But Babuji, you have written in your own book." He says, "Aha. I have written." He could not say that, "I am the author of this, and I have a right to change what I have written!" He never said it, so this man went away thinking he has won a victory over Babuji, you see, a philosophical victory, maybe a victory of authorship. "You see, I have limited him to what he has written." Here comes the misunderstanding that this written law is superior to the spoken law. Not at all.

Second great pitfall - Do not misuse your Master. We don't know how to use him because we don't know what he is. But all the time we are misusing him, misquoting him, claiming to be his devotees, his bhaktas - second great pitfall.

Third great pitfall - "After all, he is a human being like us, sir. He is weak. You know, poor fellow, he cannot even bend and lift up his walking stick if it falls. At night somebody has to accompany him to the bathroom. He has false teeth. How can he help us?" I too, made that mistake but only once, when I saw him for the first time. But when I saw his eyes, everything faded. He removed my ignorance.

Many of you are still thinking like that, which is the tragedy. Nodding heads is no use - one must touch one's heart to find out what is the truth of this third pitfall - that, "I am better than him. I can walk farther than him. I can eat more than him. I can read better than him. I can understand everything which he cannot understand. I can digest cheese and butter but that person can't. I can sleep more than him. I have more money than he ever had. He has to come humbling himself and ask for donations. I never put out my hand for anything." How many of you don't feel that you are obliging your Master when you give your ten rands, and fifty rands, and hundred rands to the Mission? Enormously big pitfall.

Fourth pitfall - Putting your faith in everything and everybody except the one you call Master." You see, we are all thinking of pitfalls such as immorality, vice, drunkenness, women for men, men for women, all these funny things. They are nothing compared to these big pitfalls. So we are basing our claims, or our hopes of success, on chance, on friends, on assumptions, but not on love, faith, and hope. It's all pitfalls.

The Big Pitfalls - the pitfall of misunderstanding, the pitfall of wrong expectations - these are the real pitfalls which block our path, which make progress impossible. Not because he is helpless, but because we are helpless. Biggest, most potent, most destructive pitfall on the way is the lack of right understanding of the Master, and adding to it, the wrong understanding of the Master which you think is right, which makes you think you can bribe him, you can fool him, you can cheat him into giving you what you want, very much like we do in our businesses. This is not a business place. Here, the boss cannot be cheated. He cannot be fooled. He may tolerate, you see, what you are doing. That is His greatness, His love, His mercy.

Let us also remember that we have given too much attention, perhaps, to the material pitfalls - old age, sickness, vicious temperament, attachment to lusts - these are petty things. Two thousand years ago Christ said, "Let him in whom there is no sin, cast the first stone." It was quite clear that everybody was sinning. At least fifteen hundred years before him, Buddha said the same thing.

Here in Sahaj Marg, there is no sin, there is no virtue. What we think of as sin becomes our sin, and the only way to avoid it is to make a resolution, which he calls a repentance, saying, "I shall sin no more." There is no need for forgiveness because I forgive myself. There is no need for retribution because I am always punishing myself. Who is the God who is punishing me? Who is the God who is saving me? I save myself. I punish myself. I destroy myself. I alone can recreate myself, but I need His help to show me how to do it - therefore the Master.

There are persons who do devoted service at the various celebrations such as selling books, looking after the kitchen, serving the food, cleaning the premises and so on. But if they do not meditate regularly and do not develop devotion and eventually love for the Master, then their progress virtually stops. My Master has clarified that while service is no doubt good and necessary too, nevertheless without sadhana, a person cannot really progress in spirituality.

There are cases of persons who do the sadhana with obvious seriousness and with visible regularity too. In most cases there has been lack of progress, and my Master has once again been gracious enough to clarify that sadhana without love for the Master has no meaning, and added in His typically gentle manner, "But I give them some crumbs of spirituality since no one can be permitted to go away with empty hands after coming to me."

There are the cases of abhyasis who are totally devoted and attached to the Mission, but who are careless about their Meditation, and have no care for the Master. In such cases too they suffer from lack of such progress and the Master's words are there again one must be devoted to the Master, do his sadhana regularly without modifying the method to suit his own convenience and also be capable of service to humanity through the Mission that has been established for this very purpose. Otherwise the fruits of labour will not be fully available.

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