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Subject Yourself to Change and Make Progress
As my Master said, "Change is the instrument of progress."
On one occasion He spoke to me about the need for forcing change if
the pace of progress is to be accelerated. He said, "If we are
to leave it to Nature, it may take thousands of years, and perhaps the
desired change may not even take place. There is no doubt, the Divine
Will is at work but as they say, the mills of God grind slowly. That
is why evolution takes such long periods of time. What does the wise
person do? He tries to bring about the desired change in himself or
his conditions by taking certain steps for it. This is what we are doing
here - trying to bring about the necessary changes by following in a
disciplined way, a system of practice. It is a blessing conferred upon
humanity by my Master that such a wonderful system is available."
I asked Him whether this could not be taken as going against the will
of God. If the Divine Will is at work, why should we be active in bringing
about a change which will in any case happen by His Will? Master smiled
and said, "In one way that is how the lazy person thinks. Nature
does not compel us to progress. But at the same time we have to remember
that the whole trend in nature is to bring about higher and higher things.
This is called evolution. When we try to make our progress speedy, we
are only cooperating with Nature's purpose, and therefore we are acting
in conformity with His Will." Do you understand this? There is
no question of opposing the divine will! Can anyone ever do it? Really
speaking, we are trying for the very thing that Nature wants to achieve.
That is why every thing becomes so easy when we are earnest about progress
and Nature herself cooperates with us. Nature always cooperates with
us. It is we who have to determine the direction in which we want to
proceed. It is foolishness to blame Nature for everything that we do
wrong. I am telling you that in Nature there is cooperation and cooperation
only. It always cooperates with us. Even if we go in the wrong direction
it cooperates with us. Therefore it is very important to decide the
direction in which we want to go." The message of the Beloved Master
was very clear. We have to decide our direction and practice earnestly
to achieve progress. He helps us.
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