Love, Concentration and Self-Surrender: The Psychology of Mysticism

When one undertakes to reach a certain goal in any field of human activity,
it is necessary to take stock of one's progress from time to time. It is
only through such stocktaking that one can become conscious of one's
shortcomings and errors, eradicate and uproot them and plan out future
progress. Having put our shoulders to the wheel of the Great Master's
Cause, it is necessary that we should, in like manner, review our activity
and achievement, from time to time. Without such self-analysis and
self-criticism, no real advancement is possible and it was to encourage
this practice and make it a daily habit that, in the case of individual
initiates, I insisted (and continue to insist) that they maintain a daily
record of their thoughts, words and deeds and of the period of meditation.
What is necessary for us as individual initiates is even more necessary for
us as members of a large movement.

Reviewing the work done in the past few years, there is much, I find, for
which we may be grateful. Many have shown remarkable capacity for selfless
service and others have made commendable progress on the inner path.
Nevertheless, while noting this with pleasure, I cannot help observing the
growth of tendencies which must be a matter of concern for all of us. In
spite of repeated exhortations and persuasions, I find growing and
springing up amidst us the weeds of discord and disharmony. Competition
seems to have taken the place of cooperation, rivalry that of love, and
distrust that of trust and good faith.

The emergence of such fissiparous tendencies has marked the beginning of
the decline of any great movement. Unless checked, they multiply and lead
ultimately to serious rifts and divisions. The original goal is completely
forgotten in the heat of controversy and debate and the purpose we set out
to achieve lies wholly neglected. If we are to escape this fate we must
zealously watch ourselves and rid ourselves of my undesirable traits that
may be imperceptibly developing in us.

Why such disharmony should keep up is not difficult to tell. The Master
cannot be present in his physical person everywhere and at all times His
mission must he carried on with the assistance of his disciples. These
disciples are individuals inspired by spiritual longings who have been put
on the road, but who have not necessarily reached the goal. The ultimate
end is not easy to attain and very few indeed reach it within this
lifetime. The Master's Cause must, therefore, be carried on with the aid of
men and women who, in most cases, are yet on the path and have not attained
perfection. Their vision is individual, not universal, and the viewpoint
from which they see and judge is limited by the degree of spiritual
development attained by them. When they are entrusted with any
responsibility it is inevitable that they should discharge it within the
terms of their own vision and insight. And when in discharging this
responsibility they have to collaborate with others like themselves, others
whose viewpoint is equally individual and distinct, the roots of discord
begin. So long as they work directly under the guidance of the Master, all
is well, but the moment they have also to work in collaborating and
cooperating, controversy begins. They should understand that they are all
laborers in the field of the Master, working for promoting the Holy Cause
of leading the seekers to the Goal of Life. The man who could see, could
resolve at a touch the contradictory statements regarding the elephant made
by the proverbial six blind men, but left to themselves, they could only
wrangle and debate: each considered that he was right and the others wrong
and each distrusted what the others had to say.

If six men lacking full vision could not agree about the nature of so
limited and well-defined an object as an elephant, it is not surprising
that those with limited vision should be unable to harmonize completely on
so vast and unlimited a subject as spirituality. And yet, while it is
natural for those who lack full vision not to agree fully on such matters,
we must not allow this limitation to create division and dissension. For if
we fail to find a remedy, we will ultimately have to sacrifice the "Cause"
which brought us together, and what a great loss that would be. There is
only one remedy for all such discord and that is Love. He who has not
mastered its secret, can never hope to be received in the Court of the
Lord. It is the beginning and the end of spirituality. He who understands
Love in its true nature and who lives and moves by its light shall, surely
as two added to two makes four, attain the Lord.

Love and all things shall be added unto thee. - CHRIST

Listen! for I give you the very essence of truth: Those who have loved have
reached the Lord. - GURU GOBIND SINGH

Love knows selfless service, sacrifice, and self-surrender. Let no one
interested in spiritual advancement perform service for the sake of
appreciation. Selfless service is great reward in itself. It even
sacrifices one's personal interests for the cause one has sincerely taken
up.

What is this love of which all mystics, Eastern and Western, have spoken so
insistently? Is it like the love of the earth that we know? If you study
the bonds of earthly love, you will find that at some point or another a
trace of self-assertion is present in every case. Parent and child, friend
and friend, man and wife; each is involved in a more or less strong drive
for possession. It is a love that can often rise to great heights of
self-sacrifice and yet it is a love that is not wholly selfless.

But the Love of which the mystics speak is a love that must be completely
purified of the self. If one has not attained complete purification in this
respect, one's love is still not perfect and not truly acceptable in the
eyes of the Lord And so the love of mystics is one in which one completely
and unreservedly surrenders one's self to one's love. The seeker who,
having found a true Master, has developed such absolute love for him,
steadily purifies himself of all imperfections and makes himself a fit
recipient of Divine Grace. You may well ask why there is this insistent
stress on complete self-surrender on the mystic path. The answer is simple:
without this absolute surrender of the last vestiges of ego and selfhood
and without such complete absorption in the object of one's love, one
cannot attain that unwavering concentration of all one's faculties which is
the prerequisite of all inner progress. Absolute love and self-surrender
are only other aspects of complete and flawless concentration. The moment
the "self" enters into the picture and the question of "I-ness" arises, the
single-pointedness of concentration is dissipated and inner advancement is
made impossible. Besides, the goal of the spiritual aspirant lies far
beyond the limits of individuality. His goal is union with the Absolute and
such union must necessarily be a denial of the limits that separate us from
each other. He who cannot rise above the ego, the faculty which creates
these very limits, cannot hope to attain to that station which is the
denial of all individuality and a realization of the oneness of all life.

Hence it is that all mystics of all traditions have been untiring in their
stress of the need for absolute self-surrender. It was this cross of
sacrifice of the self, the ego, of which Jesus spoke when he exhorted his
disciples to bear their cross daily. For in every little act, word or
thought, the ego is seeking to dominate us and if the seeker is to triumph
over it, he must be prepared to crucify it every moment. To achieve this
degree of self-surrender, one must not look up to the Deity in its Abstract
form but in Its human form as the Master. For how else is one to know God's
Will directly, in order to surrender one's self to it? What one may take as
an intuition inspired by the Divine may be really one's own self speaking
in disguise, and surrender to such seeming intentions may be really
surrender to the self, the ego. However, if one has found a true Master,
who is attuned to the Lord and is His mouthpiece, and obeys him in all
things completely and absolutely, he will surely destroy the hydra-headed
serpent of the ego and reach his heavenly home one day. There will be
moments in the course of such love when one, judging from one's own limited
understanding, doubts the validity of the Master's instructions, but such
moments are only tests to make our self-surrender more complete and more
secure, and he who passes through these tests successfully, will one day
radiate with the glory of God.

Such love and self-surrender to the Will of the Lord embodied in the
Master, has been the keystone of the teachings of all mystics and
especially so of Sant Mat. Your main task as disciples, as initiates, is to
cultivate these qualities to the very utmost and leave the rest to the
Master. There will, of course, be moments of doubt and of questioning, but
if you can pass through them with your love and your faith unscathed, you
will find the spiritual road within steadily unfolding itself before you
and all things being added unto you. The path is certainly not easy, but
for one who has made such love the cornerstone of his life, nothing could
be easier or more certain. Jesus never promised the peace and comfort with
which the world is familiar. It was the cross he offered. We have to
suffer; to reshape ourselves, to destroy the old and forge the new.

We have to face the ridicule of our fellows and the organized opposition of
orthodox institutions. But if we have anchored ourselves in such a love of
complete self-surrender, nothing can disturb the peace of our minds or
distract the spiritual harmony that is ours. Initially, perhaps. it is
easier in the East to take to the mystic path than it is in the West. There
is in India for example, a long standing tradition of seeking and following
a Living Master; a tradition that is foreign to those to whom religion has
been taught in terms of a closed revelation. Nevertheless, this initial
advantage is not as great as it might at first appear. For the essential
advantage in the field of spirituality is to be found not without but
within. It lies not in the absence of outer opposition but in ones inner
capacity for complete self-surrender and love; and outward obstacles may in
fact act as tests and stimuli for the development of this capacity. This
ability to conquer the ego and to submit oneself to the Higher Will is as
rare in the East as in the West, and wherever it can be found there you
shall observe the true grandmark of spirituality.

It is this capacity that you must cultivate and develop if you really wish
to make substantial progress in the spiritual field. I repeat that the path
is not easy. You must crucify your ego and lay your selfhood at the altar
of love for your Master. Rome was not built in a day and the True Abode of
the Lord is not to be attained with a few weeks' labor. Most seekers want
quick results. They want miracles and sudden transformations. But the seed
generates rapidly only in thin soil and then withers away. The seed that
must grow into the life-giving tree must grow more slowly. The science of
spirituality as it has been taught by all Masters and as it has been given
to you, is a perfect science. Its truth has been demonstrated by some
initial experience. The rest depends on your effort. The Divine Grace is
ever ready to pour itself into the vessel, but the vessel must first be
ready. The power to perform miracles is not very difficult to acquire, but
it is not to be confused with true spirituality, which must be paid for
with complete self-transformation and self-surrender.

This then is the task before you. If you aspire for spiritual salvation,
then do not lose a moment in seeking to reform yourselves. Man making is
the most difficult part of spirituality and if you have perfected yourself
in that field, then God realization is not difficult. Let your love for the
Master be absolute and your obedience to his wishes uncompromising. Work
for his cause to the best of your abilities, but do not let the
individuality of your limited vision inculcate feelings of opposition and
resentment for your fellows. So long as one has not attained universal
consciousness, differences of opinion are bound to exist. But if one has
understood their cause, one will not allow them to disturb one's peace of
mind. Whatever the outer opposition, whatever the opinions of others, if
one has surrendered oneself completely to one's love, then nothing can ever
disturb one's equanimity or obstruct one's spiritual course. He who is
upset by what others have to say is without question one who is still
controlled by the ego and has yet to conquer his self. He has yet to learn
the rudiments of spirituality.

Let me therefore, command you as a Father, exhort you as a Friend, to turn
to the reformation and conquest of the self if you seek to progress on the
inner path. Try to help others and do the best for them, but be not
concerned with the fruits of what you do. That is something that you must
leave to the Master. Make your love for Him so complete that, beholding His
Hand in everything, you rise above all feelings of enmity, rivalry and
resentment. See Him present in all and remember that He is always with you,
ready to assist whenever you turn your thoughts to Him. And above all do
not forget that He is to be won not by words but by deeds: "If you love me
follow my commandments." If you can do this; if you can conquer the self
and surrender it at the Feet of the Master; if you can learn to see Him
working through all things; if you can accept the fact of your own limited
vision; if you can undertake a ceaseless and zealous watch over your
thoughts and deeds, weeding out all evils and imperfections -then you shall
not only win salvation yourselves but enable others to do likewise. Your
example shall shine like a torch in the darkness, and men, even those who
may first oppose you, will turn to you for guidance and help. You will find
a new sense of peace surging through you, a peace that does not depend on
the absence of outer disturbances, but is an inner state of mind that
stands unshaken even in the most tempestuous situations. And this same
quality shall enter not only your individual lives, but the larger life of
the Great spiritual movement of which you are a part. Instead of being
disrupted and divided, it shall proceed single and purposeful toward its
goal.

No Master has ever been interested in attracting large numbers to Himself
and quantity has never been my aim. It is quality that counts and I would
rather have a handful disciples, nay even one, who can sacrifice his ego on
the spiritual altar and learn to live by love, than millions who understand
not the value and meaning of these virtues. I have suggested this before,
and I emphasize this again that a seeker should be studied more carefully
and his/her background learned more before being recommended for
initiation. If, after understanding the basic principles of the science, he
is willing to undertake this complete remolding of himself that its
practice requires, then and then alone can he become a fit recipient of
initiation. And how much more is this need for self-transformation to be
stressed in the case of group leaders and representatives. They are the
foundations of the movement, and if the foundations are weak, how shall the
superstructure stand firmly? Their responsibility is much greater and their
effort must be much greater than that of the ordinary initiate. If they
really loved me more than their little selves; if they only knew how deeply
I suffer when I see them divided and wrangling, they would never have
permitted matters to come to such a pass. I am not happy to say this, but I
am left no choice.

The chief element that results in disharmony between the representatives,
group leaders and other initiates can also be traced to the word "distrust"
or some sort of fear that some of them have acquired certain powers viz..
mind-reading or seeing or listening in on others at a distance, or psychic
dominance over others, etc., which they misuse. If any one misuses such
powers, those are taken away by the Master immediately. Moreover they are
armed with the repetition of five names by which they have no cause to fear
anyone.

Take it as an exhortation, take it as a command, but from this day, this
very moment, make love and self-surrender (and the two, as I have already
said, are really one) the cornerstones of your life. Do this and you will
find your life becoming daily a blessing. I am always with you, waiting for
you to turn away from yourselves and towards me. Let not the light that has
been planted in you become darkness, but let it flame forth into a blaze
that shall illumine the world. The path is strait and narrow and difficult,
very difficult and exacting, but for one who is truly willing, every help
is promised, and he can attain the goal in this very life; a goal that sets
all other goals to shame; for beside it there are no goals at all, but
empty baubles and toys, at best halfway houses. I know the initiates abroad
are anxious to see me in person, and I also long to be amidst them. You can
well imagine how happy and jolly a father would feel amidst his sons and
daughters who are all loving and amicable. I would therefore suggest that
by the time I make a trip to America, all initiates, including leaders and
representatives, make a special effort to live a pure, Christly and
Master-like life as is possible so that all initiates will stand out
amongst other men and women shining with love in full bloom, and drenched
in the sweet remembrance of the Lord.

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