Section 1
A Twentieth Century Seeker
The twentieth century seeker is suffering. He is suffering from the loveless aridity of his heart. He is suffering from the confusion-market of his mind. He is suffering from the power-politics of his vital. He is suffering from the lethargy-supremacy of his body.
Depressed, he has been singing the song of self-resignation. Humiliated, he has been marching along the road of world-revolt.
Lo and behold! God, the Author of all Good, out of His infinite Compassion-Light, has removed from his aspiration-life the world of depression-night. God, the Author of all Good, has removed from his dedication-life the surrendered breath of humiliation-helplessness.
No more self-resignation-song; no more world-revolt-march! The seeker is now enjoying the life-acceptance-smile. His joyful acceptance of life is freedom from inactivity-indulgence. There was a time when the seeker’s life was suspended in mid-air between the old fears and the new doubts. But the binding fears and the blinding doubts have finally disappeared, and indomitable courage and an unshakable faith have replaced them. Now the seeker aspires because he needs God’s all-liberating Heights. Now the seeker serves because he needs God’s all-illumining Depths.
His aspiration is God’s Silence-Life. His dedication is God’s Sound-Life. Silence-Life is God the Seed. Sound-Life is God the Fruit.
His aspiration is God’s Vision-Life. God’s Vision tells him that he is Eternity’s progress and Infinity’s success. Success receives; progress achieves. Success receives God-Satisfaction from the outer world of duty. Progress achieves God-Perfection from the inner world of beauty.
His dedication is God’s Manifestation-Life. God’s Manifestation tells him that he is of God and for God. He is of God in the inner world; he is for God in the outer world. In the inner world he is God’s Dream-Reality and in the outer world he is God’s Reality-Dream.
18 June 1975
St. Francis Xavier Church
New York
The Five Paths Of Love And Devotion
There are five paths of love and devotion. In one path, one approaches God with a calm, quiet, soft, angelical, joyful attitude.
In the second, the seeker approaches God as though he were a slave and God were the master. If the seeker wants to approach God with this servant-like quality, this is the right path. Here the seeker is the eternal slave of God’s Love.
In the third approach, the seeker regards God as his eternal Friend, eternal Companion. In this path, the seeker speaks to God openly and freely, without obstruction. We can see the embodiment of this path in the relationship of Arjuna and Sri Krishna. Arjuna approached Lord Krishna as a friend, but eventually his relationship with Krishna changed, and he became a perfect, devoted disciple.
In the fourth relationship, God is considered as one’s own child. Nothing is expected from God, just as we never expect anything from a child, a baby. When we approach God in this way, we have no desire, conscious or unconscious, to take anything from Him. We do not want to take anything from a little baby. We only try to please the baby in his own way. In India there are many devotees of Lord Krishna who think of him as a child, an eternal child. This is a most significant path, but it is quite uncommon here in the West.
The fifth path is the path of sweetness. Here the lover and the beloved become one. In this path we see the union of the human, aspiring soul and the divine, fulfilling Soul. The human soul and the transcendental Self become inseparably one on the strength of the seeker’s absolute surrender. When an aspirant can offer his inner and outer existence completely, cheerfully, unreservedly and unconditionally to the Supreme, at that time he can achieve the sweetest inseparable oneness with the Inner Pilot.
These are the five approaches in the path of love, devotion and surrender. Each aspirant can walk along the path with one quality or with two or three.
Again, if he wants to have all the qualities, he can achieve this also. It depends on the individual aspirant, on what kind of relationship he wants to establish with his Inner Pilot or with the Supreme in his spiritual Master.
