The jealousy of the gods
There are minor cosmic gods and there are higher gods. Although the minor gods have more light and more power than most human beings, some of them have jealousy and other very bad qualities. They fight and quarrel with one another very often. These gods can take care of such things as our headaches and stomach pains. If you get a stomach pain and you pray to the minor gods, they will be able to cure you. But it is too much to ask them to give you realisation or liberation; this they cannot do. With their limited power they try to impress human beings who allow themselves to be satisfied with this kind of achievement or capacity. Of course, there are many people who don’t care for their powers. They say, “So what if I get a stomach pain? In two hours it will go away. Let me keep thinking of my God-realisation.”In an army there is a commander-in-chief, and there are ordinary soldiers. If we have the capacity to please the commander-in-chief by doing something great, meaningful and soulful, then we don’t have to please those in the lower ranks of the army. But if we don’t have this capacity, then we will have to start our journey by pleasing the servants of the soldiers. Otherwise, we will not be able to get in touch even with the soldiers. In the spiritual life we have to know what we want. If we have the capacity to enter into the Highest, then we should not waste our time in dealing with inferior beings.
When a seeker first enters into the spiritual life, these minor gods help him without his even asking for their help. Suppose he is ready to meditate sincerely, but he suddenly gets a headache. The gods say, “Let us help this person without his even being aware of our help.” But when a seeker becomes spiritually powerful, at that time the cosmic gods become insecure. The Supreme is not insecure at all, but these lower gods and goddesses do have insecurity. One who is not the highest or one who may not always remain the best is bound to feel insecure.
The cosmic gods and goddesses are like captains while the Supreme is the Commander-General. When a Yogi aspires and wants to go far beyond the cosmic Game, the cosmic deities see clearly that he has every possibility of going beyond their jurisdiction. Then he will be in touch only with the Absolute Supreme and he will have no need of going through the captains.
When the cosmic deities see that a Yogi is about to surpass them, sometimes they band together and use all their power to try and keep him from going beyond their domain. Sometimes they just wait for the hostile or the evil forces to come to tempt him. Then, when these forces attack, either the deities remain indifferent or, in an ordinary malicious way, they enjoy the Yogi’s struggles. Sometimes individually they go to attack him and try to diminish his capacity and destroy his aspiration. They may actually send very beautiful beings from the astral plane, usually women, to ruin his aspiration; or they will literally try to pull down his aspiration. Not only the minor gods, but even some of the higher gods attack the seeker when he becomes spiritually advanced. On rare occasions they succeed in keeping him within their domain. But if the seeker is successful in fighting against them, they go away. The Christ had this problem, the Buddha had this problem; before their realisation, all the great Masters had to face this problem. Almost all had some difficulty, but they overcame it.
