Sincerity

We always know whether we are sincere or not. Sincerity is not something that we have to be taught; it comes from deep within. When something comes to the fore from the inmost recesses of our heart, we are bound to be sincere. This is not true in the case of the mind. The mind is consciously negating things which have come directly from itself. This moment we think that something is true and we are ready to fight for it, and the next moment we discover that it is absolutely false. When our own realisation is dubious, if we build our assertion on it, then this assertion becomes totally insincere.

If our focus of concentration is in our heart and not in our mind, then easily we will be able to feel that what is coming to the fore from the inmost recesses of our heart is all sincerity. Inside the heart is the soul. The soul cannot be anything else but the flood of sincerity. More than that, it is the flood of spirituality. Through the heart the soul speaks most powerfully and most convincingly. So if we spend more time in our heart than in our mind, we are bound to know what sincerity is because nothing but sincerity will come from our heart. We have an inner vessel which is filled by God's Purity every day. This vessel is located inside our heart. And if we can cultivate our heart, we will see that we are collecting a bumper crop of sincerity every day.

Everybody wants to do something or be something. Many people would like to be very rich, but without working hard, or they want to get a Master's degree without studying hard. They would like to have everything, but they don't want to work for it themselves. If we are really sincere, then we will work very hard.

If we don't care to make progress, no matter how much opportunity we are given, we will not make progress. Each one has to avail himself of his opportunities and use his sincerity. Where there is sincerity and opportunity, progress is bound to grow. Every day, every second, we can make progress if we have sincere aspiration and, at the same time, if we have opportunity. Some people are really sincere, but they do not get ample opportunity because of the cosmic laws. Our sincere soul will aim and gain. If one is extremely sincere, either today or tomorrow he will reach his Goal.

If a truly realised person inspires a sincere seeker, an honest seeker, what happens? The sincere teacher, the realised soul, has some inner Peace, Light, Bliss and Power of his own which he has received from God. This inner Peace, Light, Bliss and Power he can offer to the sincere student who is now eager to learn from him, who also wants to reach the highest Light and Truth. Then it becomes infinitely easier for the student to walk more speedily towards his Goal. Here the spiritual Master acts like a private tutor who teaches the student with affection and concern and tells him what he should do and how he should study in order to pass his examination.

There are many instances in which a truly sincere person has been considerably helped in the spiritual life by an insincere person. But when an insincere person wants to inspire a sincere person, he does not or he cannot do it consciously and with good intention. He talks about God and spiritual truth and light just to show off his knowledge. It is not inner wisdom that he offers, but the learned knowledge that he has acquired from books, from his friends and from the rest of the world. He can only help by telling what he has learned and what he knows he is supposed to feel. There his play ends. It is the sincerity, strength and capacity of the sincere seeker that finds inspiration in his words.

Fortunately, a spiritual Master has the capacity to help a sincere seeker, and he even has abundant capacity to help an insincere person who is not sincerely praying or meditating. He can actually force the insincere person, the unblossomed soul, to aspire. But he will do this only if it is the Will of God that the insincere person be inspired and given a chance for a better life of aspiration. If God wants the spiritual Master to apply his force, he does apply it and he helps the insincere seeker to become sincere. By an insincere seeker I mean one who is not totally sincere, totally consecrated, one in whose case we see an enormous gulf between what he says and what he really is. There are many seekers in whom we see no discrepancy between their inner existence and their outer way of living. But again, there are many seekers who make others feel that they are the best aspirants on earth, but whose inner life and outer life do not go together at all. In their inner life they are the worst possible hypocrites; in their outer life they profess to be absolutely sincere seekers.

Sincerity is one of the requisites for realising God. But just by becoming sincere, one cannot realise God. Ordinary people can be sincere. We see in our day-to-day life many honest people on earth. They don't tell lies. They do not deceive anybody. They do not harm anyone. These people have sincerity. This good habit they got from their parents, or they brought it from their past incarnation. But they are not going to be realised tomorrow or in this incarnation unless they begin to aspire. They are nowhere near realisation. In addition to sincerity, one has to have aspiration, one has to have the soul's inner urge. When we have aspiration, then only do we go consciously towards the Supreme. With aspiration we will enter into concentration, meditation and contemplation, and only then can we run towards our Goal. Sincerity is absolutely necessary, but it is not the only thing that is required for the spiritual life.

Just as we develop muscles, we can also develop our sincerity. But again, what we need is that constant inner urge. Otherwise, one moment we will be sincere and the next moment we will be insincere. Our life will be like day and night, like light and darkness. But if our inner aspiration is constant and spontaneous, then the very urge, the very flow of our inner aspiration, will compel us to be sincere all the time.

Family members often become very generous. The parents say, "We should not come first; our children should come first. We brought them into the world, so let them be our primary concern." The children will say, "We should not come first. Our parents have always been extremely kind to us, so they should come first with us." In this way, the husband will think that the wife is dearest and the wife will think that the husband is dearest. They just widen their consciousness in a very clever and convincing way; they do not feel that they themselves are most important, but that somebody else in the family is the dearest, the most important. At that time they are fooling themselves. God the Supreme must come first — not only in words, but also in deeds. In all our actions He has to come first.

It is very easy to say that God comes first. Everybody can say, "Oh, God comes first." But does He come first? This is what we have to know. We can write it down. We can say it hundreds of times, but it may not be true. All those who enter into the spiritual life tell the spiritual Master, "Yes, God comes first in my life." But everybody has a way of twisting the truth. When the spiritual Master tests them or examines their sincerity in the inner world, he sees that it is not so: the son comes first, the daughter comes first, the father comes first, the mother comes first, the husband comes first, the wife comes first. Or, if they don't come first, it is the first personal pronoun, 'I', who comes first.

An insincere disciple or aspirant will try, consciously or unconsciously, to deceive the spiritual Master even when he speaks face to face with the Master. When he speaks to the Master, in the mental world he tries to convince the Master that he is telling the truth. But the Master sees through him. When he looks into the matter inwardly, he finds that it is all false. By repeating a lie even millions of times, an insincere aspirant cannot convince a true spiritual Master that he is telling the truth.

An insincere disciple feels that the Master can be won if he flatters the Master, if he constantly says, "Master, you are very great." But no, it can never be. An insincere aspirant will try to please the Master in various ways, bringing to the fore his divine qualities, but hiding his undivine qualities: jealousy, hypocrisy, fear, doubt and worry. His love, faith and devotional feeling he offers to the Master. But the Master is not satisfied. The Master can be satisfied only when the aspirant offers to the Master what he integrally is. He will never be satisfied with an aspirant who offers only the good things of his life while he tries to hide the bad things.

Fortunately or unfortunately, a real Master has a clairvoyant third eye. Although he can see through the aspirant who is trying to deceive him, the Master very often ignores this deception. Out of his Compassion-Light, he feels that one day the aspirant will also bring forward his subconscious, the dark part of his life, and offer it to him. Unless and until the dark, unlit part of his nature is brought forward along with the bright, divine part, his progress will be very limited. It will take him hundreds and hundreds of years, perhaps hundreds of incarnations, to come to the real spiritual path.

Each individual needs a path and a guide. All paths are not the same. Only the Goal is the same for all paths. Each person must follow only one path and one Master, the leader or guide of that path. It is impossible and foolish to try to have ten or twelve guides. In the outer life, we need a teacher for history, a teacher for geography, a teacher for each different subject. But in the inner life there is only one subject, God-realisation. One guide is all that is needed to help us open the door to God-realisation. If a person constantly changes paths and teachers, he will never reach his destination.

Sometimes it happens that the seeker searches for a Master for many years, but does not find one. Recently at a university talk, somebody told me that for twenty years she had been looking for a Master. But if she had been sincerely searching for a Master, she would definitely have found one. If the aspirant is sincerely crying for a path, he will definitely find one. Either the Master will come to him or the aspirant will be able to approach the Master. Unfortunately, in the West many people say they are looking for a path, but their cry is not sincere and they are not earnest in their effort. If one makes a sincere effort, I wish to say that his inner life and his outer life are bound to be crowned with success.