The goal of transcendence

God created the lower vital life to propagate the human species when man had just emerged from the animal kingdom and was still governed largely by his animal propensities. But God expected and fully intended that as man evolved he would purify and divinise his lower vital life. By the time every human being on earth has become so divine that all lower vital activity has ceased, mankind will have evolved a totally new system of reproduction; but this will not happen for thousands of years.

Meanwhile, if a seeker leads a pure, strict spiritual life, God's creation will not suffer. If he is a celibate of the highest order, the world will not suffer from lack of population, because everybody is not accepting the spiritual life right now. In the same family it often happens that a seeker's brothers and sisters do not care for the spiritual life. Let the world's population depend on those who are not leading a spiritual life. An aspirant thinks of God-realisation first and foremost. There are more than enough people on earth to take care of the population problem while every aspirant takes care of his God-realisation problem.

Forty years ago a spiritual Master was asked a question about the effect of a pure spiritual life on the world's population. He became furious. He said to his disciples, "If you have to think about that instead of about God, then why do you stay in my ashram? Ask me questions that will help you with your immediate spiritual life. You have come here to become God's children, not to create children of your own."

Spiritual aspirants, as well as those who have not accepted the spiritual life, must remember that each child that a person brings into the world is a tremendous responsibility. Each soul is a spark of the divine Light. When parents bring a child into the world, God gives them the responsibility to take care of it in a divine way. If they do not fulfil this responsibility, then not only are they harming the child, but also, because they are not fulfilling God's Will, they are harming themselves karmically. So it is better for those who still feel the need to indulge in lower vital activity but who do not want to accept the responsibility of caring for children to use some method of birth control. The world population will not fall dangerously low because of this. All the souls that want and need to reincarnate will always have the opportunity.

In the spiritual life it is essential that a seeker learn to control his emotions, but this cannot be done through coercion. The divine purity within purifies slowly and steadily. He cannot purify his emotions by hook or by crook. He has to follow a systematic spiritual method and for that aspiration is necessary. When the seeker aspires, when the flame of aspiration climbs upward, it will illumine his inner and outer nature. Automatically he will have a self-disciplined life. But if he tries to have a disciplined life by force, he will damage his physical and mental health.

If the aspirant wants to reach or realise the highest Truth overnight, he will be making a mistake. This is, after all, inner knowledge. To get outer knowledge, which is comparatively easy, a student spends twenty years or even more in school. To attain spiritual knowledge the inner student must devote many years more than that to his inner study. If somebody feels that he can control his emotions in the twinkling of an eye or that he can realise God in a few hours, he is only fooling himself. There are certain methods that one must follow. There are no substitutes or short cuts. If one can meditate early in the morning, between three or four o'clock, he will get tremendous inspiration and he will be able to run very fast. But this does not mean that if he meditates at that time every day he will realise God in a week's time. That is impossible.

Regular, sincere and soulful meditation is the only way to have a truly disciplined life. But before meditation one should practice concentration. When one concentrates, he becomes a divine hero. He enters into the battlefield of life and light where there can be no doubt, no fear. Fear and doubt are conquered by concentration. Then when he enters into deep meditation, he will get confidence, inner confidence and assurance. Finally, when he contemplates he will enter into the goal and grow into the goal. He will become the goal itself. This is God-realisation. Here the finite merges with the Infinite and becomes one with the Infinite. Here the divine lover and the Supreme Beloved become one, inseparable.