Security in devotion

There are two words that we often use: attachment and devotion. When we say that we are either attached or devoted to someone else, we need to know what our purpose is. In attachment, we cherish a real hope, a merciless hope, a useless hope, that if we can be attached to someone, then he will be pleased with us and he will please us in our own way. But this a spiritual Master will never do. Still, we feel that he will be able to fulfil our desires and make us happy. This is the ultimate purpose of attachment. But if we are devoted to someone, then our feeling is, “I will be so glad, so grateful to him if he accepts me as his instrument, to please him in his own way.” This is not a hope. It is more than that. A kind of inner certainty is coming to us that this person will utilise us to please him in his own way.

This is detachment, absolute detachment. Spiritual people will approach their Master with devotion and say, “I am detached from all desires. Only if you utilise me for your divine purpose will I be happy.” Again, there is a higher form of detachment in which the seeker says, “Even if the Master does not utilise me for his own purpose, no harm, as long as he considers me his instrument. He has two pianos. This moment he wants to play on one piano and the next moment he wants to play on the other. Since I am one of these pianos, tomorrow he may play on me.” But the highest detachment is to say, “He has created me. Now it is up to him to utilise me or not. He knows what is best for me. By not utilising me if he becomes happy, then let him remain happy.”

In order to come to this highest stage of detachment, the seeker should always meditate on being a conscious, devoted and surrendered instrument. Otherwise ignorance will automatically pull him down and give birth to the desire to possess the Master in the seeker’s own way. If we always keep before us the higher thought, the higher goal, then we will not be lost. If we don’t reach the higher goal, then how will we reach the highest goal, which is to say that the Master knows what is best for us? We need to meditate on Peace, Light, Bliss and all other divine qualities so that we can hold and embody the highest. If we do not have that kind of meditation and aspiration, then automatically ignorance will make us cherish the hope that the Master will please us in our own way by fulfilling all our desires. The best thing is to think of aspiration: “I want to be good, I want to be pure, I want to be divine. Why? So that I can be a good instrument.” And when we feel that we have become a good instrument, let us simply say, “By his infinite Grace, the Master has made me a very good instrument. Now it is up to him to utilise me or to utilise his worst possible instrument.” In this way we maintain our highest status as a perfect instrument.

When we are really lacking in divine qualities, then the best thing is to pray for those qualities. So meditate on acquiring these divine qualities and when you have them in abundant measure then you can say, “Now you do with me whatever you feel is best.” Right now, at every second, Peace is necessary for everyone, Light is necessary, Bliss is necessary, Delight is necessary, a sense of security is necessary, Purity is necessary and so forth. Then when we feel that we have achieved something, we can say, “Now I am secure; I have divine qualities in abundant measure. That is enough for me. Now let the Master give me what is best for me. Let him do with me whatever he feels is best. What is best for me he knows better than I do. Naturally he will give me everything that I need beyond my expectation.” At this point there can be no insecurity in a seeker’s life.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Three strangling sisters: fear, jealousy and insecurity, Agni Press, 1974
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