THE CAUSE OF RETURN

Weekly Knowledge #176 Quebec Ashram 21 Oct 1998 Canada

Most of us come into this world with the seed in us, "It's not OK". And all our life we try to correct events, people and situations. How much can you correct? It's like trying to rearrange the clouds in the sky. This seed does not allow you to be happy, to smile from your heart, to be loving and loveable. It's there all the time like a thorn - irritating, irritating. This seed, "It's not OK," brings you back into this world again and again. How do you burn this seed? First recognize that it is there. This can happen in deep introspection and meditation. Sometimes you feel your body, mind, intellect, memory and ego are also not OK. You justify them or find fault with them. These are also part of the world. Acknowledge what you see as an imperfection and offer it to the Divine. Have faith in the infinite organizing power of the Supreme Intelligence and have the sincere feeling, "Let thy will be done." Then the seed, "It's not OK," gets burned. "Thy will be done" is a state of total contentment, a state of just love. We need not even make it a statement about the future. "Thy will alone is happening now." Question : So everything happening is God's will? Guruji : Yes, including the thought, "This shouldn't be happening."

NEWS FLASH ! One evening this week, Guruji took a very long walk through the forest after dark. For the flock of devotees following Him, the experience seemed to be a metaphor for the spiritual path following the Guru blindly along a steep and narrow trail, through the pitch black darkness, without any idea of how to find our way, yet laughing merrily anyway. Diwali (The Festival of Lights) was celebrated in fine style with fireworks over the lake, a candlelight procession and the Light of Lights illuminating our hearts. The trees are now nearly bare, but the colorless landscape of late fall is not nearly as bleak as the prospect of Guruji's departure this weekend. We are happy to report that Art of Living courses have now started happening in El Salvador and Zimbabwe. Last week's Bonus Knowledge Flash continued: "You have to rejoice in the means. You have to love the means. Love is the goal; the means must also be loveable. Love springs when there is no effort, when all activities are shunned. As long as there is karma - the impression to act, you have to act. When this tendency to act eases up, total effortlessness happens. In effortlessness, unconditional love dawns. And every life is aching for that love."