The
Remedy For Sorrow and Pain
God
is Mahaashakthi (Supreme Energy) and Jeeva (individual
being) is Maayaashakthi (Deluding Power); He is the genuine,
the individual being is but the shadow, the appearance, the delusion.
Even I have to put on Maayaashakthi (deluding power) to come
into your midst, like the policeman who is compelled to wear the dress
of the thief so that he can get entry into the gang of thieves to
apprehend them and bring them to book! The Lord cannot come down with
His Mahaashakthi (Supreme Energy) unimpaired; He has to come
with diminished splendour and limited effulgence, so that He can become
the object of Bhakthi (Devotion) and Dedicated Service.
In this world which is impermanent and ever transforming, the Immanent
Power of the Lord is the only permanent and fixed entity. In order
to realise the eternal and the true, one has perforce to attach oneself
to that Source and Sustenance. There is no escape from this path.
It is the destiny of one and all, irrespective of age or scholarship,
clime or caste, sex or status.
While proceeding along the road, you can watch your shadow falling
on mud or dirt, hollow or mound, thorn or sand, wet or dry patches
of land. You are unaffected by the fate of your shadow, is it not?
Nor is the shadow made dirty thereby. It does not worry in the least
where it falls or what it wades through. We know that the shadow and
its experiences are not eternal or true. Similarly, you must get convinced
that ‘you’ are but the shadow of the Absolute and you
are essentially not this ‘you’ but the absolute itself.
That is the remedy for sorrow, travail and pain.
Of course, it is only at the end of a long and systematic process
of spiritual practice that you will get fixed in the truth; until
then, you are apt to identify yourself with this body and forget that
the body which casts a shadow is itself a shadow. The first step in
spiritual practice is the adherence to Dharma (righteousness)
in every individual and social act. The righteousness which is followed
in relation to Prakruthi (objective world) will automatically
lead on to righteousness in the spiritual field also; only you must
stick to it through thick and thin. —
Baba
