IX.
Only the Fulfilment of the Law of Life Yields Blessing to Man
1. It is necessary to be always rejoicing. If your joy ceases, seek wherein you have erred.
2. If a man is dissatisfied with his state he can alter it in one of two ways: either by improving the circumstances of his life or by improving the state of his soul. The first b not always in his power, but the second always is.
Emerson.
3. It seems to me that a man must make it his first rule to be happy and contented. He must be ashamed of his discontent as though of an evil action, and know that if something is wrong with him or in him, he should not tell others about it or complain, but rather correct that which is wrong.
4. The fulfilment of the law of God, the law of love which yields supreme blessing, is possible in every condition of life.
5. In this life we are all like horses that are being broken in and harnessed to a cart between shafts. First we struggle, longing to live to ourselves, we break the shafts and tear the harness, but we fail to escape and merely exhaust ourselves. And only after exhausting ourselves we forget our own will and submit to a higher will and start on our way, and then we find peace and happiness.
6. The will of God will be fulfilled in any event, whether I will or will not obey it. But it is in my power either to oppose this will and to deprive myself of the blessedness of participating in it, or to be its instrument, to make it a part of myself as far as it can find room in me in the form of love, to live by it and to have the experience of unceasing blessedness.
7. "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light," says the teaching of Christ. The meaning of these words is that however troubled a man may be, however beset with griefs and misfortunes, he only need realize and receive in his heart the true teaching that life and its blessedness consists in the union of the soul with that from which it is separated by the body: with the souls of others and with God, and all the apparent ills
THE PATHWAY OF UFB
will vanish at once. If a man but set the object of his life upon uniting in love with all that is living and with God, his life immediately is changed from agony into blessedness.
DOING HIS WILL
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DOING HIS WILL
God gave us His spirit. He gave us love and reason s6 that we might serve Him; but we make use of this spirit in order to serve ourselves, which is same as using the blade of an axe to destroy the handle.
The meaning of our life—its only rational and joyous meaning—is in serving God in His work, which is the establishment of His Kingdom, and in feeling that we serve Him. It may happen at times that we do not feel that we are serving, and we begin to imagine that we have slipped out from beneath the yoke, or that the traces have weakened, or this may be due to the fact that we have grown accustomed to the yoke, have worked ourselves in, as it were, and do not feel the work. At any rate though we may not feel that we are serving Him from any external sensations, if we but know in the depths of our soul that we have not refused to serve, that we have not cast off the yoke, we may rest assured that we are serving, and either our task for the time being is easy or our Master has granted us a brief respite.
To me the meaning of life is exclusively in serving God by delivering people from sin and from suffering.
There is but one fear—to try and guess the way which God may desire that we accomplish this, or to make a wrong guess or to anticipate, and as the result, instead of helping the work, to hinder or to delay it.
There is but one way to avoid such an error: not to undertake things, but to await the call of God — such a situation in which we cannot fail to act one way or another: either for God or against God. And in such cases to strain every effort of the soul in order to do the first.
Man strains his reason in order to ask "Why?" and
"For what purpose?" He applies the questions to his own life and to the life of the world. And his reason shows him that there can be no answer to them. These questions lead to mental dizziness and nausea. The Hindus give this reply to the question "Why?"—Maia had tempted Brahma, who had existed within himself, to create the world. But to the question "For what purpose?" they even fail to invent an answer as absurd as that No religion has invented an answer to this question, nor can the mind of man conceive any answer.
What does it mean, then? Why it means that reason was not given to man to answer such questions; that the mere asking of such questions constitutes an error of reason. Reason finds an answer only to the basic question "How?" And in order to know "How?" reason, within the limits of the finite, also answers the questions "Why?" and "For what purpose?" But what do you mean by "How?" How to live. And how are we to live? Blessedly. All that is living needs this, including myself. And this possibility is open to all that is living, including myself. And this solution excludes the questions "Why ?" and "For what purpose?"
But why and wherefore is blessedness not immediately granted to all? Another error of reason. Blessedness is in the working out of your blessedness, there is no other.
"But how can one live without knowing what will be; without knowing what form life will take?"
True life commences only when we do not know what wilt be. Only then can we do the work of life and accomplish the will of God. Me knows. Only such activity is a testimony of faith in God and in His law. Freedom and life are possible only then.
The teaching of Christ became clearest to me, took the
greatest hold on me, when I realized that my life is not mine but His who gave it to me, and that the aim of life is not in me, but in His will, and that I must learn it and do it. This upset all my notions.
Picture to yourself that the woman you love promised to meet you in the evening. How shall you pass the day, how shall you prepare yourself for that meeting? Shall you not tremble lest you die, lest the world come to an end before that meeting takes place "i Let but that meeting take place, and after that come what may.
This IS what it means, "to desire." And it is in this way I should like to "desire" to do the will of God. So passionately to desire one thing, and one alone—^its accomplishment. Is it possible?
Is it possible ? Yes, it is possible. The only thing needful is to know clearly, to work consciously, to sacrifice.
May God help us never to cease rejoicing in the fact that nothing can ever or under any circumstances hinder our joy in the fulfilment of the will of God, if we only fulfill It in purity, humility and in love.
The true bread of life is to do the will of Him who sent us here and to accomplish His work. The will of Him who sent us and His work is in the first instance to do good works—^as a slight tribute for the life that was granted us; and good works are such works as increase love in the hearts of men; and His work is to increase and to cause to grow that talent which was given us, which is our soul. And one cannot be accomplished without the other. It is impossible to do good works which increase love without increasing our talent, which is our soul, without increasing the treasure of love in it. And it is impossible to increase our talent, to increase the treasure of love in our soul, without doing good to people, without increasing love in them.
One depends on the other, one proves the other. If you are doing a work which seems good to you, but do not feel an increase of k>ve in your soul, if the doing of it brings no joy to your heart, you may know that the work which you are doing is not good. And if you are doing something for your own soul, but the good for other people is not increased thereby, you may know that whatever you are doing for your soul is wasted effort.