MORNING TALKS

How Can We Please the Master?
January 27, 1968



    IF the Master or the Guru is pleased with you, then be rest assured that God is pleased with you, because God is manifested in Him. If at the heart of hearts He is not pleased with you, then who can approach Him to be kind to you? If God is displeased, there is a way, there is a place where you can approach. That place is where God is manifest, the God-in-man. If the God-in-man is displeased, there is no place.

    What is the criterion for a man to know whether he has got a real love for the Master or the Guru? If the Master is displeased with you and calls you names, even then your love for Him should not waver, not the least. This is the criterion to show. Even if He calls you names or rebukes you (of course He will not do that), you will still love Him, you will be attracted to Him. Sometimes a child will say something to the mother which is not feasible, but even then the mother does not take it ill.

    Now the question arises, how can the Master be pleased? There are two ways and the first one is, whatever attributes He has got in His life should be adopted in our own life. We should copy, live according to those qualifications which we see in Him. The qualifications in Him are the qualifications of God on a miniature scale. God gives to everybody whom He creates, because naturally the Creator will love His Creation. So the Guru will love His disciples, because it is He who has given birth to them in the inner way. As He loves us, so should we love all. He won't let anybody suffer and you should not let anybody suffer. You must share with others. These are some of the qualifications that the Master has and are the attributes of God reflected in Him. The second way is to just live up to strictly, literally, what He says. I gave an example of the five Pandavas, who were sent to a Guru for education. So the first lesson that he gave them was to learn to tell the truth, to speak the truth. He then told them to memorize this. They went away and with the exception of one, returned the next day. The Guru asked the other four Pandavas where the fifth one was and they replied that he was memorizing the lesson given to him. A week passed before he turned up, and when he came, he said, "Well Guruji, I have now learned what you told me, to tell the truth, to speak the truth." The others ridiculed him and said, "Look here Guruji, we remembered these few words the very moment you told us, while it has taken him a week to memorize them." The Guru then explained the true meaning of the lesson and made the
other four Pandavas promise to speak no lies. So whatever the Guru says, live up to it. Just write it in your own life.

    One pandit, Guru Dutt by name, was a disciple of Swami Dayanand, the founder of the Arya Samaj. Somebody said to him that he should write the life story of his Guru. "All right," he said, "I'll write." Two months, three months passed, and they asked him what he was doing. He said, "I am writing." Six months, a year passed and they wanted to know what he was doing with it. He replied, "Oh, I am writing very hard." Another two years passed and they again asked him how much he had written. "Oh, I am writing very hard," he said. What is the writing of a Master's life? It is just to have the very qualifications of the Master in our own life. So whatever we say, it must be sweet words. Kind words imbued with humility don't cost anything. If you have that attitude in life, I think that ninety percent of your troubles will be avoided. So we must live up to what the Master says, literally. This is one way of pleasing the Master or the Guru. The other way is that you should adopt the qualifications that He has got in your own life.

    Sometimes the Master has to train the disciple in order to make a man out of him. Sometimes He has to boost him up, saying, "All right, you have been a very good boy, doing your best, and I am pleased." Other times, He has to say that the disciple has done something wrong and does not pay attention to the Master. Not to pay attention to what the Master says is more than death to the man who has love for the Master. A little word of encouragement from the Master and he gets a boost within for his soul. The Master has different ways to bring out the man in the disciple, but people generally do not understand Him. So you should live, try to copy the life of the Master in your own life and adopt the good qualifications that He has got, and also live up to what He says. The best way to become the abode of all qualifications is to have a sweet tongue, kind words, imbued with humility. The Master has to clean the heart of the disciple, not in one day, but it takes time. The clothes which have been washed can be put in the basket, not the dirty clothes. The Master has love for the disciple, as the mother has love for her child. If the child is be-smeared with filth, what does the mother do? She simply washes it with love and then hugs it to her breast. So, love the sinner, but hate the sin. Do not have hatred in the outer way, but have sweet words, imbued with humility. These are the things that will endear us to the Master. You should live up to what He says, even if it costs you your life. This is the criterion to show how the Master can be pleased. If He is pleased, the God in Him is pleased, then God is also pleased.

    So the first criterion to know if you have real love for the Master is, even if He hates you, calls you names--God forbid, He never does it--but even if it comes to that pass, your love for Him should not waver. He may not allow you to come near Him for some time--I am speaking out of my own experience in life--because of some propaganda or other things, then still you must be endeared to Him, you must love Him. This is the ultimate criterion to show the man who has become, "I live, not now I, but Christ lives in me". Second, whatever qualifications He has got, try to adopt them in your own life, live up to them and third, live up to strictly what He says, literally, without any regard to what your mind says or what your heart likes. Once it was my duty to give a Satsang at Lahore on one Sunday. At that time, I happened to visit my Master, who was residing at Beas, and arrived there at about twelve at night. I had the good fortune to be permitted to see my Master at any time. He lived on the third floor and I went up there to see Him. So, the time was getting late and I had a mind to remain with my Master and detail somebody else to give a talk. The time came for me to leave for Lahore and the Master said, "Aren't you to give a Satsang in Lahore?" "Yes," I replied. "All right, go then." So of course, I caught the train for Lahore and gave the Satsang.

    So I have given you three things to show whether you have got real love for the Master. He is the abode of all good qualifications. Whatever qualifications are in God are also reflected in the Master. Live up to them, adopt them in your life and live strictly, literally, up to what He says. Pay respect to His words, rather than to His body. If there are four or five children and one child goes according to the will and pleasure of his father and does not demand anything, while the others demand this and that thing and do not live up to what the father says, then whom will the father love? So try to win the pleasure of the Master, by living as I have told you. Just have those qualifications that He has got in His life, write them down in your life, not on paper. I gave an example of Pandit Guru Dutt, who was a disciple of Swami Dayanand, the founder of the Arya Samaj. When some people asked him to write the life history of Swami Dayanand, he replied that he would do so. Two months passed, three months passed, a year passed. They asked him what he was doing with it. "Well, I am writing," he said. Two or three years passed and they asked him how far he had got with it. He replied, "I am writing very hard." "Oh, what have you written after all?" they asked him. The writing of a life history of the Master is just to have His life in your own life. I am writing in my own life. Suchlike students work wonders, because of the God in Him.

    So you have come to know three things today. First the criterion to show whether you have got real love for the Master. Even if He calls you names, you will be attracted to Him. The second is to have those qualifications which are reflected in Him from God in your own life. These are simplicity and kind words imbued with humility. The third is to live strictly up to what He says, not even caring for your own life. If you leave everything to take care of the child. that I have explained to the Master, the Master has to So these are the three things you today. These things are not given in the books in a digest form or in such detail as these morning talks convey. If you want to be endeared to the Master, then live up to what He says. He will never leave you, mind that! Christ said, "I shall never leave thee nor forsake thee till the end of the world". The Master never leaves the disciple. He is the God in him, how can He? We are created by Him. You are God in you and are micro-gods. The Master tries to bring out the God in Him in you by making you live up to strictly what He says and by asking you to copy from His life. These are the main things to be understood and lived up to.



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