Nos. 1 and 2.
The Message from The Head of the Order of the Star in the East
(For Self-preparation Groups Only)
March and April, 1925
The time has come when each of us ought to be trying
to find out why he is here and what is the definite plan which the Master
has in view for him. I am convinced that each one of us has a definite part
to play in the great Plan, and we should be using our imagination to try
and find out that part. This will give us confidence and strength to change.
For myself I have absolute belief in what
the Master wishes me to be. I am going to play a definite role and to play
it properly, there must be transformation and remoulding. I know that the
Master requires certain things of me. He wants me to be selfless, He wants
me to be capable along certain definite lines, He wants me to become a true
disciple. I know this because I have thought about it and worked for it,
sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously.
It is the same with each one of us, and it
is our business to find out what the Master wants and then to set about
preparing ourselves as quickly as possible.
As a first step we must make our belief stronger
and more definite. If you believe, you may fail for the first year, two
years, ten years, but if your belief is strong enough, no amount of failure
will shake it and you will succeed in the end because you have seen and known
and worked. It is belief which determines the way one looks, the way one's
mind works, one's attitude to everything. If you are a real fanatic in belief,
you will become a disciple to-morrow.
So you have to find out how far your belief
is real or mere lip-service, examine yourselves impersonally and find out
how far your strength will carry you and where your weakness lies.
It is belief and desire, which give us the
capacity to change. When the wind blows, unless you are properly clothed,
you will catch cold, unless you are strong and your feet firmly planted
on the ground, you will be blown hither and thither. So will be the breath
of the Lord, like a rushing mighty wind. The time is coming when in the nature
of things there must be segregation. If we are strong, we shall become stronger;
if we are noble we shall become more magnificent; if we are weak we shall
go under; if we are sinners we shall become more sinful. So we must train
ourselves now in order that we may be able to stand in the future when
the Teacher is here.
If we need a particular lesson we are generally
thrown into the world and the world hammers us day and night and gradually
it moulds us through suffering, through failure, through disappointment
till we accumulate experience.
Now we have not got the time for all these
things, we have to sit down and experience through our imagination and
arrive at the fruit of experiences which do not actually take place.
In the world outside we learn to be unselfish,
to co-operate, to be tolerant, shall we do less for the Master?
If we were all disciples, all combining for
one purpose, what a tremendous force we should be in the world. This is
the one thing worth living for, there is nothing else. Do not have the desire
to be great by yourself or to evolve by yourself. Spiritual growth comes
by helping others, by feeling and co-operating with others, not by evolving
alone. If we opened all our windows, our emotional windows, our intellectual
windows, we should see the world changed. The man who has shut all his windows,
who does not want to go outside and breathe the fresh air is useless to the
Master. And most of us I am sure are in that state. We have only got one or
two windows open and we think that it is enough. We have not the courage to
open all the windows and let in the sunshine and fresh air. The Master needs
all our windows to be opened so that through them we can pour His sun-shine
on the world.
I feel sure that we have all come to the
definite position where each one of us is under the eyes of the Master.
He must love each one of us as a mother loves her child, and He must know
the definite plan that each should follow, and He must watch us as a, mother
watches her child, sometimes encouraging, longing for us to arrive at the
goal where we shall be able to stand by ourselves. On us now rests a great
responsibility. The Master has put us in the world to carry on His work.
How far and in what manner shall we respond to His trust?
J. Krishnamurti