Remember well, that when something is done out of love, it cannot be a tradition; it cannot be a ritual. But when something is done because it is the traditional thing to do, it is a ritual. The truth is that each heart is its own witness as to whether it acts out of love or not.
Now in these next sections, I will give the particulars of the Trust’s Spiritual Training Programme which, by fulfilling the objects in the Trust Deed, promote the expression of love of God through dedicated action.
THE SPIRITUAL TRAINING PROGRAMME
The truth is that we are One, but to experience the truth of this Oneness, the soul has to enter into the play of Manyness or Illusion. We all are playing a role in this great play of Beloved Baba’s. This play, however, is not just a diversion. It makes each of you realise what you eternally are – One with God. In this play, Beloved Baba is the Director. Each of us has to follow His direction in order to play our role in a way that He can free us from our sanskaras and make us realise our eternal and infinite state of being.
In a theatrical play, actors and actresses play the role given to them by the Director. The Director then coaches them on how to play their parts. As the actors listen to the Director, he is able to help them perform to the best of their ability.
But, we as actors in this drama of Creation, often forget our Director and instead, what directs us is our impressions. They make us play our role in such a way that we collect new impressions, which make us bound to take birth once again to experience these new impressions. This way the drama of Creation goes on and on.
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In the Bible and the Koran, there is no mention of reincarnation. And in fact, because the soul does not take birth and does not die, there is no such thing. If reincarnation exists, it is only in the dream of Illusion. The dream is false. And therefore reincarnation is also false, because it takes place in the dream.
The drama of Creation is one very long dream with innumerable small dreams in it. When any new dream begins, it is called birth, and when it ends it is called death. We do not realise this, because the dream has so much power over us, that we think it is real. But by following Beloved Baba’s direction, the dream gradually has less and less power as His love enters our lives more and more. A short story illustrates the illusion of dreaming and the power it has over us.
One night a man goes to sleep. He dreams that he is a king, a very powerful king with a big kingdom. But he does not care for his subjects and enjoys his life to the fullest extent. He spends money on his own comfort, neglecting his people, who continue to suffer. Now, in this dream, he finds another king, who has a small kingdom. This king is very honest. He sees how the more powerful king does not care about his people’s suffering. He wonders what he should do to help them and decides to write a letter to the powerful king, requesting him very politely to relieve the people’s suffering. When the powerful king receives the letter and reads it, he becomes very upset. He writes to the less powerful king, warning him that if he dares write another letter with such advice, he will go to war and defeat him.
The less powerful king receives the letter. He thinks the only thing to do is to now make war against the more powerful king, even though he feels that it will be futile, because the other king has a big army. Then he decides to go to war
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regardless, because even if he is killed, at least he fought for the people’s good which is his duty. So he decides to wage war.
With full confidence he will defeat the less powerful king, the more powerful king appears with a large army. But the less powerful king is very determined to help the people. His army is very loyal to him and also very determined. As the battle goes on, the powerful king finds that he is losing. He sees the great determination this less powerful king and his army have. He feels that if he is caught, he will be killed. So he decides to flee from the battlefield by horse. He mounts his horse and rides away for a long time.
And then, the man, who was dreaming this dream of two kings, begins to wake up. As he does, he finds that he is still partially in the dream. He finds himself breathing very heavily, as if he is running away from something. Slowly, he sees that he is lying in his bed. Finally, he realises what he had experienced was just a dream. While he was dreaming, he thought everything he saw was true: the two kings and their kingdoms, their personalities that brought about the war. It all seemed so real to him then. But upon awakening, he finds that the battlefield, the two kings, everything, has all disappeared.
Our daily life is a dream, but we do not know that. It all seems so real. Our daily drama goes on because we are directed by our own sanskaras. But we cannot be free from their binding and awaken from the dream until we pay attention to the direction of the Real Director (God).
The Spiritual Training Programme, therefore, is established for you to train yourself t9 hear Beloved Baba’s direction and put it into action. Under God’s direction, you can become a real actor who tries to wake up from the drama of his impressions by longing to find Him, to follow Him, to experience Him, and to become One with Him.
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Spiritual Training has an outer and inner side. The outer side is your labour of love in fulfilling the objects of the Trust Deed. The inner side is the love in your heart that inspires you to do so. When your actions are a reflection of the love in your heart, your Spiritual Training will proceed very smoothly.
Your lives as Spiritual Trainees are much like a performance. And as in any performance, your duty is to give your very best. Except here, the audience is also both of an outer and inner nature.
Outwardly, you help fulfil the objects of the Trust Deed by putting your hearts into the work with complete conviction that, by doing so, you are fulfilling the Wish of the Beloved. As you work lovingly, honestly and sincerely, acting out of a spirit of Oneness, the false self’s impulses for name, fame, etc., is restrained, and you will be upholding the Real Self by being in harmony with others. Through the outer performance of your innermost intentions, your spiritual life will grow.
However, when you have not served the Beloved in a spirit of Oneness, your external performance will not be in harmony with others and can never please the Beloved, regardless of whether the outer work is done. When it comes to the feeling of harmony, the hearts of others cannot be cheated. Outer harmony is a reflection of the inner world where there is nothing but Oneness, and so the heart cannot be fooled. Therefore, in this case, the heart is the most difficult audience in the world to please, because it is an audience that will accept nothing short of the truth. Only when your heart bases your actions upon a spirit of Oneness, without having hidden motives, can genuine harmony be established.
The outer performance of your duty requires a Supervisor whose duty it is to see that the work allotted to you
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is done. Those of you whose duty and responsibility it is to be a Supervisor, whether Trustee, Department Manager, Section Supervisor, etc., must remember that you are also Spiritual Trainees. Your role as a supervisor is an external one. Your concern is to explain how the work is to be accomplished and to be responsible for the work being done satisfactorily. Spiritual Trainees under your supervision will fail in their assignments from time to time and should be corrected to enable them to fulfil their assignments better in the future. But remember, you are not in a position to judge their love for the Beloved. That is most personal.
Because we are all One, no one is above or beneath any one, regardless of whether you are in a managerial position or not. But in order to experience this Oneness, everyone has to free themselves from the impressions of the false self. Regardless of the role in which you serve, as you perform your service, you learn inner spiritual freedom, which upholds the Real Self at the expense of the false self. So, even while performing your outward duties, you also perform this inner duty, which is another aspect to the inner side of Spiritual Training.
Although your outer performance is needed to complete the work at hand, the truth is that your outer performance is the medium for the expression of your love. Regardless of the results of your work, important as it may be, it is more important to remember that your love is the only indispensable link with the Beloved.
Therefore, the perfect audience to your real life, the inner life, is Beloved Baba. The movements of the heart towards the Beloved are the inner performance that is only for His pleasure. This inner performance is kept secret in your heart, even in the midst of intense Trust activity. But only through listening and following His inner direction can you
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