The Master Puppeteer

One day, maybe only at the time of death, we will see the Master in his true form, realize who he really is - the son of God - and know through direct perception that he is in fact the doer of all. Until then this idea may remain more of an intellectual concept than anything else. Until we reach that exalted state, where complete surrender to his power and majesty will come automatically and completely, we must struggle with the mind and ego as we strive to accept his will in all things.

We must always do our best so that we can have a clear conscience, but we must also learn to step back, away from the results of our efforts, and allow the Lord to make of them exactly what he pleases. We need to cultivate an attitude of acceptance. Many of us may not have seen the Master’s Radiant Form or reached that state of surrender yet, and therefore we must exercise our humanness - our sense of discrimination must be used throughout each day. We must think clearly and act responsibly, and be prepared to take responsibility for all of our carefully considered actions - for as we sow, so shall we reap. But in the end we must bow our minds and egos and accept that the outcome of our efforts has always been, and will always be, in the hands of the Lord.

Then, bowing and accepting his will, we must remain cheerful, grateful, positive and energized. If the outcome of our best effort is contrary to our wishes, it is not a reason to become frustrated, angry, depressed or irritated with ourselves, or anyone else, or with God. Times of trouble are not sent maliciously to punish us. We can choose our emotional responses to the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” because we can choose our thoughts. We can choose simran and happy, grateful thoughts. We can make up our minds to try ever harder to keep focused on the path and not let our thoughts wander off. We can constantly remind ourselves of the goal, and we can consciously decide to be cheerful and grateful for everything that comes to us, knowing - even if only intellectually - that everything that comes to us comes directly from God, our loving Father, and is personally administered and supervised by his son, our Master.

If our clear thinking tells us that under no circumstances do we wish to return to this earth plane because we do not belong here, then that same clear thinking will tell us that we want to return to our real home, Sach Khand, the heavenly home of God our Father. Maharaj Jagat Singh spoke of clear thinking as a habit that satsangis should cultivate, as it forms a large part of spiritual practice. He called clear thinking a blessing, which can easily be obtained by a little effort.

Attitude, effort and acceptance all add up to the package that we can present to our Master at the end of every day, and hopefully it will be one that pleases him. Every episode - seemingly good or seemingly bad - that we live through, offers us an opportunity to help and to please, so that finally, at the very end of our last earthly day, all those little daily packages will have added up to the ultimate treasure - our Master’s approval and his taking us out of this level of creation forever. We want our treasure to be in heaven not on earth. We need to make the most of every opportunity to add to our unseen heavenly treasure - the treasure of which he speaks when he says:

Your wildest dreams or imagining cannot picture the grandeur of what lies within. But the treasure is yours and is there for you. You can have it whenever you go there. Take it from me, and once and for all, that everything, including the Creator, is within you, and whosoever has attained it, has attained it by going inside the eye focus.
_{Maharaj Sawan Singh, Spiritual Gems}

The Master wants us to put in consistent effort to lead a happy, balanced life. And he wants us to live in the will of the Lord. He wants us to try to face every decision, every situation that life may present to us with our spiritual priorities and goals in mind, using his precious gift of simran as our coping mechanism. He wants us to strive our hardest in every aspect of the path and to take path-oriented decisions, and to willingly accept responsibility for those decisions. But ultimately, he wants us to be able to let go of the results of our efforts, trusting that the results are not actually in our hands but in his. He is in charge, he is the Master Puppeteer - we are his puppets dancing at the end of his strings and moving to his tune. He wants us to be content with this divine arrangement.

We are all just like puppets who are dancing, and the strings are being pulled by him according to our karmas. The realized souls and the unrealized souls are all dancing in the same way. The only difference is that the realized souls know that he is pulling the strings and the unrealized souls think that they are dancing by their own effort. So we have to act in this world with detachment from our role in life, knowing that he is pulling the strings and whatever is to happen will happen, but all the same doing our best under the circumstances. Thus we become receptive and become good puppets in his hands.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. I}