Our Business
Work is a good thing; as satsangis, we are told that we must earn our own living. When a satsangi retires from that work, there may be the hope that more time will be caught up in meditation; but we all know that wherever we go, there we are – sitting with closed eyes, within the mind. No matter what is happening from day to day, or whether the day – or the many days – are almost entirely free, karmic shackles await everywhere for everyone. However, the Master is everywhere also, and he is unshackling us with our meditation. It is through meditation that he has given us the key to help him in this task.
A story from Tales of the Mystic East explains what our attitude toward meditation should be even while confronting worldly obstacles.
One day when the Great Master went to see [his Master], Baba Ji, he met two satsangis, Machhar and Ramditta, from Mandali. They were devoted to their Satguru and would not begin their day’s work until they had seen his Radiant Form in their meditation.
Although it is a well-established fact that the Guru takes care of his disciples, it is also true that he sometimes puts them to the test.
Machhar and Ramditta had planted corn in their fields and it was their turn to take water from the well for irrigation. They had to go early to the fields, but their Satguru’s Radiant Form had not yet appeared to them. Ramditta said:
“O, Machhar, I have not had Satguru’s darshan yet.”
“I too have failed,” Machhar replied, “but if we do not take our turn for water, our corn crop will die out.”
At this, Ramditta told him with fervour: “Let it die, for it belongs to the Satguru.”
With this attitude of mind, they both returned to their meditation. After an hour, Baba Ji manifested himself to them [in His Radiant Form]. Only then did they get up to water their crops.
“The Satguru always helps the disciple,” the story ends.
This story shows us the truth of these profound words of Maharaj Sawan Singh in Spiritual Gems:
Your worries and cares are Master’s worries and cares. Leave them to him to deal with. Having become carefree, your business is to cultivate his love.
Machhar and Ramditta had the tough, exhausting, job of farming, but it did not stop their meditation. Nothing should stop ours.
Like Machhar and Ramditta, we all eventually cultivate that pure love, that sublime attachment. In Discourses on Sant Mat, Vol. I, Maharaj Sawan Singh says, “It is the one-pointed and steadfast love of a devotee that ripens the priceless fruit of the Divine Triune where love, the lover and the Beloved … become one.” The Masters even say this union has already happened; we simply have yet to realize it.