The Ultimate Tar

We read in The Book of Mirdad: “Aim well, and any result is a good result.” Let’s apply this to our own spiritual efforts.

Whenever an archer takes aim, he focuses intensely on the target before releasing the arrow. Naturally, his intention is to hit the target in the centre. If he misses it, he can gauge how much practice he needs. But in spirituality, the dynamics are different. We practise daily, but we are not in control of the result, and neither can we gauge our progress.

What is our spiritual target and how do we take aim? From the moment of initiation, we have been given a mystic practice that aims at reaching the eye centre and, ultimately, self-realization and God-realization. Simply put, our direct aim is to do everything possible to please our Master by following his instructions. Without him, we can do nothing. He has come to free us from the wheel of birth and rebirth, and will reunite us with the Father, who is calling us home.

Our Master teaches us to redirect our attention away from the world. He teaches, guides and accompanies us as we learn to aim our attention inwards towards the eye centre, with the aid of our simran. Mirdad says, “Aim well, and any result is a good result.” But then he adds:

What comes to you, is yours. What delays in coming, is not worth waiting for. Let it do the waiting. You never miss an aim if what you aim at aims at you.
_{Mikhail Naimy, The Book of Mirdad}

When we practise spiritual meditation we slowly come to realize that a very unfamiliar set of rules applies. Who of us has ever heard of an endeavour in which it is beneficial to struggle and fail, for decades on end? And yet be assured that the practice is still perfectly on track?

The Masters explain that apparent failures help us: to overcome the unruly mind and ego. We’re not aiming for competence. Rather, our effort is the essential ingredient. It is beneficial for us to be made aware of our weakness and helplessness. All we can do is make our best effort, then trust the Master to do the rest. Only with his grace can we achieve our target. In Die to Live, Maharaj Charan Singh has told us bluntly: “If anybody says, ‘I can reach back to the Father by my effort, by my meditation,’ he is wrong.”

There seems to be a kind of mystery around the question of effort. Why is it that we are asked to work so hard, seemingly to accomplish nothing? Why is it that our ineffectual efforts are needed? It does seem that however meagre our efforts may seem to us, the Master values them highly as a demonstration of our love and longing for him.

Maharaj Charan Singh tells us in Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II: “If we really have faith in him, if we really love him, we will want to do what he wants us to do.” Maharaj Ji further clarifies:

“Meditation is nothing but love.” This means that the act of meditating is itself an act of love – the practice, not the ‘success’ of our efforts, is love.
_Seva

But still, we may keep hankering for results, not realizing that we are in fact getting them – in a form which we don’t recognize. Our efforts may be cutting our ties to the world. In Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. I, Maharaj Ji was asked: “You say we should not expect results, but what part do results play?” He replied:

Results come and go. Often you may not see anything within, but you feel so happy, so contented, so at peace within yourself. You feel the effect of meditation within yourself – you feel detached from everything.

The questioner continued: “And that is enough at the time of death, to take us up?” The Master replied: “That is more than enough, because your tendency is not towards the creation now.” In other words, our attention will have shifted away from the world.

In the Mirdad quote, “What comes to you, is yours. What delays in coming, is not worth waiting for,” the Masters explain that we only get that which is destined to happen. Nothing can be added or removed. Nothing can be avoided or forced. If something is not meant for us, no amount of effort can make it happen.

What is it that has come to us? The most precious gift in all creation. We have been found and initiated by a living master. And that is because we have been specifically marked by the Creator to return to him. Maharaj Ji once confirmed that only those marked by the Creator would be drawn to him, and then he cannot refuse them. He is not concerned by the weight of our karmas. Which must be a relief for many of us!

Still, if we are anxious for spiritual experiences, Mirdad makes it clear that we will get only that which our Master wants us to have. These experiences will come only when the time is right. Only the Master knows what serves us best, what to give us and when. In the meantime, all we need to do is whatever he asks.

So, for us nothing is more important than obedience to the Master. At our stage we begin with obedience. Lofty spiritual goals like union, longing, surrender, humility and detachment can feel overwhelming and out of reach. It is a relief to know that love is something we can practise immediately, through obedience, from where we are, right now. At our present level, love means obedience.

Obedience is no minor consideration, compared with all the other subtle qualities we hope to achieve. Obedience is huge. Obeying the Master equates to love for the Master. Above all, we need to obey his instruction to meditate, which creates in us love for God himself. A disciple once asked Maharaj Charan Singh: “By doing meditation, we are loving God?” And Maharaj Ji replied that this was the height of love.

This is what God wants from us. He wants us to love him. In fact, we’re told that this was the very reason for the creation. God wanted all his little souls to love him as he loves us.

In The Book of Mirdad we also read: “You never miss an aim if what you aim at aims at you.” The Lord himself is aiming at us. He wants us to come back to him, to come back to our home in Sach Khand. That is why he marked us for initiation.

In Spiritual Letters Baba Jaimal Singh told his disciple Sawan Singh (who would succeed him):

When the perfect Satguru met the disciple and gave him Nam-Dhun, everything happened at that very moment.… You reached Sach Khand the very day you were initiated – that is the place for which you are destined.

That is our destination too. That is where the Lord himself will bring us – when the time is right. As Baba Jaimal Singh told his disciple:

But because the karmic account of give-and-take is still to be finished, he cannot take you there. Once it is fully settled, he will take you there at once.
_{Spiritual Letters}