Do You Feel Lucky?

In a letter to an overseas disciple reproduced in Quest for Light, Maharaj Charan Singh writes:

The mere fact that God, in his mercy, has selected us to be put on the path should make us very happy. If it does not, it is due to the fact that we do not realize the great blessing and privilege involved in it. Please think calmly, just for a moment. Are you not one of the luckiest persons living in your country to be chosen by him for the path?… Do you think that you have searched for and found the path by your own efforts? Then why did you not come to the Master earlier instead of just now?

Maharaj Ji’s rhetorical question prompts us to reflect on the immensity of our good fortune. Who knows how many lifetimes our soul has been wandering before receiving the gift of Nam, or how many other hearts yearn for what has been freely given to us? We are, without doubt, the luckiest people on Earth. Feeling fortunate should evoke gratitude and happiness within us. Yet few of us can claim that this is the attitude through which we experience life. Most of the time, we wrestle with worry, sadness, listlessness, or some other feeling under the broad umbrella of what Buddhism would classify as suffering.

The gap between our good luck and our attitude stems from our failure to appreciate our circumstances. Once we consider the teachings of mystics and recognize the role providence has played in arranging for us to be the disciples of a true living master, our perspective shifts significantly. After countless aeons spent in the creation, the Supreme Lord has entrusted the care of our soul to a true living master so that he may guide us back to his abode. There are at least three reasons that make this an extraordinary blessing.

Spiritual literature tells us that human birth, the desire for liberation, and the guidance of a living master are three key milestones in a soul’s evolution that cannot occur together without divine intervention. In other words, their combination is exceedingly rare. For example, someone might be born human but deny that a non-material reality exists, or they might seek liberation but never meet an enlightened spiritual guide. Being recipients of such grace is extraordinary in itself, but what makes it even more remarkable is that we have done nothing to deserve it. In Spiritual Perspectives, Vol. II, Maharaj Charan Singh states:

What we need is his [the Lord’s] grace. When his grace is there, circumstances combine in such a way that we want to get out of the creation. We come to the path, we get the opportunity to meditate. We get the facilities, the atmosphere. We feel his love, his devotion, and we turn our back to the world and look to him. All these things come just by his grace. It’s not that we have done something to deserve all that. We have done nothing.… We can never do anything to deserve his love. He just gives it and gives it. We are too small-fry to even invoke his grace, because we are so helpless as humans in this creation. It’s all his grace.

The third reason why becoming a disciple of a true living master is an extraordinary blessing – and one that is of immediate relevance to us – is that it provides an opportunity to free our soul from its imprisonment in the cycle of birth and death. However, there is no room for complacency. Initiation is simply the starting point of our journey towards liberation. While success is assured under the Master’s guidance, our actions can either hasten or delay our progress.

So, let’s work with the Master by doing everything he asks. Excuses are pointless. To claim we cannot meditate is self-deception. If we genuinely love and trust the Master, surely, we want to please him. Given that the Lord, the Creator of all, has marked us for Nam amongst countless souls, we should ask ourselves again, “Do I feel lucky?”