Letter 11: Various
14/04/07
Dear ...,
Manifest strength and will, and the grace of God will come
Hello! If something is meant to be easy, it will come easily, if one is meant to be dragged through seven hells, one will be dragged through seven hells, but if you never waver even in your darkest hour, the prize will be eternity, and in the context of eternity, which is the only real context, there is no difference at all between easy and being dragged through seven hells. Never mind what other people say; the voice of truth comes from your own heart, and if you cannot hear it, try harder, and if you still cannot hear it, follow every path to the end until you happen upon the end of the right path. To achieve anything in the spiritual life, whether it be finding a master or attaining the very highest realisation, we must go through a certain process. Some lesson must be learnt, the heart must go through some purification, some karma must be paid, some will must be manifested into the grossest plane. We do not know the divine plan, we cannot know what we still have to go through, but these things are irrelevant, for our role is not to quail and doubt in the face of adversity, but to stand firm, never falter, never waver, and manifest our longing for the ishta, the spiritual ideal, in every way we may, and one day, the heart of Divine Mother shall melt with compassion and love for the truest of her daughters, and you will get her grace, you will get her grace. Maya is finite, she can only do so much, whereas you, as Brahman, are infinite, and if you have the strength and the will and develop the purity of heart, Divine Mother will undoubtedly step back and Shiva shall arise within you, as he has done in every aspirant that manifested these qualities before you in the history of the universe. We are all the children of Divine Mother, and what Divine Mother wants is her children to be great, and to enjoy her Divine Play through her children that realise her, so, rooting for us to overcome everything, she sends us every obstacle she can conceive that we may arise above them all, and there is simply no obstacle left that can touch us, and piercing through her cloud of illusion, her sunshine shall fall upon us.
A deep longing to know the truth must be developed
Bhagavan is an incarnation of Divine Mother. That I say because I have realised it, just as so many people before me told me so before I realised it. For a devotee of Divine Mother, there can be no greater statement than that, and so the first question that will appear in the mind of a devotee will be, 'is it true?' and this question must be answered. It must not be answered by me or by Paula or some Swamiji or even by Bhagavan himself, for the only true authority will be that voice that speaks from deep, deep within your own heart. Go to Bhagavan and find out what that voice says and if you have to crawl through seven hells, then crawl through them, if you have to wait through a thousand-year-long tornado with nothing to hold onto save a blade of grass, then do that, remembering always this; the true child of Divine Mother knows that this universe is just a passing phenomenon, nothing more, it is projected from your own mind, you are Brahman, you are not in the universe, the universe is in you, and when this has been realised, the universe will no longer be a place of suffering, but a Divine Play, and the greatest act in that Play is when Divine Mother herself descends, and the culmination of the journey of a soul comes to pass when she finds herself at Divine Mother's side. Is Bhagavan Divine Mother? This question must be answered, but it will be answered when the time is right and not before. The desire to get the answer to this question must be strong, but it should not be merely a lot of waves on the surface of the mind, but extend deep down to the bottom of the heart so that doubts such, "is this the right thing to do?" cannot blow your ship off-course at some unfortunate moment. We should not just sit about waiting until the right moment, but make as best use as possible of every second that we live, for life itself is the greatest gift that Divine Mother bestows upon us. Try to become more deeply serious concerning realising who Bhagavan is, and chant Hare Krishna.
On chanting
The main thing during chanting is not concentration, but sincerity in trying to concentrate. If we have that, then concentration and everything else will one day follow. The power in the mantra will do the work; it just needs to be chanted, so as long as you are chanting it, even badly, some effect will undoubtedly come.
...
Strength and will,
Much love, which conquers all,
Stay in touch,
Hare Krishna,
Koji