Talks

Transcript:

DATE: 19830116

TITLE: THE GREAT PROMISE

I’d like to read to you an article which I wrote many, many years ago. This magazine is dated May, 1958. It was published in “The Vision Magazine.” It’s entitled, “Unfoldment”:

Each soul, whether he does so consciously or unconsciously, looks for the coming of a miracle within his own life. His hope is eternal that one day God, or luck, or circumstance– whichever label he chooses to put upon his chosen deity–will reach forth and, with a magic wand, touch him upon the shoulder thereby transforming him into the creature of his dreams and changing his whole existence. He does not realize that the manifestation of the miracle lies within his own grasp–nay, within his own being.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” said St. Paul.

Faith then is the first ingredient necessary to bring forth the miracle–a strong, unshakable faith which places its full attention upon its objective and never for one moment waivers in its purpose.

The objective should, of course, be God alone.

“Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and all of these things shall be added unto you,” Jesus admonished and gave men the key to “The Secret Place of the Most High” when He said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within.”

The pattern begins to unfold as the veils of ignorance are removed from before our vision enabling us to see more clearly. We now realize that the driving urge within each man to seek relief from want and suffering and to find perennial happiness is actually his subconscious memory of his lost paradise in the bliss of God he once enjoyed. We are aware, too, that through the misuse of his own will, he fell from that high estate. The urge to regain this bliss becomes paramount in his being–in fact, it is his one religion which he seeks to express in many and varied forms according to his past karma and his present state of spiritual consciousness.

Man does not start in the first grade of school today and graduate from the university tomorrow. Rather, he progresses one step at a time. He studies the lessons, takes the tests and passes the examinations necessary to qualify him for the next grade. During this stage his attention is centered upon himself and his own effort of accomplishment. When he has graduated from elementary school he is ready for the university of higher knowledge. His vision becomes broader and more universal in character as he learns to relate his own existence with that of the rest of the world around him. Finally he is ready to matriculate from college. The big day arrives when he receives the diploma which will proclaim to the world that he is a fully accredited student. Having attained this prize, most students are content to sally forth and labor at that level, choosing the profession which is closest to their hearts. However, a few, recognizing the need for higher learning, persist in their endeavor to conquer greater heights and more distant lands. These attain their “Master’s” degree having become specialists in their chosen field.

Just so is man’s spiritual evolution. In the dawn of his understanding he turns his face toward God and walks with stumbling footsteps along the path which is as yet dimly lighted. He has been in utter darkness having tried to satisfy his inherent need for peace and bliss through the medium of the senses and has found himself suspended, like a marionette on a string, between the dual forces of good and evil. In his extremity he cries out, “Oh, my God, have mercy upon me.” It is at this very instant that the grace of God descends upon him awaking him from his dream of separation.

Eagerly he searches everywhere seeking, at first outside of himself, the God whom he has at last acknowledged. His seeking follows the path and takes the form which best satisfies his need for the moment and he pursues it adamantly to the exclusion of all else until he has learned the lessons, taken the tests and passed the examination of that particular grade in life. Having qualified himself for the next step, he moves upward, ever seeking the brighter light of understanding. As the delicate tendrils of his faith grow stronger he seeks to express himself through ever widening horizons until, one by one, the sheaths of darkness disappear and he is ready to look into the mirror of his own soul.

It is then that God in His infinite mercy takes human form and appears as the Guru, the Master, the Christ, who leads the soul from darkness into the light. Gently and carefully he nurtures the child on the path, directing him to seek the “Pearl of wisdom” within the “Temple of the Living God.” He teaches us that the venture which takes us on the journey of self-knowledge and self-mastery is the most fascinating adventure in the world because within man is a miniature universe with which it is his great privilege to become acquainted. Meditation is the ship which carries him on his journey to new and beautiful places. Concentration and willpower act as the rudder which steers the ship and the devotee’s flame of love, devotion and worship provide the fuel to propel his ship through the waters of delusion until his boat comes to rest on the shores of God’s infinite wisdom and bliss.

As his love and attention become anchored in the Guru his faith increases to the point where it becomes unspoken prayer which goes on building power until the thought of God takes hold of his consciousness, automatically forcing him to repeat His sacred name.

With His name ever upon his lips man is filled with the love and the bliss of His presence. The ecstacy of his communion with Him creates the overpowering desire to surrender himself and everything he possesses to the one Beloved who is at once the cause and result of his being.

Realizing, at long last, that he carries “Heaven” within his own body temple–that within is all light, wisdom, love, beauty and perfection–he surrenders his life at the feet of God. As gradually he sheds his human consciousness and replaces it with the cosmic consciousness of God he begins to manifest this perfection inwardly and outwardly until he is consumed in the flame of His light and love. Who can describe the bliss felt through communion with God? One must experience it to know what it is like and after one has had the experience, still it remains indescribable, a secret covenant with the Infinite Beloved hidden in the inner sanctuary of the soul.

 

I’d like to read to you this morning from St. Matthew, Chapter 8 beginning with Verse 1:

1. When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.
2. And, behold, there came a leper and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
3. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
4. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
5. And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
6. And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
7. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
8. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
9. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say unto this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
10. When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
11. And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.
12. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
13. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
14. And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.
15. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.

And going to Verse 10, Chapter 9, it says:

1. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.
2. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?
3. But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
4. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
5. Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?
6. And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then they shall fast.
7. No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.

As you know, I’m almost totally blind, so it is very difficult for me to see, and so I seem to be a little mixed up in the Bible here, but what I wanted to end this reading with was this: “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and then all things shall be added unto you.”

The subject for my sermon this morning is, “The Great Promise.” That which I have just quoted to you is the greatest promise of all time: Seek ye first God and His kingdom, and then all of the other things shall be added unto you.” [paraphrased from Matthew 22:37] Just imagine that. If you seek God first, (and Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is to be found within) then all of the other things that your heart desires, everything that is necessary for your well‑being, will be given unto you.

Believe me, I know that that is true because many, many years ago my love for God and my Guru was so great that I gave up everything I had, in the material sense, and went to sit at the feet of a great Master in India, one who had himself loved God so greatly that he had become totally one with Him. There was nothing but God in that form. And strangely enough, this Indian Master put me through the Christian crucifixion, the “Mystical Crucifixion,” and my life has never again been the same. It was very, very difficult, and as I have told some of you before, this body died, actually, and had to arise again from the dead, and work its way back through all the worlds through which it had traveled, to be able to stand before you and speak to you as I do now.

It’s been a very difficult journey, and certainly the crucifixion hasn’t stopped through all the years. It is one thing after another. But there are so many parts of the human brain, the human being, the human body, that need purification, that God’s work is constantly going on.

Even after you have realized your oneness with Him, still you realize that you are only one cell in His body and that the vast universe is also He. So you go forth then, to explore your Greater Being, having discovered your oneness within Him, within your own universe. It is a never‑ending task. But also, because it is never‑ending, it is forever interesting. You never come to the point that you do when you are saturated with the things of the senses, when you can say, “That’s all. There isn’t any more. So what else is new?” because every moment of your life there is something new in God.

And when you have surrendered yourself to Him so completely that there exists nothing in your life, in your consciousness, in every part of you but your desire for oneness with the Lord and to listen to His voice, every moment, directing you so that only His will may be done, then you know that He walks with you, He talks with you. You are never alone.

The Lord is within you; it is this body-temple, which He made, in which He dwells, so wherever you go, you may sit down quietly, close your eyes, fix your full attention at the point between the eyebrows. “The light of the body is the eye; therefore, let thine eye be single and thy whole body shall be filled with light.” [paraphrased from Luke 11:34] That is another great promise.

Just think of the wonderful promises that the Lord has given us. But do we ever think of doing our part? No. We don’t. We are always complaining. We have pain, we have anger, we have this, we have that. We have a need of this or that or the other, and so we sit down briefly and say just a brief prayer, raise our eyes to the “heavens,” because in the orthodox faith we have been taught that God is in heaven and we always think of it as being the sky outside and that Christ will come a second time out of that heaven outside.

Everybody’s been looking for him for 2,000 years. But if he himself said that “the kingdom of heaven is within,” [paraphrased from Luke 17:20,21] and that he shall come “a second time out of the cloud of heaven,” [paraphrased from Matthew 24:30] then where in the world is he going to come from except out of the cloud of heaven in your own consciousness, your own being? And that is true because the day comes, if you persevere, when you will be lifted up and you will be given the vision of your own Christ.

As I have told you, when I went through this crucifixion experience I was lifted up. I saw my spine lit up like a Christmas tree. These are the “seven candlesticks,” the seven spinal centers in which the electrical force is centered in your being, and each center has jurisdiction over a certain part of your body. And then, at the last moment, I was lifted up still higher and I saw my own savior, my own Christ hanging on a cross, crucified within myself. And then I knew the truth, that my body was the cross, that my human ego was that which had kept me from the realization of my oneness with God, and that it was the human ego that had to die. It had to disappear in order that I might find my oneness with God, my oneness with the Christ, and feel the bliss of His wondrous and beautiful Presence.

I’ve been through many things since that time. This body, it seems, never ceases to go through something or other, but it is all for greater purification, greater enlightenment, always to teach me more lessons of endurance, of self‑surrender, of knowing that God is with me no matter what. Did he not say, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world?”

Now people today, all over, are looking for the world to end outside—through earthquakes, through fire, through whatever—but that is not what it means. It means the end of the worldly consciousness within yourself. When the world ends within you and you are totally God’s own, then you will know the true meaning of “the end of the world,” because the things of the senses fall off, their enticements fall away, and you find that you have no further interest in it, that all you want to do is serve your Lord with everything you have.

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, thy mind, thy soul and thy strength,” [paraphrased from Matthew 22:37] and it means what it says: Everything must be given to the Lord. Not just this or that that you feel that you can do without, but every part of your being has to be given—all of your attachments to your friends, to your loved ones, to all of your possessions. Everything!

As I have told you, we sold all of our possessions in order that we might go and get our God‑realization. It was such a small price to pay. We gave up everything we had in order that we might take the journey, but the reward has been so rich. Even though this body has been through so much, still I count it as naught for the great blessings that the Lord has poured upon me.

And I wish that I could give to each one of you the feeling of oneness, of closeness that I feel with Him. I wish that I could instill in your minds, in your hearts, the desire to follow Him alone—not yourself, not your own desires, but only the Lord, because having Him you have everything.

If you are going to do this, there is work to be done. This great promise that God has given us—if ye “seek Him first, and the kingdom of heaven, then all of the other things shall be added unto you” [paraphrased from Matthew 6:33]—means exactly what it says. But in order to seek Him, we have to do some work. We have to clean our house.

There was a story told one time about a pilgrim that was climbing a mountain, and he climbed halfway up and he just couldn’t go any farther, and he lay there moaning.

All of a sudden, the Lord appeared to him and He said, “My son, what is the matter?”

And he said, “Oh, my Lord,” he said, “you must help me.” He said, “I have climbed this far up the mountain. I wanted so badly to go all the way and find You, but I am bogged down. I cannot go any further. I am tired. You must help me. You must take me the rest of the way.”

And the Lord said, “Well, what about your house?”

“Oh, I left that long ago.” said he.

He said, “Well, obviously it has not left you.” He said, “You must go and clean your house.”

And the man begged and pleaded with the Lord not to make him go back into that dreary house again and clean because he had always thought he kept a clean house.

But the Lord was adamant. He would not let him off. He said, “No, you must go down and clean your house.”

So the pilgrim, climbing up the hill, went down to his house and he entered the door. And as he looked around, thinking that he’d always kept his house very clean, he saw what the Lord meant. His house was not clean. There were cobwebs all over, there was dust all over, dirt in corners, and all the rest. So he got a broom and a mop and he started cleaning, and he cleaned and he cleaned. But when he’d lived in the house before, there were some doors that he hadn’t opened. He didn’t know what was inside. And he had told the Lord this on the mountain; he said, “There are some doors in my house that I haven’t even opened.”

And the Lord said, “You must open them. You must open them and go in and clean those rooms.”

So finally, cleaning the house, he got up enough courage to open the first door. And as he entered, there was a thin wraith of a man who was there, and the man cowered away from him. He was just shaking and shivering. And so the pilgrim up the hill said, “Oh, you poor thing.” And he went and put his arm around him, and he said, “Come with me. I shall comfort you.” He said, “There is nothing to fear. Come. We shall sup together and I will spend the night with you.”

So he took the wraith of a man out, had his arm around him, and spent the night with him. And then he brought him back the next day, finally, and the man was no longer shaking, so he left him in the room. But as he looked at him, gradually the man disappeared. And so the pilgrim heaved a sigh of relief and closed the door, for he had taken fear in his arms and he had found there was nothing to fear.

So he kept on cleaning; he kept on going. Then he opened the second door, and as he opened it, again he saw a wraith, not unlike the first one, and he was moaning on floor. “Oh, I feel so terrible. I hurt so much. I am in such pain. Help me! Help me.”

And again, the pilgrim up the hill went in and took the man in his arms, and he said, “Come.” He said, “I will sooth your fevered brow. I will help you to take away your pain. I will take you in my arms. Come with me.”

And so he took the man who was filled with pain in his arms and he left the room and he spent time with him. Finally, he brought him back. And the man’s face was more peaceful, and he left him in the room. And again, as he turned around to look, the man disappeared. And the pain had disappeared. So he realized that by opening the doors in his house and cleaning them out, that he’d cleaned out two things which had been very prevalent within him. The first was fear and the second was pain. And he thought, “What shall I meet at the next room, in the next door that I open?”

And as he went to open the third door, all of a sudden it was as though the whole house caught on fire and he was engulfed in a tremendous heat. And again, as he opened the door, he saw a man, not unlike himself, standing there filled with anger. And his anger was so great, his wrath was so great that it had brought forth this great fire, this great heat that he wanted to lash out with.

So again, he entered the room and he took the man by the hand and he led him away. And he sat with him and he soothed him and he calmed him down until he had found peace again. And then he took him back to the room. And as he left the room, again the man disappeared and the room became cool. And he thought to himself, “Isn’t that a remarkable thing that I have been carrying around these things in my house all of these years? Now I know what the Lord meant. He sent me on this journey to clean my house that I might get rid of fear, of pain, of anger, and all of the things that were so terrible with me.”

Then he thought, “I still have more doors.” and again the fear came just a little bit. But having conquered all of these other things, he decided that he would open the door. And as he opened the door, a writhing came in his body and he reached out sensuously. And he saw a form that was lying on a bed. It was half man and half woman, and it was holding out its arms, with lustful eyes: “Come. Take me in your arms. Experience me. Fill me with the delight that you know that I love so much.” And he fought as he had never fought before, because again this feeling of lust came over him and he wanted to expel the seed from his body. He wanted to satisfy this sense of lust. But he fought it with everything that he had.

Finally, he got up enough courage and he took the form in his arms and he carried it from the room. How long he was with it, nobody knew, and nobody knows to this day, but finally he came away and he was freed from it. Whatever he had done, he had rid himself of the desire to be with that form. So he walked out of that door and he left behind him lust.

So, he was congratulating himself that he had conquered all of these things when a thin wraith appeared before him, and he was filled with fear. And he thought, “Oh my God!” he said “I have forgotten all about death. Death also has to be conquered.” So he opened the last door and he walked bravely in, and he thought, “I must meet death face-to-face. I must take him in my arms. Only then shall my house be totally clean.”

So he opened the door and he went in, and there stood somebody. And he felt the ice-cold shivers go all over his body. He didn’t know what to do. Just then, he heard the warm voice of the Master, saying, “My son, lo, I am with you always. You have met all my tests, so come. I promised you that if you would clean your house, I should come myself and take you to the mountaintop. So come. I shall take you in my arms and together we shall ascend into the palace of the King.”

And so it was that the Master led the man up the mountain. And he went into the palace of the Lord, and he remained there in the bliss of His everlasting Presence forevermore.

That’s a beautiful story, and it tells what man must do if he is going to get the fulfillment of the great promise that if you seek God first, then all the rest of the things shall be added unto you, because gradually as you work with each one of the things that has caused you difficulty, if you will clean your house thoroughly until there’s nothing but purity within your body-temple, with your attention ever-fixed upon the Lord, He will come and He will lead you up the mountain into His castle of everlasting bliss.

It reminds me of a story I read many, many years ago about St. Anthony, who had left his home and all of his possessions and went to find the Lord. And he had to cross the desert, and many temptations came to him. He saw a great piece of gold, a great piece of silver, and so the worldly consciousness within him reached out, thinking how rich he would be if he could accumulate it, get all of these things and take them for his own. Then he met a Nubian girl in the desert, and she writhed and reached out her arms for him, and he had to resist the temptation of her body.

And so it went, until finally in order to get away from the devil and from temptation, he went into the crypts of the dead and he stayed there for many, many days. And the story went that the devil came and taunted him and tempted him in every guise that he knew how. But St. Anthony still hung on. All he had to eat was what the villagers brought him, which was a few crusts of bread every day.

Finally, the devil, not being able to overcome him, brought all of his devilkins in and they beat him, they scourged him with whips, and he fell unconscious on the floor.

Well, the villagers, coming up to bring him his daily bread that day, found him that way and took him—Thinking he was dead, they took him back to the village. But the desire for oneness with the Lord was so great that St. Anthony again regained consciousness and got up and returned to the crypts. And he knelt down. He raised his eyes to the heavens. He said, “My Lord, I’ve done everything I’ve known how. I have resisted every temptation. I pray to you night and day. Why do you not come to me? Why do you not come to me and bless me?”

All of a sudden a great light appeared in this crypt where he was kneeling, a great blazing light, and there stood the Lord, who said in a very soft, loving voice: “Anthony, did you not know that I was with you always?”

How beautiful that is, that all of a sudden if we would close our eyes and the things of the senses that bind us to the outer world, that the Lord is within us, He will come to us, He will bless us with the glory of His Presence.

So, we are still rather at the beginning of the new year. Many have written to me, many have told me that this year they truly made a resolution to change their lives, to do away with the things that have been holding them back; to meditate and do the various techniques which have been given to them, putting their full attention upon God, and to do everything that they were directed to do with all their hearts, their minds and their souls. And some of them are making great progress and I am very proud of them. At last they have come to the foot of the mountain. At last they have seen the vision that is at the top of the mountain and they want nothing more nor less than that, so they are willing to do everything they can, to give everything they are, everything they have, and put it at the feel of the Lord in order that they might realize their oneness with Him. If each and every one in this room would do that, what a tremendous group of souls.

I have worked with many of you for a long time, and I have learned about you and know you well. And I know that in this group there are some tremendous souls, just reaching out, longing, crying for God. But some of them have not had the courage to give up everything, to put their full attention upon God, because they let other things sidetrack them. There are rooms in their house with doors on which they have been afraid to open. So now, let us open the doors. Let us just go in and clean the rooms out and get rid of all of the things—the anger, the fear, the pain; the desire for the sensual; the desire for things, for possessions; the desire to be big, to be great. Only God is big. Only God is great.

In India, as all of you who have been with me a long time and who have read many of the Eastern books know, the devotee comes and bows at the feet of the Guru for one purpose alone: not to give homage to the individual, but to bow at the feet of God in the Guru, who is come to reveal to them that He is within them, and to take them by the hand and lead them, step by step, until they are able to open the door of heaven within their own beings. And you will see these people who give their all to God. Their faces are filled with light. I have seen such beautiful faces in India.

I talked with a priest once, and he was putting down all of the Hindu teachings, the Hindu masters. But these men have followed the way of the Christ. I have met some of the greats in India. And such beautiful souls; they’re filled with the love, the power, the light of God, and they have changed the lives of thousands. They have fed multitudes. They have raised the dead and healed the sick. I have had the very great privilege of sitting with these men, of speaking with them. What a tremendous privilege it was, believe me.

So I said to the priest, “You know, Father, I think you have totally the wrong picture.” I said, “In the ashram where I spent a year and a half,” I said, “there was nothing but love for God, and service. Right in the main prayer hall there was a huge picture of Jesus the Christ, and the Master sat in front of it as he talked to the multitudes that came to him, and it was beautiful to see.” They fed the poor. They waited on them and served everybody who came there.

I many times thought, as I lived in that ashram and saw the tremendous love for God that all of these people manifested, that instead of our sending missionaries over there, that perhaps we should have more from India come over here so they could teach us the true way of the cross and the Christ, because they’ve lived it every moment of the day. The prayer was ever on their lips, and they said it in the foreign language—Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram—which means “Victory to God, Victory to God.”

How little we know, in our ignorance. In the Western world, because somebody says the Name of God and pronounces it differently than we do, we call them heathens, heretics, infidels, and believe me, they are not. They are God-loving, God-fearing people filled with the desire to serve, to love.

I have never had such love poured up me. I have been to the homes of the poor. They had maybe a teaspoon or a cup of rice and they offered it to me, But because they had so little, I didn’t wish to deprive them of their little. And they cried, because they were trying to serve God in my form and I had refused to accept it. Finally, I realized what it was all about and so I took it, because this is the way they feel, that they gain religious merit by serving God in every form that comes to them. So I learned.

I didn’t hold my skirts aside because they were poor, and many of them lying on a bare cement sidewalk with hardly a stitch of clothes. I didn’t refuse their food. I went into their homes. I ate with them. I learned about what their religious beliefs were, their customs were, and I became one of them. I dressed like they did. And I saw God every place, and I thought, “Lord, how beautiful You are.”

No matter what garb You wear, what country I find myself in, there He is. And like the famous Mother Teresa, you get so, when you get to that state of consciousness, where every form that comes before you is your Lord, your Christ in human form, and so you can kneel down and you can worship that One.

And then somebody would come from the Western world and say, “Oh, isn’t this terrible that they do that? Isn’t it terrible that the masters accept that?” But they realize, the masters, that they are creating love and devotion for God in permitting the disciples to do that. It isn’t that they want personal glory. They have realized their oneness with God, and certainly their whole lives attest to that fact.

I stayed in the ashram, on— [I believe Mother is talking about Swami Ashokananda here] the greatest master I met, in 1968. I saw his total control over the animals, the wild animals. He had slept with the wild animals in caves. Snakes ran around the ashram freely, yet no one was ever bitten, no one was ever hurt. If you wanted to go outside the ashram compound, you had to get permission from him so that he could throw his protection around you a little bit farther. But everywhere I went, there was love, there was devotion, there was love for God.

And when you see these poor people with their great huge beautiful brown eyes, the little children with their arms like sticks and their stomachs sticking out because of lack of food, you see them sleeping on the bare cement sidewalks, and then you come back here and you see what we have, and yet how little we do to show our appreciation for all that the Lord has given us, it makes your heart  go out and you want to give everything you have and everything you are to help this suffering world so that such conditions don’t exist; that truly you may help to build a better world so that there may be peace on earth, goodwill toward all men; that you may see your Lord in every form that comes before you, in every incident in your life, because where is He not? He created this world. He’s the Carpenter of the universe.

He created your body, this body “not made with hands.” He is the Sole Indwelling Presence in your temple, which is your body. Your body is the cross upon which must be crucified the human ego, the “son of man,” that son of man who indulges in all the senses. And those senses must be purified; your house must be cleaned. And when that happens—when your house is clean, when your desire for union with God is so great, when you love Him with your whole heart and mind and soul and strength, as we are instructed to do; when you seek Him first—then everything you need will be added unto you.

In 1968, when I came back from a trip in India, which was the greatest year of my life, what tremendous experiences I had in God. I didn’t have one penny to my name, not one red copper. And about a year ago when all of a sudden I realized that possibly I should have some personal property insurance on the things in my apartment, because I never thought about it before, (things have been given to me through the gratitude of the people that I work with, and their whole lives have been changed, until my house was so full of all the expressions of love that people have shown me that I thought I was going to have to knock out one wall and maybe get another apartment to put my things in) and when the final appraisal came on what had been given to me, (Remember, I didn’t have one penny to my name in 1968) my personal property was worth $50,000!

I don’t have any of the money, but that’s what my possessions are. So I have proven, in every sense of the word, that seeking God first, everything that I needed, and more, has been added unto me.

Even this past year, which has been so difficult, when I have had a heart attack, a stroke, I’m partially paralyzed, I don’t see—still the Lord is with me. Every moment of my life I am surrendered to Him. What else do I have to hang on to? Who else can I turn to? I get wonderful service from those I live with—the love, the service is beyond compare—but still I am living in this body-temple. I am totally aware of my limitations at the moment, and they are great, believe me, but still I am serving Him, I am loving Him. I am giving Him myself. Everything I am, everything I have, I give to Him to use as He sees fit. And I must trust in Him to make it possible for me to do whatever is His will for me, because I can’t do anything by myself, don’t you see?

So I beg of you: clean your houses, put your full attention upon Him, seek Him first, and then you will find that every word that I tell you is true. You will have the riches of heaven and the riches of earth. They will be piled upon you so greatly that you will not know what to do with them.

But the greatest thing of all is the knowledge of your oneness with the Lord, the Christ that is within you. You feel the bliss of His Presence. You are lifted up. You hear the sound, the Word of God, which is Om, which the Christians call Amen or Ah‑men. You hear it in your right ear as you listen carefully. And as you continue to listen to it, all of a sudden it envelops you. It takes over.

Keep the Name of God upon your lips. Keep your attention fixed forever upon Him and He will fill you with the bliss, the perfume, the glory of His Infinite Presence. God bless you.