Page 156 - Wisdom Unfurled

heart. Remembrance of God thus is of no avail. The real significance of the custom is that we must remain in touch with the idea of God in all phases of our mental and physical activities. We must feel ourselves connected with the Supreme Power every moment with an unbroken chain of thought during all our activities. Master gives the method for attaining to the above state according to which the aspirant is asked to treat all his action and work to be part of divine duty, entrusted to us by the Divine Master whom we are to serve as best as we can. Service done without any selfish motive qualifies for service done in the real sense irrespective of its nature. The best way of going about in our daily routine of work is to think that while doing a work we are really serving one or the other of God’s creatures and not our own purposes so that we may be following all along the path of service. This also helps in getting rid of one of the greatest obstacles on the path, namely, undue attachment to those near and dear associated with us by thinking that the beneficiaries of our service are only God’s children and service to them is service to God alone. This leads to the constant thought of the Master in all one’s activities and as this gets deeply rooted in the heart, every action will then seem to be a duty merely for duty’s sake in accordance with the divine dictate without any selfish interest or personal attachment. Universal love, then becomes predominant and we begin to love every being of God’s creation without any feeling of attachment with it. This leads us to devotion and sacrifice. Thus in a way devotion and constant remembrance are quite connected with each other, each reinforcing the other and also aiding in the blossoming of the other. Devotion is a very important feature of sadhana and as we will see later under the topic devoted to it, it never ceases to be, the abhyasi always abiding in the sphere of devotion whatever may be the state of his personal evolution. It is always the relationship as between Master and serf, the serf is the serf and Master is the Master for ever as we have noted under the preceding topic of prayer.
Master takes up another aspect of the sadhana which can lead us to the state of constant remembrance if practiced seriously. He refers to the meditation during which all experience a temporary lull in the mind and calmness prevails for the time we are in touch with the divine force. But doing meditation only at a fixed hour is not enough as most persons remain away from the sacred thought of the divine during most part of the day as they get busy with the various activities and thus removed from the path of service and devotion. Master says that this is the reason for stagnation in the spiritual path despite the aspirant engaging in the sadhana for years together. Master gives the remedy as well for the problem when He advises that the aspirant should attempt to retain the effect gained by meditation for most part of the day and abide in the state as long as he can. Thus he is in constant remembrance in a