edit:dap,1 10/5/96

1.1.1 FNS

You know there are those people who are very fond of thinking, they are very important. They place their importance in the accomplishments they have made in their lives, in the possessions that they own, the degrees that they have behind their names, the letters behind the name, they place their importance in their wealth, in their power and in their prestige. And thinking that these things are very important, they come to feel that they are better than others and in the mind develops a superiority complex.

At the same time there are those who are not entirely confident in themselves and sometimes feel: oh, look at that person, he does things so much better than 'I', look at that person, they are so much more talented than 'I'. The person feels that others have something that he or she is lacking. Such a person begins to feel that they are perhaps not as good as the other person, they develop an inferiority complex. Now there are many things that may add to this inferiority complex. If there are those who are their superiors who are always telling them: you are no good, you have failed at this, you have not done it right. If they feel that they cannot succeed in their lives and they feel no hope, no way to find the opening to success, this inferiority complex may develop in the human beings. So it is that some people feel that they are superior to some other people feel that they are not quite as good as another. These are distortions of the mind.

Both inferiority and superiority are complete self-deceptions, for the reality is that each and every human being is a projection of the divine entity, each and every human being has great potential within them. For each and every human being is a spark of the divine play, is the child of the divinity and holds within himself, within herself the potentiality of full realization of their own divine nature. So that all the human beings are great, though they do not know it, but their greatness does not lie in how many letters they have behind the name, their greatness does not lie how many cars they own, how many homes they have, how many possessions or positions of power they have acquired. These are not the markings of greatness, they are the trappings of ego and what they address is only ego. Greatness lies inherent within the self, greatness is the corner stone of human existence, it lies within each and every human being and the capacity to realize that greatness is there in everyone.

So the Great is within you, for greatness lies in the cosmic mind, in the cosmic awareness. Within you is the capacity to melt your small perceptual field into the vast ocean of divine awareness, to perceive all of the existence within your own self and to become the witness of your existence and of all that is. So this great potentiality, to know that infinite consciousness lies within each and every human being, there are none who are without it. And all of the self-aggrandizement and all of the self-diminishment are all delusions of the mind. They are not real and to feed them is to feed ego, for both the diminishment and the aggrandizement are expressions of egotism. For it is a kind of inverted egotism to think, I am less than another. The reality is that no one is superior to another and no one is inferior, All are the children of the Great.

Because one is the concert pianist and plays wonderful music that another cannot play, does that mean that the first is greater than the second. No it does not. For both are children of the great and their greatness lies not in the what they have accomplished but in the very nature of their own existence. What feats they can accomplish in the world are due to the grace of Parama Purusha in their lives and they should see that all of these accomplishments are the Grace of Lord, otherwise there is attachment to ego, oh I am so great, because I can do this beautiful music, because I can sing a song, because I can build this great instrument, because I have this talent or that, because I have so much property, because I have such and such degree, I am great. This is vanity, for the capacity to do these things is given to you by your divine progenitor, all capacities lie within Him and He has given to you the greatness that you have.

So you are very closely associated with that divine being, for that divine being is permeating your existence and you are intimately connected with that divinity. So that all that you are is His expression and all that you have achieved is because you have been given by divine grace the capacity to do. If Lord took from you the voice , you could not speak. It is by His grace alone that you have the capacity of speech. it is by grace alone that you have all that you have, that you have been given what is yours. So recognize that that divine grace is with you throughout your life, being showered upon you in so many different situations and know that the divine is with you, guiding you, protecting you, giving you the capacity to do in the world and you give all credit to that divinity (and remember your intimate connection with the divine. Alright.

Nick: What does it mean we are taken care for by the divine? How about those who are in pain suffer. I have two questions: are those who suffer also cared for, what does it mean to be cared for and what is the value of divine compassion?

Baba: These are very good questions you asked. You see, the divine entity is not a god which sits in the sky to be worshipped on height. In fact that divine awareness is the base of every molecule of this manifest universe, so those who suffer, those who are in pain,those who are in anguish are not separate from Parama Purusha, they are within His cosmic projections, they are part of Him, but they are believing themselves to be individual entities in the experience of suffering. And so in fact they suffer. But the beauty of this dance, is for every action there is a reaction, for every reaction again the momentum is there which builds action. And so because of previous actions they have been lead to the reaction of pain and then in the aversion to pain they swing to other actions and so it goes in the world of samskara. But the divine is in fact with those people, caring for those people in their pain, in their suffering, and if they should decide that this game is too much, I want to trap the bindings of ego and to experience directly that divinity which is my origin, I want to find my proximity to the divine, then that divine grace which is always showering upon them always with them may become perceptible to them.

You see if a man goes down a road and eventually that road will lead him to a....(462) and dark place, where he will be in a great danger. Should someone put up a road block and prevent him from going farther, though he is quite intent, it is a compassionate act of Parama Purusha. The compassion of Parama Purusha is not always in forms that we thing it might be seen. It may come in many forms to wake us up from our slumber and sometimes it comes in the form of painful reaction. And in that pain we are quite uncomfortable and in that discomfort there becomes the desire, the yearning to awaken from the slumber. So compassion comes in many forms and the ability to perceive the care of the divine comes when the ego is lucid and the heart and mind opened to divinity , then comes the capacity to perceive the divine grace in one's life, for it is there and when it is called upon it will be there.