CONFLICT BETWEEN THE CLAIMS OF THE MASTER AND OTHER CLAIMS

 
If the disciple has an imperfect grasp of the status and function of the Master, he is likely to set up a false antithesis between his own Higher Self and the Master; and as a consequence, he may have in his mind an imaginary conflict between the claims of the Master and other claims.

But a disciple should from the beginning realize that the Master requires only that the disciple should realize his own Higher Self. In fact, the Master is none other than this Higher Self. This, however, does not mean that formal allegiance to the Higher Self is a substitute for allegiance to the Master.

The disciple cannot have a clear perception of his own Higher Self until he is God-Realized, and what comes to him as duty is a prompting of sanskaras interpolating themselves between the Higher Self and his field of consciousness. The Master as one with the Higher Self makes no mistake about right valuation.

The disciple, therefore, must test his own promptings by means of the orders given by the Master, and in the event of conflict he should re-examine his own ideas. Almost always a little reflection is sufficient to enable him to perceive the harmony between his own Higher Self and the requirements of the Master. If, however, the disciple is unable to reconcile the two, he may be sure that he has not grasped what the Master says. Under such circumstances the Master requires the disciple to follow his conscience at any cost.

The Master may sometimes give instructions with a view to preparing the disciple for a higher mode of life, when the disciple may find himself confronted by an apparent variance between his inclination and the instructions received from the Master. But the Master does not give instructions for which the disciple has not had inward preparation.

The Master is supremely impersonal. His only concern is to remove the veils between the consciousness of the disciple and his Higher Self. So there is never any real conflict. At the end of his search, the disciple discovers the Master to be none other than his Higher Self. In his impersonality the Master desires that the disciple should reconstitute himself in the light of the Higher Self. This is the meaning of discipleship.