SOME THOUGHTS ON INNER GUIDANCE

 
So often Baba told us by His illimitable hand gestures, or perhaps in treasured letter or cable, "Remember — I am always with you."

Naturally, it was a phrase that stirred up feelings of love, trust and hope — He is always with us. But what does it mean? Especially now, that His physical presence is gone? Those who met Him, and those who did not, are "sailing in the same boat now," as the Song of the New Life so aptly puts it. No longer are there cables, letters, messages, circulars from India. One thing is clear: Each one of us has to follow Him inwardly. We have to seek His inner guidance.

What form will it take?

I think it will differ for each of us. I think Baba will work with each individual differently just as He did when in the body. He is the Master Counselor, Friend, Psychologist. He understands our temperament as well as our needs.

His Presence will be "not in the flesh but in the spirit," as St. John says. The New Testament calls this inner Presence the Holy Comforter — the third part of the Trinity — the Holy Ghost. ("Ghost" is a strange translation of the Latin spiritus.) The essence is the same but each one feels it in a different way.

Some feel it as an actual presence, touch, glance, even image. Others feel it as an overwhelming sense of love. Some get "hints" by the way things happen around them, to them, for them, showing the Master's love and care. A few may actually see or hear Him. Some contact Him in significant dreams. Some feel His love coming to them from others, or they feel it in the way their own heart sprouts love. Many times it happens in communion, in groups. Did not Baba, like Jesus, say that where two or more are gathered together, there He would be? His sahavas is the give and take of love, and love flows always from heart to heart.

Most important, what are we going to do to rate His inner guidance? Why is it so often blocked? What are we doing so that we don't feel His presence, which He says is always there? The answer is simple, though no one likes to hear it. We are in the way. We cast the shadow. Above all, our negative emotions shut off the communion. Fear, hate, greed, need, anger, depression, sometimes too much pain or loss, shut Him out.

The only remedy is not to cling to these negative emotions, but to cast them at His feet. Such feelings will come, must come, but we have to surrender them to Him ... trust Him to deal with them. Doubt is the worst. Baba says the mind always doubts, but not the heart. It is all a test ... this seeking for His guidance through our own valley of shadows.

But intelligence and reason are not to be thrust aside. We must use discrimination. We must evaluate what we think is His guidance. Not every dream, not every vision, not every "Baba coincidence" is true. The possibility of self-delusion is always there. That is why Baba says we must balance head and heart. What breaks this dilemma? Sincere prayer. Sincere prayer for His guidance and the faith that He will respond. Baba said, after all, that His position is so high that he must respond to the call of His devotee, no matter where or when. That is what discipleship is all about. Baba never said to follow Him is easy, but the reward is the greatest — our way out of Maya.