LEARNING IN ONE MORE LIFETIME

 
If one is to travel the Path there has to be a certain desperation ... a real need to know that God exists, a real sense of unity and brotherliness with people, a real feeling that God truly knows what is going on and is taking place.

There never has been but one way to know all these things, and to know yourself — because you only know yourself as you appear in this incarnation, and you do not know that very well or there would not be so many psychiatrists employed.

You are not conscious of all of the people you have been, or the sum total of what your endless earthly lifetime experiences have taught you. You cannot judge anybody — neither your parents, relatives, teachers nor statesmen — for you only see them learning in one more lifetime — this one.

I always remember Baba saying to me one day, "If you only knew how many husbands and wives you have had down through the ages, you would not be so worried about this one!"

We are just not aware of all these relationships. We think we really can make wise decisions. Twenty years ago when I decided to go to see Baba in India, I really believed that I thought up that trip. But, when I got there, He said He had drawn me there because it was my destiny to establish and run this Sufi school, which He said had to be here for the next 600 years.

I can assure you that when I was your age, nothing could have been more incredible to me than I may be incredible to you, that I should end up this way. So, we never know really what our destiny is because we do not know the past.

But, I was desperate when I went into Sufism thirty years ago, and I think it is only under that compulsion one is willing to give up one's willfulness, which is very different from giving up one's will, and become a disciple of a guru or a Murshid or a Master, however you want to put it.