The Badge: a call to saadhana

22 November 1965, Prasanthi Nilayam

Professor Kasturi's English.

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Seeing these volunteer badges that I have brought for distribution, you feel happy that you are soon to be decorated, and perhaps you hope, by means of this badge, to exercise authority over others and escape heavy work, during this Birthday Festival. I am not giving these badges to endow you with authority, or confer leisure on you or because it is customary on such occasions to have some women and men moving about with badges. This will impose heavier work on you, but, if you look upon it as work, then you have no right to receive these badges. It entitles you to welcome and serve your kith and kin who are arriving at this place from all parts of the world. The badge should not burden you with the weight of conceit; it should not make you feel superior, as if yours is the upper hand and the recipient of your service has the lower hand. It is not a boon that you drop into his hand but an offering that you dedicate at his feet. It is the expression of kinship between your nature and the nature of those whom you serve. In the Principle of the Self (), he and you are the same; he and you are but two waves of the selfsame sea.

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Take this badge as a call to , as an introduction to a spiritual adventure, an exercise in the practice of . The teach you that which deserves to be learnt; the lay down disciplines that help shape man into ; brings into you the awareness of that which will give a new and truer meaning to every act of yours. I am eager that you must all get to know this and so, I am leading you into the . A mother cannot ignore the health and progress of the children. Though they may neglect her advice, she will be eager to correct them and lead them into proper habits.

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Volunteers have to forgo their comforts The main plank of the programme of is the overcoming of the ego, the feeling of "I" and "Mine". That, in a nutshell, is . Now, you as volunteers have to forgo your comforts and even chances to have and to listen to My discourses, when service calls you somewhere else. This or renunciation gladly undertaken is a very important qualification for the . If you feel the urge, "My need first, the other person's later" then, what you perform is not , it is strategy. Give up your seat to someone who is older or infirm, or more deserving, that is ; not sticking to it, when such people are desperate for accommodation.

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I have known many volunteers who reel off the excuse, "They won't obey, , if we speak soft; they are accustomed to rough treatment only". I will never pardon such volunteers. The fault is always in their manner of speaking, the way in which they explain their actions, the temper, the attitude, the approach. Have you reflected on the responsibility which is now being endowed on you? What is it that is about to separate you from the thousands who have come here? Not this badge, surely.

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Needs of guests should take precedence You are being invested as Representatives, you are being entrusted with the traditional duty of hospitality towards the kinsmen who are arriving. So, you must have in your hearts; you should not be agitated or worried or angry or upset. Behave in keeping with the dignity conferred on you. When guests come, does the wife tell the husband, "We shall feed them after we have eaten"? Their needs take precedence, they are to be attended to with care and consideration. So, too here, the men and women who have come are to be met with love and care, irrespective of your convenience and comfort. That is the way to please Me and win My grace.

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The best way to show respect to them is to treat them as reasonable, devoted, nice, respectable people. If any of them talks loud, not knowing that he must not disturb the silence of the place, do not rush to him and hiss, or place your palm across his mouth. Go near him and whisper in his ear the rules and discipline of this Place, the fact that many are here engaged in meditation, and quiet study, the value of silence as a check on the passions and impulses. Then he is certain to co-operate and recruit others too, into the forces of silence. He will also realise the value of the discipline and perhaps decide to practise it even after he leaves the . Volunteership should not be a temporary role assumed by you for this one week. It should not be like the role of in the drama, played by the champion liar of the town. never wavered from the path of truth, whatever the milieu that served as background for life' the palace, the jungle, the cremation ground.

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The volunteer is a candidate for Grace Some feel that the disciplines of the are limited to the geographical bounds of this area and so they can be ignored when one is beyond the gates. They smoke and swear, shout and swagger, fight and frighten, talk loose and light, indulge in slander and scandals, in the coffee houses beyond the gate, where they lounge and loll. It is shameful behaviour for any selfrespecting human; it is reprehensible for pilgrims to holy places, who must yearn to soak themselves in spiritual joy; it is ruinous for a volunteer, for, here, a volunteer is also a candidate for Grace and an aspirant for Bliss. For you, the whole world must appear as a (abode of Supreme peace), not simply this stone and cement structure. As a matter of fact, the world is, fundamentally, a ; only, man, by his ignorance and perversity, has fouled it into a snake-pit of crime and hate. I want that each one of you must so transform yourself during this period that you will carry with you the atmosphere of the wherever you go, for, you cannot live happily in any surrounding that is not fragrant with love and humility, discipline and control. You will naturally endeavour to make the place where you are and the men among whom you move, a bit more spiritual than before.

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Service must be done intelligently The school had a cat which used to roam freely in all the halls. The answers were to be tied to the tail of the cat and then, the dull fellow will place some sweets under his bench, which will attract the cat to his side. When the cat eats the sweets and licks the floor where they were kept, he could loosen the paper tied to its tail and spread it before him on the desk. The plan went through, up to a point; the answers were tied. But, the cat was so distracted by the thing on its tail that it scampered round and round in terrific excitement. It attracted the attention of the invigilator and that was the end of the story. You must not be so foolish as to believe in the possibility of such a stratagem. The that is entrusted to you, you must do intelligently and to a successful finish. It does not matter if the recipient is not fully satisfied; you must have done your best, without hesitation or favour. What is the good of hurrying along the ranks of persons who are sitting for meals with a basket of , shouting, ", . Who wants ?" without stopping and serving even one laddu on the plate of a single person? The diners have the benefit of the name, but not of the substance. Nowadays, service has become more talk and less deed. But, the Lord cannot be deceived; He is vigilant and all-knowing. Once, and were going along the sky over , on a Day. There were millions of pilgrims crowding the and narrow lanes of the Holy City. The precints of the Temple were filled with devoted men and women singing the praise of .

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Purity and Truth alone can open the gates of Bliss turned to her Lord and asked, "Look at these millions of human beings; they are all certain to win Heaven, for they are full of devotion and they are here on this sacred day; I wonder if heaven can accommodate all of them." laughed at her innocence. He said, "If every one who comes to on Day can secure heaven, then, will be heaven. No. We both are in heaven because we have no egoistic desire, no selfish attachments. These people are all so saturated with selfish desire that no one of them can ever hope to have access to heaven. Can a thief who steals and purchases a ticket to with the stolen money climb to heaven? Purity, love and truth alone can open the gates of Bliss. Come on, I shall prove my thesis that very few of these can ever enter heaven. Let us go into this city as an old decrepit beggar pair." And, in one of the lanes that led to the temple, in full sight of the hundreds who filed along, with the holy water in their hands, for being poured ceremonially on the in the Temple, the bony centenarian lay on the lap of his aged wife, lolling his tongue in the agony of extreme thirst, and the woman was appealing piteously for water to her dying husband. "Water, water; give this man a mouthful and save him for me", was the cry. No one of the devout came near to relieve his distress. Many cursed her for her shrill importunity; some asked her to keep off the road; a few said they will give him water after finishing worship in the temple; a large number swore that beggary must be made a crime and the police must clear the lanes of this nuisance; one or two people laughed and remarked that the lady was putting up a good show to attract attention. No heart melted at the woes of the old helpless pair. At last, one man came near them, moved by sympathy. He was a pickpocket who had come to 's to ply his wicked trade; he knelt by the side of the old man and pulled out a dried gourd full of water; that was his water bottle. But, wanted to test whether he had other virtues too. So, she said, "Thank you, dear brother. But, my husband will drink the water you give only when you describe some good deed you have done so far, while pouring the water into his parched mouth. He is about to die, so, tell him of some good deed you have done in your life and offer the merit of that to him when you give him the water". The hardened thief replied, "No; I have done no good deed so far; this is the first time my heart has melted at another's misery. Let the Lord of , in the temple yonder, be my witness", he said and poured the precious water. At that, the Lord appeared in His real Form and too rose as the Goddess; they blessed him as the only person entitled to Heaven out of that motley throng of millions of empty hearts. Truth and Love won for him the Grace of God.

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Volunteers have no limits for service Treat the guests as you would like to be treated, if you were in their place, visiting the after years of yearning and months of preparation and anticipation of joy. The driver and conductor of the vehicles can leave them and move off; but, if in the confusion the visitors lose any article, it tells upon your vigilance. If you are there to help them, they will say "O, some good friend helped us to recover our things, he spoke so reassuringly to us, as soon as we reached the place; every one there is more full of towards us than our own kith and kin. That is the one place where we can be certain of kind and sympathetic and intelligent service suffused with love, which knows no distinction of caste, creed, status or wealth". Observe Me; what benefit can I derive from all My activity, I who assign all benefits to all activities according to what they deserve? But yet, you will find Me busy from dawn to dusk, from dusk to dawn. I finish My lunch or dinner within minutes so that I can teach you the value of time; I attend to the smallest detail of all the various items of work, for I try to set an example for you, in meticulous attention to, and careful anticipation of, all contingencies. I know many of you idle away hours on end, wasting precious hours in idle gossip, purposeless talk and debate. When you practise the attitude that God is everywhere as the witness of every act of yours, that God is in every being you meet and serve, then, you will certainly be rewarded by a Vision of the Lord.

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Do not let go the chance to do When you have the brilliant chance, do not let it go, through ignorance or negligence; grasp the opportunity and advance! The best way to win Grace is to obey instructions, to follow the advice, and to submit to the control exercised with lot of Love. I am worried that people are not benefitting from Me as much as I would like to confer. In the lotus pond there are many frogs; the bees that come from afar are not able to convince the frogs of the nectar in the lotus bloom. done lovingly and well to the people who gather here to have and to listen to the discourses is a great opportunity for you to acquire discrimination and non-attachment, to widen and deepen your , and to realise how is the inner motivator of all beings. I wish you well. Be humble, be sweet, be sincere.