Picture: Yogi performing an inner Fire Rite
My first job for pay was cutting asparagus from 4:00 to 7:00 a.m. before school during the spring when I was in the 4th, 5th and 6th grades; all for 35 cents an hour. Hard physical work was a big part of my life all the way through my twenties. Into my 3rd decade this changed as I entered the fields of counseling and mediation; Mother started this change by asking me to counsel those in the spiritual group and to give spiritual talks for Service.
It’s tempting for a “blue collar” kind of a guy to think that helping others to work through the mysteries of the mind or resolving conflicts with others is not really work, but that is looking at it from the outside. Having been on both sides, knowing what hard physical work is, and what hard work is as an agent of change I can say that both can be extremely challenging.
Whether it is digging a ditch by hand with a shovel, or working with someone with over a hundred multiple personalities, or doing a neighborhood mediation with six families from a cul-de-sac in conflict, it can all be hard work in different ways, that also has immense satisfaction—in different ways.
In fact it can seem that the less it looks like on the outside, the more effort is required on the inside. The theoretical physicist may not look like he or she is doing anything other than daydreaming, but what colossal Causal creations come to mind with single minded concentration.
This could not be more true than when doing spiritual work for myself, or in helping others to do theirs. One can sit in meditation in a half-daze while watching the time, or you exert yourself with all of your heart, mind a soul; think of Master or Mother with tears in their eyes—demanding God to reveal Himself. On the outside you may not tell that much difference between the two, but one way gets you results and other does not.
To do this work that God and Gurus have given me is the greatest challenge I can imagine. There is no clocking in or out, the effort and cost is tremendous, but so are the rewards. When an aspirant has worked, and worked and worked, and finally the results of peace, bliss and ever-new joy radiates within and without it is the greatest feeling for him or her, and for me.
The aspirant struggles through every obstacle, often wondering if it will come—will it come? And then the shift comes and it all starts to flow. Like a boat that in lower speeds plows through the water, great effort is required and it makes a big wake, but then suddenly the boat pops up and planes over the surface, same effort or even less and now it is skimming over the top; it feels like flying! I could not think of anything better than to be a part of this work, there is nothing higher or more fulfilling; in short, it is the best job—ever!