© 2008 Sundari
© 2008 Association Francophone des Lecteurs du Livre d'Urantia
The safest and best way to advance on the spiritual path is to engage in it without fanaticism, without exaltation… We must not rush into the spiritual path, wanting to cover long distances in a short time: by running like this, we end up running out of breath, we mark time and, very often, we go backwards.
On the contrary, we must engage in it without agitation, strengthening one step after another, without ever looking back. We will certainly make many mistakes along the way; but did not Jesus say: “Seven times the righteous man falls and seven times he gets up again?” It is important to always get up, always continue on our path. As long as we move forward, there is hope; it is when we stop and grow lukewarm that the danger begins.
We must think, at the outset, that nothing is more urgent than our encounter with God, and our union with Him. This thought will help us to rely on Him and on Him alone. Let us not have this pretension, this spiritual pride which consists of believing in our own merits. We know well that we can do nothing, that we are nothing without Him. And when He has given us the grace to develop Faith in us, as soon as we have responded to His call, let us let Him direct us like little children, in all humility, in all simplicity, ridding ourselves of all the obstacles due to our imagination, our pride, our erroneous sense of life as He has given it to us.
When we have felt, even for a moment, the quality of happiness that the Eternal has in store for us in his love, we can no longer look back; we know what the “hidden manna” and the “ambrosia wine” mean. It is a food like no other, which nourishes the heart and the blood at the same time, and which revitalizes the whole being.
It is obvious that at first the path seems too narrow, one does not dare to enter it; the old man is afraid of suffocating there; he still often turns towards the broad path that smiles at him, showing him what he is going to lose; error, corruption and all the temptations of the world are adorned with the image of happiness! All the colors of his sensations parade before his eyes to remind him of the poor little moments of pleasure that he has called happiness. He knows what he is leaving behind, or at least he thinks he knows. This is why he hesitates to enter the path where happiness is truly happiness, where the sentimentality of the world gives way to divine sensitivity, where the rhythm of the human heart responds to the universal rhythm. So he delays the moment, he still wants to enjoy these little artificial joys for which he wears out his heart, his body, his brain. He thus runs through the world, his coffin under his arm, until the door of death stops him. And this is the sad destiny he chose for himself.
But one day, a “beautiful” day, when his pleasures have changed into trials, he vaguely feels the need for lasting and profound joys. Then a foretaste of his eternity is born in him. It is there that God triumphs in man, in this blessed encounter of the Creator and his creature. It is the return of the prodigal son that we all are, or that we have been. It is then that man lets himself be guided by his “real self”, his divine spark which illuminates his new path. It is as if God were lighting the way to show him the big picture, to rejoice his heart which finally understands that this path has, as its outcome, Eternal Life.
In the divine light, everything changes appearance: what he took for real happiness appears sad and insipid to him; he thirsts for durability, for truth. He finally has the curiosity of his true destiny, of his return to God who holds out his arms to him.
Of course, the old man intends to keep his prerogatives and he often becomes agitated; there are still some reminders of the past and of the pleasures that he tasted with the lips of flesh… This is where we must be vigilant and praying, …, by establishing permanent contact with the Eternal, by developing in our hearts love for all beings, by loving God in them and them in God, by loving all that lives…
There is another danger when one embarks on the spiritual path. It is the search for the “marvelous”, for everything that is of an emotional order and that can be very easily confused with the spiritual. However, the spiritual path must be pursued in broad daylight. The main goal is not to obtain certain powers of clairvoyance or clairaudience. Those who love the Eternal with all their heart will seek their joy in Him and will wish to approach Him ever more closely by assimilating Him to their entire life, after having turned their gaze away from the path of the world strewn with trials. This is how one embarks on the spiritual path, conscious of finding there the wonder of wonders: eternal happiness in the bosom of the Living God.
In my personal experience, I have always desired direct contact with God and I have always felt that to obtain this contact, it was necessary to strive for perfection. What God gave me as He gave it to you too: it is the awareness of Eternal Life through Christ in us, our True Self…
Despite the good lessons I received, I often deviated from the path; but after each error, I returned to the fold, exhausted by the trials, until the moment when I finally understood that the way of God is the way of true Happiness, where there is no more sorrow, suffering, or death. And I blessed my most bitter trials, because it was they that allowed me to acquire this certainty. I would have liked the Eternal to attach me to settle me in His House. But in the spiritual path, it was for me a constant struggle between my work and my aspirations… I spent entire nights “questioning” the Eternal, instead of simply letting Him “direct” the operations… When I entered the scene, I said: “Lord, it is You who will work for me; I give You in advance the fruit of my work.” And I left the stage in joy, peace, inner tranquility, without feeling that unhealthy emotion that applause provokes and which only vibrates the strings of human vanity.
Now, God’s time is always my time… I tell Him every day: “Where You want; as You want”. And I have never had to regret it, because HE has never failed in his promise. I count on HIM more than on myself. HIS Truth is an exact science… With the Eternal, I go from surprise to surprise. He fills me in every way; but for that, I have to let Him work in me. Since it is God who does everything, I am sure that with Him, the more we give, the more we receive.
The greatest happiness that I wish for all my brothers is to access the divine paths, to settle there and to remain there. It is then that the seed of eternal life that God has placed in the hearts of all men can flourish in them.
Sundari