Living in God's Presence: The Little Way

So the idea is not to become a great sage at one shot. Tomorrow you'll be Tulsidas Ji, or tomorrow you'll be Shabri, tomorrow you'll be Abraham or David. It's not about that. But it is in the intention moment to moment to love God more deeply, to live in His light, and to not live in separation from His presence, and therefore our life becoming a reflection of His love towards all our brothers and sisters as well. And so actually what I'm saying can only happen in peace. It cannot happen if you are feverish about anything. Be with God, behold God, and be held by God as much as you can throughout your life.

So can we decide today? And I've been attempting to do this and it is stealthily difficult, this project. I found it quite difficult actually: that we don't talk about any story about ourselves without mentioning God's grace which is upon us. So reading from St. Thérèse, that the shifting of focus away from our personal narrative to God's grace can be a simple way to deepen our love and relationship with God. Can we try this? Talking in talking, writing, messaging, in the stories that we tell ourselves. Most importantly, everything we mention, we put God at the center of it. And I realize that it becomes difficult when the mind has, you see, the idea that you don't have time. Like today, you don't have time today, you're in the office all day, you have to finish all of this work, then you have a family engagement. So today is time for the rawness of life; none of this good stuff. Mind convinces me like that. So I noticed this trick. But that is the very pretext in which we forget that we are living in God's presence, that every breath of our life is a gift from Him.

Where will we find it difficult? At work, in the office? Say, 'Let's get this done by tomorrow, if it's God's will.' You might find it strange, you see how it unfolds. See how it unfolds. But in most other situations it should be fine. Family thinks you're mad anyway, or at least I'm mad anyway. Family is not a problem. Friends also know us by now. Okay, yeah. So if you say that 'I'm feeling really frustrated today that you said this,' that even in talking now I have to mention God's grace, no? So you would say, 'I noticed that I'm very frustrated at the moment, but He's here and may by His blessing, by His presence, may this also be resolved.' Is it? Because if we are going to keep our spirituality reserved for the big things... like we just met Auto Raja, and Auto Raja has spent 27 years of his life picking up mentally challenged abandoned people from the streets whose families have basically thrown them away, discarded them. Young mothers who got pregnant and now both sides of the families don't want them. He went with one girl to Delhi and they said, 'No, you keep her, we don't want her because she has done this.' So she's been living serving at the center for the last 11 years. Many educated people who have just been abandoned by society and had no other place to go.

He has nurtured wounds of maggots and gangrene and leprosy in helping TB patients in the center. His daughter has got TB now and she's walking around with the mask. So we may notice that in what way God uses every instrument. It doesn't have to be like that. I doubt my life will ever come to that point, that level of service. I'm much too comfortable in my armchair spirituality. But I feel God has given everybody an opportunity moment to moment in their lives. So I used to share earlier in satsang that don't worry so much about the big miracles. Can you bring a smile to the one who is in front of you on the street? If they've had a bad day, you just smile at them, say hello, and just change... you don't know where, in what hell they were finding themselves in their mind. For a moment to see a smiling face in front of them, something may change, or it may not. It's God's grace. But at least that can be our service. If you're angry and we want to lash out at someone, can we not remember? Ananta is saying don't get angry. So, and of course everything I'm saying today is very colored, very inspired by St. Thérèse because her 'little way' is so inspiring. It doesn't have to be the one big thing; it can be a million tiny things.