The Shabri Story: Patience and Preparation for God

How are they two different things? I thought that what I do, no, to live to receive the Atma, our culture has to be like that—not outwardly, inwardly. That is what I'm calling open, right? So be open, yes, in the sense that it is the child's job to do this. It is the Mother's job to pick up. So it is not a guarantee that you're open and then God will go in that way. When the light is received, it is only up to grace, only up to Him. You see, so let's just put it this way. There are two different things. One is for Him to do, one is for you to do. What is for you to do? To have the food ready for God to eat. To come and eat is up to Him. Then to come and eat is the receiving the light part. That's why the Shabri story is the entirety of our spirituality put in a very simple thing. So it's the Shabri story where she patiently does her dharma of waiting for God to come, keeping everything pristine for Him to come, collecting the berries every day, tasting them and making sure that they are the sweet ones. So keeping our heart soaked in love, ready for Him to come every day, you see, and then to recognize this coming only after 60 years of doing this—or else if we're not able to report any progress for a week, we get disheartened. So that story is very important. Do we feel that every time Shabri was calling Ram Ji, He did not come to her internally? Of course. But remember that it's up to Him when that revelation happened. So our job is to be empty, heartful, patient, just not concerned about what is happening to me in this process. Can you really sit empty if you're constantly obsessed with self-concern? You close your eyes. You make yourself available to God. You set the plate full of love for Him to come and eat. And then every minute you say, 'Am I doing this right? Is He coming? Is something happening? Am I misunderstanding the instruction? You see, I'm sure I'm doing this wrong. Something is not working.' You see, so all of this is what? What is this concern? But remember that you said, 'I offer myself completely to You. Do with me what You please.' What happened to that in five minutes? God. So tactics don't work, that I will just say I'm fully Yours, I don't care about what happens to me, I fully belong to You. But if it's just lip service, it'll be tested.