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In response to a question from someone who felt like they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and didn’t want to do any service work, Gurudev shared the following:
Don't think you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. The spirit is guiding you. God is guiding you.
You’re in the right place at the right time. This could not have happened before, and you couldn’t have postponed it either. It’s the perfect time.
You’re in the right place. If you have come onto the spiritual path, just relax and be at home.
This feeling of, “Wrong place, wrong time,” is needed for you to get moving in the first place, but once you’ve moved and come onto the path, you should relax.
Feeling hurried
If you’re in a hurry to catch a train, take your luggage and run. Go to the train, and as soon as you’ve climbed onto the train, you should relax. You can’t keep running inside the train.
Your hurry is understandable on the way to board a plane. Otherwise, you might miss your flight. So you must really run, if you’re late.
Take your boarding pass, and get onto the plane. Once you’re inside the plane, you should relax. You can’t keep running inside the flight. That won’t get you there any faster. You’ll reach your destination exactly when the plane lands, only at that time, and not one second before.
There’s a beautiful verse in the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna says to Arjuna,”For one who hasn’t claimed the spiritual path, for them, they have to hurry up. They have to act. That’s the only way they can do it.” But after getting onto the path of yoga, you simply have to relax. If you don’t relax and let go, you can never attain it.
Relax and say, “Hari om.” Don’t worry. If you were in the wrong place, I would’ve told you, “Hey, this is not your place. You go away.” The fact that you’ve come here means you’re in the right place.
How to get into service work
Ask yourself what stops you from working. Is it laziness? Or is it some sort of rebelliousness in you from your childhood?
From childhood, this impression comes to mind. “No, I don’t want to do it.” To say no has become a sort of habit, because parents kept saying to their children, “Don’t do this, don’t do this, don’t do this,” so the children get it in their mind, “No, no, no.”
When everything is “No, no, no,” then at some point the child starts saying, “No, no, no!” This rebelliousness starts happening. So you have to watch. Look at your own rebelliousness, and laugh at your own tendencies. They’ll disappear. You don’t need to try and get rid of them.
Observe them, laugh at them, look at them. “Oh, this is what it is!” Then take deep breaths in and out. These sorts of tendencies disappear.
So children, instead of telling them, “No, no,” you should give them a positive idea. You tell a child, “Don’t throw this ball.” Instead say, “Put the ball there.” Or, if a child has a habit of throwing everything, instead of telling the child, “Don’t throw the cup,” say, “Put the cup slowly on the table.”
“Don’t shout,” is one instruction. Another is, “Can you talk softly and slowly? Talk softly.” You’re saying the same thing, but you’re giving a different instruction.
You can tell a child, “Don’t run,” or you can say, “Let’s walk slowly. Walk slowly. Go slowly.” Instructions given more positively have a better influence on the system.
Most of our rebelliousness comes out of that. With too many “Nos,” the mind says “No.” It’s very important to create the right type of atmosphere for children.
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Editor’s note:
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