I often think the spiritual way is made up of three steps. The first is longing, yearning. The seed of longing is implanted in every heart, it sprouts at its own time. And once it sprouts it makes the heart restless. Often the person feels unhappy, miserable. Nothing can bring comfort to him. The wealth of the world, its honour and power are to him, as ashes and dust. He has seen through the vanity of worldly life. He now longs for God alone, and for someone who may show him the way to God. One mark of this longing is tears. He cries out. “Where are Thou, Beloved? Hide not Thy Face from me! In separation from Thee, every day is as an age!”
He sets out in quest. This is the second step on the path. He is in search of his Guru. He little knows that the Guru is already in search of him and at the right time will appear to him. In our ancient scriptures it is written that “when the disciple is ready, the Guru appears.”
Then the disciple takes the third step. When the Guru has appeared to him and accepted him as his disciple, he has but one thing to do. It is obedience. Implicit, unquestioning obedience is what is asked of every disciple. True obedience is an act of the will.
The disciple surrenders his will to the will of his Master, the disciple’s will is blended with that of his Master. The disciple becomes a child of God. His travail is over; his journey is complete; he has reached the goal.
There are many ways to realise God, says a Sufi mystic. Of these one is the “little way”. The “little way” is the way of love. It is the way of humility and child-like faith. Love, humility and faith — the three are inter-related.
Dada J P Vaswani is a humanitarian, philosopher, educator, acclaimed writer, powerful orator, messiah of ahimsa, and non-sectarian spiritual leader
