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The play of mind
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Extract from a handwritten manuscript by Sant Kirpal Singh
A section was torn from one corner of the manuscript, so likely words have been inserted for the missing words.

Four qualifications there are for this pathway: discrimination, desirelessness, good conduct, and love.

I Discrimination

The first of these qualifications is discrimination between right and wrong. It should not be difficult to choose, for those who wish to follow the Master have already decided to take the right at all costs. But the body and the man are two, and the man's will is not always what the body wishes.

When your body wishes something, stop and think whether you really wish it. For you are God,1 and you will only what God wills; but you must dig deep down into yourself to find the God within you, and listen to His voice, which is your voice. Do not mistake your bodies for your self: neither the physical body, nor the astral, nor the mental (causal). Each one of them will pretend to be the self, in order to gain what it wants. But you must know them all, and know your self as their master.

When there is work that must be done, the physical body wants to rest, to go walking, to eat and drink and the man who does not know, says to himself, "I want to do these things, and I must do them." But the man who knows, says, "This that wants is not I, and it must wait a while."

Often when there is an opportunity to help someone, the body feels, "How much trouble it will be for me; let someone else do it." But the man replies to his body, "You shall not hinder me in doing good work." The body is your animal, the horse upon which you ride. Therefore, you must treat it, you must feed it properly on pure food and drink, and keep it strictly chaste always, even from the minutest speck of dirt. For without a perfectly clean and healthy body, you cannot do the arduous work of preparation, you cannot bear its ceaseless strain; but it must always be you who controls that body, not it that controls you.
The astral mind2 wants you to be angry, to say sharp words, to feel jealous, to be greedy for money, to envy other people and their possessions, to yield yourself to depression. All these things it wants, and many more, not because it wishes to harm you, but because it likes violent vibrations and likes to change them constantly. But you want none of these things, and therefore you must discriminate between your wants and your body's.
Your mental (causal) body wishes to think itself proudly separate, to think much of itself and little of others. Even when you have turned it away from worldly things, it still tries to calculate for (it)self, to make you think of your own progress instead of thinking of the Master's work and of helping others. When you meditate, it will try to make you think (that) which it wants instead of the one thing which you want. You are not this mind but it is yours to use; here, again, discrimination is necessary.

Try to see what is worth doing; and remember that you must not judge by the size of one thing. A small thing which is directly useful in the Master's work is far better worth doing than a large thing which the world would call "good". You must distinguish not only the useful from the useless, but the more useful from the less useful.
To feed the poor is good and noble and useful work; yet to feed their souls is nobler and more useful than to feed their bodies. Any rich man can feed the body, but only those who know can feed the soul. If you know, it is your duty to help others to know.

God is wisdom as well as love; and the more wisdom you have, the more you can manifest of Him. Study then, but study first that which will most help you to help others. Work patiently at your studies, not that men may think you wise, not even that you may have the happiness of being wise, but because only the wise men can be wisely helpful. You must learn to be true all through in thought, word, and deed.

II Desirelessness

There are some who forsake the pursuit of earthly aims only in order to gain heaven, or to attain personal liberation from rebirth; into this error you must not fall. If you have forgotten self altogether, you cannot be thinking of when that self should be selfless or what kind of heaven it shall have. Remember that all selfish desire binds, however high may be its object; and until you have got rid of it, you are not wholly free to devote yourself to the work of the Master. You must do right for the sake of the work, not in the hope of seeing the result; you must give yourself to the service of the world because you love it selflessly.
You must guard, too, against certain small desires which are common in daily life. Never wish to think, or to appear clever; have no desire to speak. It is well to speak little; better still to say nothing, unless you are quite sure that what you wish to say is quite true, kind, and helpful.

Another common desire which you must sternly repress is the wish to meddle in another man's business, directly or indirectly, privately or openly. If you see a case of cruelty to a child or an animal, it is your duty to interfere. If you are placed in charge of another in order to teach him, it may become your duty gently to tell him of his faults. Except for such cases, mind your own business and learn the value of silence.

III Good conduct

The six points of conduct which are specially required are:
1. Self control as to the mind
2. Self control in action
3. Tolerance
4. Cheerfulness
5. One-pointedness
6. Confidence

1. Self control as to the mind:
It means control of temper so that you may feel no anger or impatience; control of the mind itself, so that the mind is not disturbed, and, through the mind control of the nerves so they may be as little irritable as possible.
This self control will make you strong, so that you may face without fear the trials and difficulties of the Path, which come into everyone's life, and avoid the incessant worry over trifles with which many people spend most of their time. The Master teaches that it does not matter in the least what happens to a man from the outside: sorrows, troubles, sickness, losses – all these must be borne by each and must not be allowed to affect the calmness of his mind. They are the result of past actions, so when they come you must bear them cheerfully, remembering that all evil is transitory, and that you are enjoined to remain always joyous and serene. They belong to your previous lives, not to this; you cannot alter them, so it is useless to trouble about them. Never allow yourself to feel sad or depressed. Depression is wrong, because it infects others and makes their life harder, which you have no right to do. Therefore if ever it comes to you, throw it off at once.

Hold back your mind from pride, for pride only comes from ignorance. The man who does not know thinks that he is great, that he has done this or that great thing; the wise man knows that only God is great, that all good work is done by God alone.

2. Self control in action:
Remember that, to be useful to mankind, thought must result in action. There must be no laziness but constant activity in good work. But it must be your own duty that you do – not another man's, unless with his permission and by way of helping him. Leave every man to do his own work in his own way; be always ready to offer help where it is needed, but never interfere. Because you try to take up higher work, you must not forget your ordinary duties, for until they are done you are not free for other service.

3. Tolerance:
You must feel perfect tolerance for all, and a healthy interest in the beliefs of those of another religion just as much as in your own. For their religion is a path to the Highest just as yours is. But in order to gain this perfect tolerance, you must yourself first be free from bigotry and superstition. Now that your eyes are opened, some of your old beliefs, your old ceremonies may seem to you absurd; perhaps, indeed, they really are so. Yet though you can no longer take part in them, respect them for the sake of those good souls to whom they are still important. They are like those double lines which guided you as a child to write straight and evenly until you learned to write far better and more freely without them. There was a time when you needed them; but now that time is past. A great teacher once wrote: "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." He who has forgotten his childhood and lost sympathy with the children is not the man who can teach them or help them. So look kindly, gently, tolerantly upon all: but upon all alike, Buddhist or Hindu, Jain or Jew, Christian or Mohammedan.

4. Cheerfulness:
You must bear your karmas cheerfully. However hard it is, be thankful that it is no worse. Remember that you are of but little use to the Master until your evil karma is worked out, and you are free. By offering yourself to Him, you have asked that your karmas may be hurried, and so now in one or two lives you work through what otherwise might have been spread over a hundred. But in order to make the best of it, you must bear it cheerfully, gladly. Yet another point, you must give up all your feeling of possession; karma may take from you the things which you like best – even the people whom you love most. Even then, you must be cheerful – ready to part with anything and everything. Often Master needs to pour out His strength upon others through His servant. He cannot do that if the servant yields to depression, so cheerfulness must be the rule.

5. One-pointedness:
The one thing that you must set before you is to do the Master's work. Whatever else may come in your way to do: that, at least, you must never forget. Yet nothing can come in your way, for all helpful, unselfish work is the Master's work, and you must do it for His sake. That some teacher also wrote: "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto man." Think how you would do a piece of work if you knew that the Master was coming about to look at it. Just in that way you must do all your work. And there is another quotation like it, much older: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." One-pointedness means, too, that nothing shall ever turn you, even for a moment, from the Path upon which you have entered. No temptations, no worldly pleasures, no worldly affections must ever draw you aside.

6. Confidence:
You must trust your Master; you must trust yourself. You – the real you – you are a spark of God's own fire, and God, who is almighty, is in you and because of that there is nothing that you cannot do if you will.

IV Love

Of all of the qualifications love is the most important, for if it is strong enough in a man it forces him to acquire all the rest, and all the rest without it would not be sufficient. Often, it is translated as an intense desire for liberation from the round of births and deaths and for Union with God, not in order that you may escape from weariness and suffering, but because of your deep love for Him. Because He is love, you, if you would become one with Him, must be filled with perfect unselfishness and love also.