University of Maryland; College Park, Maryland, USA

West Chapel
16 January 1974

Dear seekers, dear sisters and brothers, dear aspirants for the highest ultimate
Goal, I wish to give a talk on the subject of choice. Who has made the first choice:
God or me? My mind thinks that it is I who have chosen God. My heart feels God
and I have chosen each other simultaneously. My soul knows that it was God who
chose me first, long before I even dreamt of choosing Him.
Each human being is a chooser. He chooses mankind to obey his express
orders. He chooses God to listen to his soulful prayers. The animal in man
chooses life-destruction. The human in man chooses world-admiration. The
divine in man chooses God-realisation. The Supreme in man chooses perfect
Perfection.
We choose God when we come to realise that the world does not need us, that
the world does not care for our wisdom-light. Only when the outer world has
disappointed us and our immediate world has deserted us do we think of choosing
God. God chooses us because He does not want to drink the nectar of Immortality
alone. God chooses us because He does not want to reveal His Transcendental
Reality alone. God chooses us because He does not want to manifest His universal
Oneness alone.
Our body chooses rest, pleasure-loving rest. Our vital chooses aggression,
titanic aggression. Our mind chooses information, encyclopaedic information. Our
heart chooses love, all-fulfilling love. And God chooses perfection within and
perfection without—perfection in our inner life of realisation and perfection in
our outer life of manifestation.
Before we enter into the spiritual life, we choose the might of the outer world.
But once we enter into the spiritual life, we choose only the light of the inner
world. Before we enter into the spiritual life we choose the name and fame of the
outer world. But once we enter into the spiritual life we choose to participate
most soulfully and devotedly in God’s Cosmic Game in order to please Him and
fulfil Him in His own Way.
Now what is the spiritual life? The spiritual life is the life of our conscious
God-awareness. What else is the spiritual life? The spiritual life is the life of our
constant God-loving and our ultimate God-becoming. I choose God, not because
He is all-Power, not because He is all-Wisdom, not because He is all-Light and all-
Peace, not even because He is all-Love, but because He and I are one, eternally
one. God and I are eternally one. You and God are eternally one. We are all
eternally and inseparably one with God.
I am the dream-boat of God’s Heart and God is the Reality-Shore of my life.
This is the realisation each individual seeker here and everywhere is bound to
achieve sooner or later. We are all inseparably one with God. It is for this reason
and no other reason that we choose God. As long as we are unconscious of the
fact that we are one with God, we wallow contentedly in the pleasures of
ignorance. But once our inner being is awakened, our soul comes to the fore and
convinces our outer physical mind of the fact that we are not only God’s chosen
instruments but also God’s eternal comrades. He needs us, as we need Him. He
is the Tree and we are the branches and leaves. The Tree trunk and the branches
and leaves need each other. We choose Him for our realisation, as He chooses us
for His manifestation. Without Him, we cannot realise our highest absolute
Height. Again, without us He cannot manifest His Vision-in-Reality, His Realityin-
Vision.
Each human being on earth represents God according to his own capacity and
receptivity. In and through each human being God manifests Himself in a specific
way. Each individual is of paramount importance to Him, for He Himself has
chosen each individual to play a significant role in His Cosmic Drama. But we
have to know that it is God who chooses us first, and not we who choose God.
The Creator creates the Creation, and then the Creation admires the Creator. The
Creation is the choice of the Creator and admiration is the choice of the Creation.
It is through our heart’s admiration and adoration that we become consciously
one with the Supreme Pilot, and it is through His conscious, compassionate
choice that He has established His inseparable oneness with each human being,
each child of His on earth.
Duty is the supreme choice of God. He feels there can be nothing more
important than duty. He discharges His Duty at every moment, for He feels that
in performing His Duty He is not only awakening the earth-consciousness but
also bringing down the Heaven-Delight into the very heart of earth.
We are at once the representatives of Mother Earth and Father Heaven. As the
representatives of Father Heaven, our first and foremost choice should be selfgiving
to the Supreme Beloved. It is in our self-giving that we can manifest the
Transcendental Reality on earth. As the representatives of Mother Earth, we feel
that it is our bounden duty to spread our wings like a bird—not to cover the
length and breadth of the world, but to expand our earth-bound consciousness,
to transcend the limits of our earthly existence. Here on earth we have to go deep
within and try to spread our wings of light and delight so that we can consciously
grow into the ever-transcending and ever-widening Universal Consciousness.
God made His choice in choosing us; now let us make our choice in choosing
Him. His choice is the song of manifestation. Our choice is the song of realisation.
And today’s realisation is tomorrow’s manifestation. Again, tomorrow’s manifestation
is only the beginning of a forward and upward and inward journey. Today,
on the strength of our inner choice, we move forward, upward and inward and
reach our chosen Destination. But today’s Destination will only be the starting
point for our farther, higher and more fulfilling Goal of tomorrow. There is no
fixed Goal, for we are all evolving. In the process of evolution we are running,
flying and diving towards an ever-transcending, deepening and widening Goal. To
run farther, fly higher and dive deeper is the only choice that each individual
seeker on earth should consciously, devotedly, unmistakably and unconditionally
make.