Tulane University; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Kendall Cram Room
27 February 1974

Dear seekers, I wish to give a talk on compassion. When we use our mind to
understand the meaning of compassion, very often we are misled and we mislead
others. But when we use our heart, we understand the meaning immediately, and
we make others understand as well.
Compassion is God’s immense and intense Concern for mankind. When we
show compassion to others at the time of their need, compassion is sweet. When
we receive compassion from others while we are in dire need, compassion is
sweeter. And when we come to realise that it is God’s Compassion that is
enabling us to fulfil our promise both to Heaven and to earth, Compassion is
sweetest. Our promise to Heaven is to reveal our divine qualities here on earth.
Our promise to earth is to manifest all our divine capacities so that Mother Earth
can utilise them for her own purposes.
We are all seekers here, and we feel that if we can receive God’s most
illumining Compassion, then our spiritual journey will be expedited. But how are
we going to receive this Compassion from Above? We can easily do it if we can
feel that we are like a child, a little divine child. When a human child cries, no
matter where the mother is, she comes to comfort him for, by pleasing the child,
she gets satisfaction. Similarly, when we soulfully cry for God’s Compassion, God
immediately descends with His Compassion-Power.
A child cries helplessly because he feels that without his mother’s help and
guidance he cannot do anything. But the spiritual child does not cry with a sense
of helplessness. He feels that there is a Source, and that Source is omniscient,
omnipotent and omnipresent. When we become soulful in our cry, we establish
a free access to the Source. So the seeker in us, the divine child in us, cries
soulfully and not helplessly.
In our ordinary day-to-day life, in our multifarious activities, we speak of
Grace, divine Grace. From the spiritual point of view, there is a subtle difference
between Grace and Compassion. Let us imagine a vast expanse of water all
around—this is Grace. But when there is a heavy downpour, a shower, this is
called Compassion. Compassion is Grace, but in a very intensified, one-pointed
form. Grace is something general, which is for everyone whether he aspires or
does not aspire. But divine Compassion, real Compassion, enters into our aspiring
consciousness, our aspiring life, only when we feel the inner urge to fly into the
Beyond.
Compassion wants to operate in us at every moment, but quite often, because
of our ignorance, we resist Compassion consciously or unconsciously, even after
we have begun to cry for it. In the ordinary life, if somebody wants to give us
something out of his infinite kindness, and we do not take it, then the person
immediately withdraws his gift, as if to say that we do not deserve it. But in the
case of God, it is not like that. God never withdraws His Compassion from us. On
the contrary, He tries to offer us more of His divine, unconditional Compassion.
Compassion is a power, an illumining power. But when we are extremely
stubborn and reject Compassion totally and mercilessly, God at times relies on
His Patience-Power. He knows that Eternity is at His disposal and that one day,
in the process of evolution, we shall be able to receive His Compassion. Today if
we do not achieve and receive His Compassion devotedly or gratefully, He does
not mind. Tomorrow He will give us another opportunity and, in either the near
or the distant future, we are bound to accept His Compassion-Power, for this
alone can transform our nature. So God does not withdraw; He only uses another
type of Power, which we call patience.
Before we enter into the spiritual life, compassion is something abstract. But
when we enter into the spiritual life, and live a divine life, compassion becomes
concrete. At every moment we feel God’s Compassion in us in either a subtle or
a solid, palpable form. At every moment we can see it, feel it and grow into it.
The state motto of Louisiana is “Union, Justice, Confidence.” These terms are
extremely spiritual.
Union. Union occurs between the finite and the Infinite. Right now we are
in the physical, so we are all living finite, individual, separate existences. But
when the finite enters into the Infinite in order to realise the highest Absolute,
or when the Infinite enters into the finite to manifest its own Divinity, then this
union immediately establishes one reality, one fulfilling reality. In the union of
the finite and the Infinite we realise the highest plane of consciousness and, at the
same time, we manifest Divinity on earth.
Now, what actually is being united when the Infinite and the finite join? It is
God’s Compassion and man’s surrender. God’s greatest gift to mankind is His
Compassion-Power, and man’s greatest gift to God is his surrender-power. When
man surrenders to God soulfully and unconditionally, when he surrenders to
God’s Will cheerfully, at that time God’s Capacity, God’s Reality, God’s Infinitude
become his. Compassion is the magnet in God, and surrender is the magnet in the
seeker. When God uses His Compassion, it is like a magnet from Above pulling
us up to the Highest. And when we use our surrender, this magnet immediately
pulls God down into our living breath. So when our magnet and God’s magnet
come together, the Hour of God dawns for us in our life of aspiration and selfdedication.
Justice. In the ordinary human life, justice says, “As you sow, so you reap.”
This is justice: tit for tat. If somebody has done something wrong, we feel we
have every right to threaten him, frighten him, warn him, punish him. But this
kind of justice is on the lowest rung of the human ladder. When we step up to a
higher rung, justice becomes a kind of forgiveness. If we can forgive someone who
has done something wrong, if we have that capacity, then we feel that forgiveness
itself is justice. When we enter into the highest level of consciousness, at that
time there is no question of either punishment or forgiveness. It is only a matter
of illumination. The highest Self encompasses and embodies all of Reality. So if
one part of its existence is unillumined, it does not punish or forgive. It tries to
illumine that part of its own existence. When we watch the world from the
highest plane of consciousness, we feel that the ignorant, obscure, impure, imperfect
world needs illumination. Here justice is the feeling of oneness. Divine
Justice is the transformation of our own unlit existence. Divine Justice is selfillumination.
In the ordinary life, we feel that equality is justice. But in the divine world,
if somebody has the capacity to receive more Peace, more Light, more Bliss from
Above, then he should be given more. Equal opportunity should be given, but if
you have more capacity or receptivity than I have, then you should progress
according to your own speed and not slow down to my speed. If you wait for me,
then God’s Hour will have to wait for you, and you will not reach the Goal at
God’s choice Hour. This kind of equality is not an act of illumination. If your time
has come, you go. God has given me the same opportunity, but you have
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developed more capacity. That is why you have received more light and you can
run faster towards your Goal. When God gives me the capacity at His choice
Hour, at that time I also will reach the Goal. This is called divine Justice. God is
constantly giving us all the same opportunity, but our individual capacity is not
the same.
Confidence. Confidence is a most important quality in both our human life and
our divine life. In the human life, usually our confidence is based on our ego, our
unruly vital. The unruly vital makes us feel that we can do everything, that there
is nothing on earth we cannot do. Nevertheless, it is true that in our human life,
if we do not have confidence, we cannot do anything. But in the divine life when
we have confidence, it is a different matter. This confidence comes from an inner
awareness of our Source. We feel, “I am God’s son, I am part and parcel of God.
Since He has infinite Peace, Light and Bliss, since He has infinite capacity, I also
have the same within me. Right now I am not aware of it, but a day will come
when I will not only be aware of it but will actually be able to manifest it.” This
is called divine confidence.
Now, some people have confidence only in God and not in themselves. This
is a deplorable mistake. They should have confidence in themselves, but they
should feel that this confidence is coming directly from God. They have to feel
that their faith in their own personal effort is their confidence in a capacity
which has come directly from God. God has given us this confidence and God is
the one who is experiencing this confidence in and through us. This confidence
is nothing other than the confidence God has in Himself.
God always has confidence in us, but very often we lose confidence in
ourselves. When we have been defeated once or twice in the battlefield of life, we
lose all our confidence. But God never loses His confidence in us because He
knows that He is the root and we are the branches. Since the root is firm and
solid, how can the branches fail? God knows His capacity, His potentiality, His
plenitude and infinitude; therefore, He has all confidence, not only in Himself but
also in us, for He feels that we are His direct manifestation. Without us He cannot
manifest what He has and what He is; and without Him we cannot realise what
we have and what we are. We are part and parcel of God’s Divinity, His integral
Reality; therefore, He always has boundless confidence in our capacity.