Boston University; Boston, Massachusetts, USA

24 March 1969

The poet sang:
I slept and dreamed that life was Beauty.
I woke and found that life was Duty.
Duty and Beauty are like the North Pole and the South Pole.
What is Beauty? Beauty is the oneness of the finite and the Infinite. Beauty is
the expression of the Infinite through man the finite. Beauty is man’s embodiment
of God, the Infinite. In the material world, in the physical world, it is through
Beauty that God reveals Himself.
The Beauty of the soul is Beauty unparalleled in the physical world. This
Beauty inspires the outer world and fulfils the inner world. This Beauty makes
us one with God’s Soul, the Light Infinite. This Beauty makes us one with God’s
Body, the Universe. When we live in the world of aspiration, we come to realise
that the Transcendental Duty and the Universal Beauty are the perfect
expressions of one and the same Reality.
Duty. In our day-to-day life, duty is something unpleasant, demanding and
discouraging. When we are reminded of our duty, we lose all our inner, spontaneous
joy. We feel miserable. We feel that we could have used our life-energy
for a better purpose. Only a man devoid of common sense can say he does not
know what his duty is. Each man knows his duty well, too well. It is up to him
whether or not to perform it.
Today I am supposed to speak on Duty Supreme. An aspirant’s is the life that
has to perform the Duty Supreme. His first and foremost Duty is to realise God.
There can be no other Duty except this Duty, God-realisation, in his life here on
earth. An aspirant, when he saw the light of day, was inspired by God Himself
with this message:
Realise Me on earth.
Reveal Me on earth.
Fulfil Me on earth.
Time is fleeting. Time does not wait for us. We shall have to be wise. We can
utilise each moment for a divine purpose. We can utilise each moment in performing
our soulful Duty.
Duty is painful, tedious and monotonous simply because we do it with our ego,
pride and vanity. Duty is pleasant, encouraging and inspiring when we do it for
God’s sake. What we need is to change our attitude towards Duty. If we work for
the sake of God, then there is no Duty. All is Joy. All is Beauty. Each action has
to be performed and offered at the Feet of God. Duty for God’s sake is the Duty
Supreme. No right have we to undertake any other duty before we work out our
own spiritual salvation. Did God not entrust us with this wonderful task at the
time of our very birth? The Supreme Duty is to constantly strive for Godrealisation.
Time is short, but our soul’s mission on earth is lofty. How can we
waste time? Why should we spend time in the pleasures of the senses?
Now, we often say that we are under no obligation to others because we have
not accepted anything from them. They have not given us anything. True, we are
under no obligation, but there is a word called expectation. I may not have taken
anything from you, but that does not mean that you cannot expect anything from
me. At times your expectation may be legitimate. Expect you certainly can; but
there is one thing that you cannot do. You cannot claim. You can expect, and it
is up to me to give you what you want; but claim you must not. Only God can
claim. God and God alone can claim from me my entire life. Each individual has
to feel that God has the absolute right to claim him forever here on earth and
there in Heaven.
Love your family much. This is your great duty. Love mankind more. This is
your greater duty. Love God most. This is your greatest duty, the Duty Supreme.
There are two things: one is remembrance, the other is forgetfulness. All of
us know that it is our duty to collect our salary. Indeed, it is our duty. And we
always remember it. But there is another duty. We have to work. That duty we
forget. In order to get our salary, we have to work. Somehow we manage to forget
this. In the spiritual world also, there is a duty. This duty is to enjoy the fruits of
God-realisation. We all know it and we are extremely eager to perform this duty.
But unfortunately we forget the other duty: meditation. One duty is to enjoy the
fruits; the other duty is to acquire the fruits.
But we are clever enough to cry for the fruits of realisation long before we
have entered into the field of meditation. No meditation, no realisation. Without
meditation, God-realisation is nothing but self-deception.
An aspirant has a most significant duty, and that duty is to have perfect faith
in his divine possibilities. If he has faith in himself and faith in the living Guru,
then he can easily perform the Supreme Duty, the duty of Self-discovery, Godrealisation.