Yearning for the Grace of the Divine......

 You have to develop faith, because if you don’t have faith, it’s difficult and faith is this yearning. You have to develop not only faith; you have to transcend faith to yearning. You have to yearn for God. As long as there is no yearning for the Divine, there is always emptiness. Into this emptiness, anything from the outside can fill it. That’s why you have to guard yourself always, otherwise the old one, the old you, will be back. In somebody who lives in the world, you see it very clearly. You see that somebody who lives in the material world, when they don’t have much they complain. They have a little bit, yet they are not happy. They always long for more. This is how the world, the material world functions. It never gives you real happiness, because the more you have, the more you will want to have. So having more, you will still not be happy. This reminds me of a story. There was a man who was passing under a tree and he heard a voice. The voice said “Do you want seven pots of gold?” He looked around, could not find anybody. He said, “OK, let’s try it.” He heard the voice again and the voice said “Go home. Your seven pots of gold are waiting for you.” He reached home very happy and he saw seven pots.  He approached and he looked inside. They were full with gold. Six of them were completely full with gold and the seventh one was only half full. He said “What is that? Why is this one only half full? I have to fill this up.”  What did he do? He took all his savings, changed it into gold and put it in the seventh pot. In spite of doing that, the pot was not full, so he sold all his utensils. He sold all his  furniture. Still the pot was half full. He started working, slaving himself, working very hard night and day to fill the seventh pot. He worked, starving his family. His wife and children were starving, because he tried to fill up the seventh pot with gold. He was getting depressed. He was working at the king’s palace, and one day the king said “What’s your problem?” He said to the king “I would like that you increase my salary. I’m not so happy.” The king said, “Alright, we’ll increase your salary, because you are a good person.” In spite of increasing the salary for a few months, the king saw that he was still unhappy. One day the king called him and said “Tell me, when your salary was low, you were happy, you were content, you were joyful. Now your salary is double, but you look more depressed. You look unhappy. What’s your problem? Have you met the yaksha, the demon of the seven gold pots?” He was shocked that the King could know about that, because he had kept it secret. Then he said “Well, yes.” and the king said, “Well, that’s a big mistake you have made to accept the seven gold pots, because this will never bring happiness, but only sadness and unhappiness. It will bring only misery to your life. Go quickly and return them.” Well he went and returned them. When he returned it, the seventh pot was still only half full. This pot can never be full. You can’t fill it up and it brings misery. When he returned the seventh pot, he lost everything. All his savings, all the money that he had put inside the pot, all was lost, but that’s what humans often do. Life after life, they want to fill the pot of misery. In spite of knowing that this pot will bring their own ruin, they like to play this game, but when you realise that this is bringing misery to you, do you like to play this game, or do you want to change something? You change your life, because you realise that the world we see outside will never bring happiness. Only your spiritual path will bring you this real happiness. On the spiritual path one has to yearn for the Divine. You have not to be superficial, because if you are superficial, you will get only superficial things. When you are sincere from within yourself, you know, with yourself you are sincere and call the Divine, He can’t refuse you. He will run to you.That’s why it is said “Have faith; have faith like a child,” because when the mother says to the child “That’s your sister,” the child, without asking a second question, will believe that. You should believe and have no doubt. That’s what faith makes happen. That’s what this yearning for the Divine makes happen. That’s why it has to grow more and more. It’s not that you ask for something and you don’t get it, so you say “OK, I will change.” Until you are pure at heart, keep trying. Then one will ask the question “How will I know if I am pure at heart?” Well, when you are pure at heart, you will notice the change inside of you. Your attitude, the way you look at things, will be more lovin and calmer, because the old you will have disappeared completely. Keep asking the Divine to give you this Grace and He will.