The One Is Indivisible
The Truth Is The Whole
It is more important for the commander, the success of his intent through operations, and the welfare of his troops that he should trust his troops than that they should trust him.
This is why we have training and West Point: so that commanders have trust-worthy subordinates to execute their intent. Trust-worthy subordinates keep a formation safe, so long as the commander is not a jerk.
This is why we have saints and sages and the occasional avathar: so spiritual aspirants relearn and practice the modes of living — essentially, purification of heart and burnishing of intellect — which make them reliable to God and therefore worthy of enjoying the sweet safety of His Presence and Success.
Ultimately, all the toil and trouble of training is to achieve success in operations along with sweet safety for the troops, or what is the same thing, the spiritual aspirant. The troops’ safety through operational success depends on their being reliable to their commander. If he cannot count on them, a commander’s troops are at dire risk.
Again, this is why we have training, schools, education, etc. — to keep the troops safe by making them reliable to their commander, where reliable means: able to execute to achieve the commander’s intent for their victory.
The commander’s faith in his troops is more important for success in achieving his intent through operations, which includes his troops’ safety, than is their faith in him. Patton said he wanted not to be liked but that his command execute as Soldiers, that they do their duties.
This also elucidates brilliantly the great truth communicated by the myth of the Garden of Eden and Man’s Expulsion/Fall therefrom as well as by the myth of the Flood, the story of the curse against Lot’s wife, and the story and parable of the curse against a fig tree. Whom the commander cannot trust, he expels from his command.
God’s faith in man is more important — to God and to man — than is man’s faith in God. Man must make himself trust-worthy to God in order to foster his own, man’s, welfare. Man is entirely capable of doing this and in fact God wants him to do it — and helps along the way with both encouragements and emoluments.
Self-salvation or works righteousness this is not. A person does not even start God-ward until He prompts them to do that. By Grace, through faith: shaken by Grace, learned in being trust-worthy.
Heschel is right: God is in search of man. Luther is right: God comes to earth to restore the faith of men and women He wants in the means of becoming worthy of Himself, or as Luther put it, becoming Little Christs. Paul is right: Christians (Little Christs) are Soldiers in an army whose commander is God Himself, a hard but sweetly competent taskmaster and quiet but calmly victorious battle commander.
Looked When I Was His Student In 1965
God’s faith in the spiritual aspirant is more consequential for the welfare of the spiritual aspirant than is their faith in Him. Have faith in God is a hollow exhortation if the one entreated is already not trusted by God. God is always the one who matters. His decision is final. Also primal.
If God does not trust the devotee, the devotee is going nowhere. Cyprian’s epigram, Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus, observes the fact that he who is outside God’s trust is outside freedom bestowed by enlightenment. Such a person is swept away by floods of passion, desire, and events.
We urge people to have faith in God. We should urge them to be worthy of God’s having faith in them.
The important question to ask is, does God trust me, not, do I trust God?
God is trust-worthy. Am I? Am I skilled in the modes of living which conduce to God’s increasing trust in me?
The shoe is on the other foot, the unexpected one, so to speak.
Who trusts whom? The decision point in life is when God trusts you, not when you trust God.
The come to Jesus protocol is a hoax acting as a snare to immobilize a respondent so they can be dragged to hell . . . and their pockets emptied to pay the trapper.
Desire breeds wishes. Wishes create birth and death. The next birth is the result of unfulfilled desires in this life! Those who have no trace of desire for material objects can achieve the awareness of the Atmic reality. In fact, the desire to know God, to love God, and to be loved by God does not bind. When awareness of God dawns in all its splendour, every worldly, sensual desire is reduced to ashes in the flames of that awareness. The individual Self will turn towards the Universal Self as soon as desire comes to an end and the Self delights in supreme peace (parama shanthi). The Self must break off all contact with non-self, so that it can earn immortality. You are a heap of thoughts. Your thoughts play a vital role in shaping your life. Hence watch your thoughts and carefully welcome only good ones! Spiritual learning (vidya) stabilises good thoughts in the mind and thus rises to the status of knowledge of the supreme Reality (Atma-vidya).
Sathya Sai Baba – Divine Discourse, April 14, 2006 / Daily Email, Sai Inspires: Subscription
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