Perhaps you have wondered sometimes if great souls such as Jesus are lost to the world. Not at all. See how busy God is. He is always in His own ecstasy, yet He is busy running this universe. And all the saints and masters who have left this earth are also busy elsewhere, just as every one of them had something to do when here. The first time Lahiri Mayasaya called Babaji to materialise himself, to satisfy some doubting friends, Babaji didn’t like it. “Do you call me for a trifle?” he asked. “I am very busy.” When a liberated master says that, he means he is busy with God, doing God’s will. The great ones are all active; it is the mission of some to try to strenghen the good in this world. And to the extent that they are able to do so, through receptive minds, the devil’s power weakens and God’s power becomes stronger.
When a great saint is resurrected in Spirit, and yet takes a form in responding to sincere, receptive devotees, it means he has some part to play in the world’s destiny. I know that Christ, in flesh and blood, is in communion with Babaji in India. Together they are watching over the destiny of the world. They tried very hard to avert this World War (World War 2). They and all the other resurrected masters have a mission to perform. Who puts the powerful thoughts of peace in the minds of some souls? It is Christ and the great ones, for they are suffering very much in this war. They are not by any means happy with the state of this world. They are trying to establish peace and harmony on earth, and raise it to a higher spiritual level. But they can’t if man doesn’t let them.
God is almighty. He could stop the war tomorrow, but if He did, He would be a dictator. I used to wonder why He and the great saints didn’t prevent this war. The answer is that they would have had to use miracles to do so; and God is so great, He will not impose His will on us. Nor does He punish or take revenge on us. He wants to convert His children not by force, but by persuasion and love. War is made by man, not God, and it is meant to teach us a lesson- the lesson of our innate godliness. But what a terrible way to learn this truth! God knows that we will never be destroyed, for we are immortal souls; but the lesson will never be learned by us unless we suffer. And is not God suffering also? Do you think He doesn’t want us to be happy? He permits us to suffer from evil ways only that we might learn that the path to follow is the way of the good.
Extract from the book “The Divine Romance” by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda.
