Similarly, I need not take into consideration the prestige and position of any individual, even if that work remains undone, because the result depends upon the will of God, and when once that is manifested one way or the other, there will again remain nothing else to be done by me or for me.
For me now, " Jaan per bani hai [It is a question of life or death]." But this expression does not even remotely express what is really at stake for me under the God-determined Step.
Suppose that someone who has leprosy from head to foot is declared to be incurable, and thus believes himself to be fast approaching an inevitable death. What else would he care about except the end itself, be it one way or the other? But then death is no end to anything, although people commit suicide and give up their lives because of frustration, out of despair, et cetera.
The following lines of Hafiz give some idea of what I am trying to convey to you:
The soul either reaches God,
Or must leave this body!1
Still, this is not quite what I want to say. To take another example, suppose I am suffering from physical disabilities and afflictions of a type that allow me to move very little, and yet I have decided to climb Mount Everest.
To stretch the simile to its utmost length, I might just as well say that I have to attain the zenith of strength at a time when I am at the zenith of weakness, in an impossibly short period — impossible in the sense that what could be achieved in four crores [40 million] of lives is to be achieved in four months! Yet all this gives only an incomplete idea of what is really at stake for me now.
The rest of those men invited from Hamirpur, Andhra and Madras arrived that evening. All were informed of the following from Baba:
Circulars were sent to all [those connected with me], but only you few have been invited to be present here. The rest were asked not to come. You have been called here to bear witness to the Declaration that I am going to make tomorrow before God. That does not mean that you will be required to sign or seal any papers. I simply want God to know that you all have been the witnesses to the Declaration.
Footnotes
- 1.Ya jan rasad ba janan/ Ya jan zetan barayad.