HOW TO LEAD THE DIVINE LIFE

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

19. HOW TO LEAD THE DIVINE LIFE
The central theme of Gurudev’s gospel of divine life is that one need not leave home,
family, profession etc. in order to lead the divine life. Essentially, what has to be left is ahamkara,
the wrong idea that “I am the body, I am so and so, I am such and such,” attachment to the body,
selfishness, likes and dislikes.
This is what makes your life divine: eliminating undivine aspects that are part of the human
nature created by Brahma, and shining with your essential Divinity. This is the central task of the
divine life sadhana.
To make life divine requires an inner change of location, not an outer one. You shift your
consciousness from being centred in your body and mind with its thoughts, emotions, sentiments,
desires, imaginations and memories to a higher dimension, a different plane where the
consciousness always is aware, affirms and asserts: “aham atma nirakarah sarvavyapi
svabhavatah—I am the Atman, formless and all-pervading by nature.”
That is divine life. That is the central gospel of divine life. What you have to give up is:
aham and mama—I and mine, identification with the body, likes, dislikes and anger. The liberation
is from slavery to the senses, slavery to the desires that arise in the mind. You have to finish this
state of being enslaved by sense urges, enslaved by the mind and its countless sankalpas, vikalpas
(imaginations, doubts) and desires. To know that you are more than the body, that you are divine, is
divine life.
And to express this svarupa-avastha (natural state) constantly—day by day, from morning
till night—is to live the divine life. There is this inner transformation of your consciousness which
now seeks to express itself in your outer life. Your expression is no longer of a petty, small
individual personality complete with one’s personal likes and dislikes, prejudices, opinions and
views; but now the personality begins to express itself in a sublime and noble manner so that its
expressions are infilled with a divine quality—you think divinely, feel divinely, speak and act
divinely, and live your vyavahara in a divine manner.
Thus, the inner transformation brings about an outer transformation because it is no longer
the same person functioning, expressing and living; but it is an awakened awareness, a different
person. It is no longer a person identifying with a body, but a person now identifying with God. “I
am part of God. Divinity is my real nature. To be divine is natural to me. Therefore, to express this
Divinity is my spontaneous duty.” Thus thinking, one brings about a new life, a new vision, a new
feeling in everything that one is and everything that one does. This is a task you must do yourself.
The transformation is subjective and inner, and it is a transformation of the personality as well.

How this transformed consciousness can benefit the world around you is for you to work out
the details. But the principle is: Every movement and every action becomes the expression of your
Divinity. Every movement and every action becomes infilled with this new quality.
Be alert and be aware! Try to see whether all that you do is an expression of your Divinity,
your God-nature, which is perfect already. It is trying to be what you are! It is trying to live from a
different awareness and consciousness of yourself and to act upon a sublime higher level!