Instrument of the Beloved

The Beloved takes many different forms

depending upon what may be needed

by someone who loves the Beloved.

When we love the Beloved we never know what gift we may end up getting. We accept the gift without judgment, without saying I liked the gift or I didn’t like the gift. We don’t know all the ramifications of the giftwe just accept it.

So why do we suffer? We all have different degrees of suffering. Sometimes it’s very difficult to get out of it until we get a little present. We might be all alone and suffering. Then somebody does the smallest thing, but at that time it is enormous for us. And we accept it.

That’s why, after we’ve come to satsang for a while, we start to see a lot of things. We start to see that we have a duty. We have a responsibility.

It’s not enough to say, “I love my Beloved.”

That is most beautiful but at the same time,

once in a while, we have to do some things

to help the Beloved.

It doesn’t matter if the outcome is not appreciated. I know we’ve done many things that are not appreciated by people. But the appreciation doesn’t matter. It truly doesn’t matter. It doesn’t even matter if no one says thank you. It happens many times that we can go out and scrape up everything we can to help somebody and then they get angry with us. They get upset because we helped them. It can happen that way.

But this reaction doesn’t mean we stop. It doesn’t mean we go inside a shell and never do these things. These things are not done for publicity. These things are not done for everybody to know about. They are things that we do and if nobody noticesno problem. We’re not in the advertising business. But a lot of people do things because they want to be noticed. They want credit. So there is that, too. But we have to become an instrument of the Beloved.

If we love the Beloved, we can’t help ourselves.

We become an instrument of That which we love

and we do the best that we can

whenever we can.

There will be many times when we can’t do anything. If we can’t, we don’tperiod. But it doesn’t mean that because we couldn’t do it, that all of a sudden we are now something less than we were before. It doesn’t mean that at all.

Dear Beloved,

Thank you for the gift of life

and for letting us be part

of this most awesome mystery.

Help us to be loving and to be kind.

Help us to forgive ourselves

for all the intimate details of this life of ours

that we think are not right.

Help us to be more caring and thoughtful of others.

And when the time comes

when we will be in a different place than we now know,

may we continue to love you

and to thank you for all the gifts we have.