SPIRING FOR THE GOAL OF YOGA or union with God without your will being intact and without right actions is very difficult. Then you are trying to go forward while the horse is still tied up at the back of the cart. It is a contradiction, self-deception. That is why yoga proves to be so difficult. But when the will is sincere and actions are righteous, the third step is the easiest, because it is already self-existent. God is already present in us. Light is already present in us. What is difficult about it? Your “trying” to realize God is a fiction. Will it sincerely, act accordingly, and union is automatic. Then God’s grace blesses us.
      Your pattern of life is your own choice. I never impose any pattern on someone. But this idea is applicable within any life pattern. The cart may be red or gray or black. It may be large, small, wide, high, with a canopy or not, with creaking wheels or with ball bearings. Whichever design, measurements and features the cart may have does not affect the central idea of bringing the horse before it. Whether it can carry two passengers, four or ten does not alter the central idea. If we understand this basic, common sense Truth, then we just will it, go to the back of the cart, bring the horse in front, and tie it up. What is difficult about it, except if you are unwilling? Your dissipation of energy is due to your distracted will, divided among many, many matters. To gather back your will, start with relaxing your mind. You may have tried these things. Don’t try any more. Just relax. God will take care of us. You will see the truth when you do it. It is very simple.

      Blessings do not come if the will is weak and if actions are not righteous. So when you want to know—Where am I missing the point? Where am I slipping?—ask yourself: is my will intact? Are my actions in the right direction? And if you have done these two, wait patiently, not for a long time. God will pull you up. If we give Him our hand, He catches it. How do you raise your hand to Him? First you will it, then you raise your hand. If your hands are in your pockets, do you expect God to come and take your hands out of your pockets? Forcing anybody’s hand is not love-making. True love is mutual, openhearted, not forced. It has to be with your sincere will.
      When I said that we start by relaxing, that is because when you relax, in that calm and quiet attitude or state of mind, your will gets quite placid. Then it is invincible. This is not the same as proud determination. Such things as egotistical competition, proud determination and trying to assert fritter away and waste energy. Bring in sweet willingness. That is born when your mind is calm and quiet. In that relaxed attitude your will emerges as a supreme and infallible instrument. Then your actions will follow accordingly. This is focusing the idea into our lives.
      Do you think I am talking to you and you are listening? Actually it is something else that is moving and talking. It is Shakti, the Cosmic Mother, vibratory energy, Consciousness rolling down into words and manifesting for you in the way you are habituated to hear. The Consciousness rolls down as you will it; it is taking shape here and now. The body and everything is shaped and maintained by Shakti.