The responsibility for awakening all our endeavours to act is vested first of all in the external. From many directions, in different ways, it makes us alert and active.It will awaken, not overwhelm us, this was the understanding. We will awaken for experiencing our own authority consciously, not for bearing the burden of slavery.
The King’s son has been put into the hands of the master. The master will drive away ignorance and laziness by teaching and moulding him to make him fit for holding full charge of the kingdom- this was the understanding with him. That the king is no one’s slave, it is this learning that is the acme of all his education.
But often the master so bewilders his student in many ways, entangles him in the ignorant habit of total dependence only on the master, that on growing up he sits on the throne but in name it is that very master who rules over the kingdom.
Similarly, when the external extends far beyond imparting education, when it seeks to overwhelm us, then the option of cutting thorough its net by dismissing it altogether is the way of salvation.
Desire is the power by which the external draws our endeavours towards the outside. This desire makes us follow the multifarious in the external. Whatever presents itself to us at any time is what enchants our minds. In this way our mind gets dispersed among the many. This is the natural means of getting to know the many at first.
If this desire does not stop at the proper place, if the very intensity of this desire assumes the greatest importance in life then our life is not able to discard the ignorant condition of blind attachment. We are unable to experience and prove our own authority. It is the external that remains the master; gaining any sort of authority becomes impossible for us. It is the immediate lack and present attraction that harasses us by making us go round and round from one pettiness to another. In such a situation man is unable to build up anything permanent.
Where does this desire reach and stop? In will. As the goal of desire is external things, so is the aim of will the inner intentions. Intention is something internal. Will does not permit our desire to roam the path of the external randomly. It binds down all the restless desires around some internal intention.
Then what happens? All those desires, which used to roam outside at the call of different masters rest quietly within under a single lord's control. From many they turn towards one. Wealth(need not to be money) has to be created-if this intention is kept within the mind, then it will not do to allow our desires to roam around as they will. Many types of greed have to be restrained, many attractions of luxury have to be discarded, constant vigil has to be maintained lest any external thing beguiles our desire away from pursuing this aim.
However, if it is desire which is more intense than our will, if it does not want to obey the goal, then at once the authority of the external increases and reduces the authority of the internal and destroys the goal. Then man's work of creation does not progress. When desire spills over its inner banks, it destroys everything.
Where the power of will is strong, where authority is well established within, there man, avoiding the attraction of the tamasic inertia, gains the excellence of the rajasic-disciplined action. There man gradually develops in knowledge, possessions, and prowess.
However, just as the objects of desire are varied in the external world, similarly, the objects of will, too, are not one or two in the inner world. There is no count of how many intentions arise in the mind. The will for knowledge, will for wealth, will for fame and so on, everyone wants to assume mastery itself. The chaotic disorder of that will is no less than the disorder of desire.
Besides that another thing is noticed. When, obeying desire, I had made the thousand kings of the external my master, and then the available wages did not fill the stomach. That is why man has repeatedly complained that the servitude of desire is an extremely painful slavery. The food that I secure from this only increases hunger and, dragging me around in the wake of a thousand demands, it does not permit me to get peace anywhere.
Again, obedient to will, when I run after each individual internal intention, then, too, many a time I get paid in false currency. Tiredness and depression and doubt come. Constantly there is need for the liquor of excitement, and there is lack of peace too. As desire makes us go round in the confusion of the external., similarly will harasses us in the confusion of the internal. Ultimately, while paying the wages, it escapes by cheating us.
Therefore, as it is man's innermost need to unite all the desires under the governance of the will, and if that cannot be done he cannot enjoy any success, similarly bringing the various wills under the governance of some ruler is the subject of his fundamental prayer. If this is not done, he cannot live. when will gather the inner armies to defeat the external enemy, in the absence of a leader it faces death at the hands of those same unruly armies. A kingdom ruled by an army is undoubtedly better than a kingdom overrun by brigands, but even that is not a happy state. In the tamasic there is the dominance of desires, in the rajasic the dominance of power. Here it is martial rule.
But the king needs a kingdom. When do we experience the supreme goodness of that monarchy? When one harmonise all my intentions with the world-will. It is that will which is the single intention of the world: the will for welfare. That is not only my wish, not only your wish that is the fundamental and eternal will of the universe. That Lord of all, in that one Lord's mighty empire when one marshal the armies of my will, that is when they stand in the right place. Then renunciation does not harm, in forgiveness there is no loss of prowess, in service there is no slavery. Then danger does not terrify, chastisement cannot punish, death abandons horror. One day everyone had seized hold of me. Ultimately when one found the King, then one found everyone. The world from which I had retreated into my inner fort for succour, depending on that same world one came out fearlessly. There everyone acknowledged the king's servant respectfully.
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