At the End of the Day
What a rare privilege it is to sit in front of a perfect living Master and listen to his words of love, compassion and encouragement. Everyone who listens to the Master probably takes something different from his words, remembers something different and responds differently to him - the same words striking different chords within each one of us.
One remarkably reassuring phrase he often uses that strikes a particular chord is this: “At the end of the day, he will see you through.” This is often accompanied by either a look or a gesture upward, indicating that it is God our Father who will see us through at the end of the day.
“At the end of the day” can mean at the end of a 24-hour period or it can mean at the end of an episode of one’s life. It can also mean at the end of one’s whole life in this particular body. However we choose to interpret it, the promise made by a true Son of God is the same: The Lord will see us through everything, all the time. It reassures us that the Lord is with us at every step of our journey through life. It tells us that he knows exactly where we are and what we are encountering at any time; he is on our side; he will not allow us to flounder; he will help, guide and support us through every good and bad situation we may face. It means that he will personally lead us through the bad times, until we emerge from the darkness and enter into his glorious light.
This applies to every day and every situation in our lives - from the day of our initiation until the day we enter Sach Khand, the home of God, our heavenly Father. What comfort and reassurance is there to be found in this one sentence. We will go through nothing alone; no darkness will last forever and he will bring us home.
This is the Lord’s promise. What is our response to his promise? If the Lord is actively going to see us through, then do we have any active part to play in the unfolding of our days, or can we just sit back and relax, watch them unfold and leave all the work to the Lord?
Although the Master did not qualify his statement by saying: “The Lord will see you through, provided you have first done this or that,” he never fails to stress the need for our own effort. In the midst of his constant efforts to provide comfort to people asking questions based on deep anguish and real need, his replies always stress the importance of making our own effort. Our contribution must go hand in hand with the Lord’s gracious promise.
So at the ending of the day, the Lord will see us through. But at the end of the day - of each and every day - where are we? Where was our effort and what was our contribution? Every day on this path offers us so many opportunities to help the Lord see us through, as long as we are clear about our priorities and our goal, and as long as we are acting upon these constantly and consistently.
Whatever our goal, there are going to be many things we can do to work towards making a contribution and, in so doing, become as active a partner as is allowed to us by the Lord. Our goal may be to please the Master - which is probably the best goal of all, because if he is pleased with us, then what else do we need to achieve? In Living Meditation we read: “To keep our priorities in perspective it is imperative that we choose to live the life of a true disciple.”
The first thing we can do to live the life of a true disciple and make an active contribution is to follow the four vows we take at the time of initiation to the very best of our ability. No disciple should ever come to the end of the day without having done his or her absolute best with regard to fulfilling those vows. They are the cornerstone of our response to the Master’s love; they are our reply to his promise to see us through and take us home. Keeping these vows entails putting our best foot forward every day, no matter what the circumstances of that day may be.
There will be days, maybe even weeks or months that seem to flow by smoothly, with little drama or disturbance. But sometimes life seems like a series of hurricanes: no sooner have we survived one storm than the next one appears and smashes us around, playing havoc with our goals and priorities. It is, however, precisely the presence of these very goals and priorities that help us weather the storms. They become our anchors, and it is in the midst of these storms that we discover how strong or how weak our anchors are.
It is the storms of life that reveal to us the depth of our desire to please and obey the Master. They reveal to us how real our wish is to move in his direction and how firm our cornerstones are. The Lord will see us safely through all storms - of that there is absolutely no doubt - but we can also help ourselves in these times of trouble.
We can help ourselves by clinging ever harder to our vows, never neglecting our duty to do our meditation and by keeping our simran going throughout the day. This will help keep us pointed towards the Master and will please him, which means that we are still working towards our goal, even when conditions are least favourable.
The Lord’s wishes need to become paramount in our lives. If his home is our desired destination, then pleasing our host and living in his will makes good sense, and needs to become our top priority and ultimate goal. It is the Supreme Being, God our Father, who is in charge of us and who will, at the end of the day, see us through.