If there is one characteristic that is common to all human beings, it is that we want to do what we want to do, and do not want to do what we don’t want to do. In its most refined and sattvic manifestation, this is not necessarily an unfavourable characteristic. For example, if with all our heart we want to do god’s will and want to avoid not doing it, this can be very beneficial to our spiritual life. Or, if we’re in a new situation, we will want to do what is appropriate and not want to do what is inappropriate; we are sensitive to our new situation and to the feelings of the people around us.

But, if we observe the vast majority of humanity, and usually ourselves included, the longer we’re in a particular situation, the more we begin to get our habits set in granite. Indeed, if we’re in a situation long enough it can be almost impossible to move us. We will insist upon doing what we want to do, and almost no force on earth can force us to do what we don’t want to do.

Is it possible to recognise this within ourselves, and is it further possible for us to see that this is the heart of our bondage? Here we are in an ashram seeking liberation: “I want to be free. The purpose of life is freedom,” and yet we’re totally bound, set in concrete to “I want to do this” and “I don’t want to do that.”

How can we break this bondage? How can we begin our liberation? First of all we have to see this trait within ourselves. Then we have to understand the importance of Gurudev’s instructions to adapt, adjust and accommodate. We have to recognise that what we’re seeking is not something outside—that we already are what we’re seeking. And it is these characteristics of wanting to do what we want to do and refusing to do what we don’t want to do that are preventing us from knowing the purity of who we really are. All our energy is going into doing what we want to do and to avoiding doing what we don’t want to do. Our energy is not being spent in resting in who we really are.

In reality we are beyond time and space. We were never born, and we shall never die. That is the fact of our existence right now. This is such a tremendous truth, it is so revolutionary, it is so different from our normal way of thinking that all our energies have to be concentrated on that realisation.

If our energies are being poured out protecting our position, avoiding and resisting being told to do something we don’t want to do or chasing things that we find pleasant to do, there can be no energy left whatsoever for seeking that silence within, that bliss within, because we’re totally tied up in outer experiences.

The greatest grace Gurudev can give us is the willingness, starting now, to adapt, adjust and accommodate!