"Don't let little things disturb you. Rise above them. Be big. Be generous. Leave the rest to me. And don't be concerned about it. I will do it. I have to - for the sake of the work!"

Then he embraced me, and was off!

Baba seems to be stressing the relativity of life these days, for no sooner have I thought of something that seems to be true, than he shows me that the opposite is also true! It is splendid, for it helps to overcome duality by balancing the pairs of opposites.

For example, I thought the other day that it was necessary for me now, before my approaching sadhana, to make a supreme effort to sweep away the vestiges of pride, austerity, impatience -- the "dragons" on my path to perfection. Before I had finished recording the thought, Baba had made it clear that no matter how supreme the effort, I could not possibly completely succeed alone. There were infinitely subtle forces at work within me, of which I was not even aware, and with which I could not cope unless He, the Supreme One, made me aware of them in the first place, and gave me the power to transcend them in the second place.

Make the effort -- yes -- but do not count on the personal will and personal power to succeed, and do not be concerned if personal effort fails. Place the burden where it belongs, on Him, and know that when the time is ripe He will do what needs to be done inevitably and without fail.

Like everything else in this relative existence, the above -- on the desire for change -- is relatively true and relatively untrue. It is true that the desire for change arises from and contributes to the thirst for sensation, producing the infinite distraction which ensnares us in its web. But there is also an equal and opposite force at work which has likewise to be overcome -- the desire for changelessness, which has its roots in the principle of inertia, its expression in the habits of thought and emotion and action which we so easily form and so grudgingly break, in its fruit in dullness.

Both distraction and dullness must be overcome, and an infinite, yet undisturbed awareness must replace them. To desire neither change nor changelessness, but to accept gracefully and enjoy gladly whatever God may send us, is a step in that direction.

Baba, who arrived two nights ago, gave us a long and valuable talk yesterday morning on eliminating desire, which he termed the cause of all suffering. He also spoke of love and harmony, and, to develop these in and among us, gave us a new "mental exercise." For five minutes each day we are to sit alone, relaxed, and mentally to look within, dismissing every thought except "I am infinite," visualizing that infinitude as best we can.

I tried it, shortly after he had given it to us, and found myself remembering a profound experience which had come to me ten years ago, in which I saw and experienced the manifest aspect of God as an infinite expanse of pure light, with every individual manifestation contained, as light, within that light, all raying out from the same centre as far as their individual consciousness of union with God would permit. Now this light seemed again to become alive within me, extending infinitely as then, and containing everything, as then. And of course it brought with it unspeakable bliss.

Last night we were silent with Baba for half an hour, out on the earth under the stars. In these silences, begun the last time he was here, we try to merge with him while he does his universal work. When they are over, he asks us what we have experienced, if