Right Priority

Wisdom Teachings
Right Living

According to the teachings of the Masters of Wisdom, the Manu, the planetary consciousness, decides where each of us is born and what type of evolution we are to take further. According to this, we have to live our daily mundane life. We have to satisfy our physical body and senses; our appetites of hunger, thirst and sex; our necessities of rest and sleep; our needs of work; our routine, programme and planning according to the order of our priority, according to the essentials and non-essentials.

We have to learn to decide what is our priority. Unless right priorities are set in order, there is no progress. Important aspects of life should be preferred to less important aspects. The lower should be subordinate to the higher, is the Law. Setting of this order of priority is the key to Hierarchical function and it must not be disturbed. When this order is disturbed, life is disturbed.

We generally hold onto many unnecessary things. If we care more for the taste of our food, we are spending too much time upon an unnecessary thing. If the Divine is our priority, the body should not be our priority. The body should be given some importance for it to sustain and support us in our activities but caring for the body should not become the priority in life.

If we are focused on relating to the Divine, unnecessary thoughts will not touch us. The divine thought is like fire which burns away all useless thoughts. So, relating to the Divine should be our priority at all times. We will find time for what is our priority. When meditation is a priority for us, we will automatically organize ourselves to find time for it. It is an excuse that we have to take care of children and work. Alice Bailey was a single parent; she had three children and was simultaneously receiving teachings from the Himalayas. All this is possible. Time management is an important task. We can do so many things - writing, touring, tending to our profession and family, groups - everything is possible with right priority.

Yes, often we tend to set wrong priorities in life. We do our job or profession and we receive remuneration. We try to get maximum remuneration with minimum effort and to extract maximum advantage from the society. The result is that competition is the key-note of life and it is taught in schools and universities. Competition leads to social tension and international conflicts. We live within our desires. We buy what we want; we do not buy according to needs, but according to our desires. We think that others do the same. A change in priorities is needed, and first and foremost, the change must begin within ourselves.

The most important focus and action is to connect to the Hierarchy; that is the key. Therefore, it is very important to regularly do the invocation of the Master and the morning and evening prayers. Through the energy of the Master we may enter into some particular work, and then the work and various other things become more important to us than prayer. However, we should choose to be uncompromising with the essential, i.e. the morning and evening invocation of the Master.

Master CVV, the Aquarian Master, promised that he takes care of the whole, the spiritual and the material, when we regularly link up with him. Many forget the essential, choosing other priorities and then loosing the spiritual focus. They think they are still connected, but they are not. This danger is more so with the seniors in the groups than with the juniors. The seniors think they have their position, but don't realize that the juniors are catching them up and are doing better.

Many people complained when Master CVV gave regulations to meditate at 6 o'clock in the morning and in the evening, saying that it is not possible. Why is it not possible? Because we are out of rhythm. If we are rhythmic and if we choose that as our priority, then regular rhythm will enable us to develop the needed skills. Only those who have rhythm have accomplished great acts.

People find time for sports, they find time to eat and drink tea. If our priority is to progress as a soul, even the apparent obstacles will not hinder us and things will be fine. If we have given priority to the rhythmic spiritual exercises, then everything else will be fine and fall into order - otherwise not.

There is something immutable in us that does not die and there are mutable things in us which do die. When we have a choice, we should learn to choose that which is permanent, knowing and saying, “I am now engaged in something better, something eternal. Everything else is temporary in comparison.”

Temporary programs are not as important as the one eternal program. The other things can wait. “What is temporary and what is eternal?” That is the one question we must ask ourselves. We might be invited to many social and family gatherings. In some functions, our presence might be necessary and in others, it might not be. We should differentiate between the two and only try to attend the former.

Karmic obligations always bind us. One way to discharge them is to devote ourselves to service and also to meditate, creating a new structure in our lives. Without restructuring our lives, we cannot achieve much. To restructure our lives, we need to meditate deeper, offer selfless service, and find time for regular prayer and meditation.

We need to restructure our entire time management. Time then expands if we have the will to restructure our lives. We find time to eat, because it is a great priority for us. If we give the highest priority to meditation, we would have the same continuity in our spiritual exercises as we have with food and the organizing of our daily life. It also helps meditation if we rhythmically structure time for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The most difficult part is continuity. Make continuity, consistency and daily rhythms a priority.

If we care too much for our shoes and boots and their polish, if we are too worried about our property, home and bank balances, we are wasting our time in non-essentials. No doubt we should be able to handle all these things properly, but once we begin to think of these things and attribute too much value to them, we begin to believe they are more valuable than ourselves. Then we are lost.

It means that if there is a failure in the examination this year, we have to appear for the same examination when it is offered again. In terms of reincarnation, it means in our next lifetime, we will face the same lesson. This is the essence of the teachings of the Masters of Wisdom. They never criticize us for the level of our values and choices. They never enter into discussion with anything. The Masters of Wisdom simply direct those who are ready. One-pointedness is the keynote to our success. This is true in spiritual matters also.

Even if we commit ourselves only a bit to the Plan of God, it is a big commitment. We are free to accept and enter into it, but once we have made the decision, we must be loyal to the commitment. The Plan is carried out by the knowers through eons, and into that work we enter as probationers. We need to conduct ourselves in the work with commitment. We grow according to the extent that we prioritize our commitment. Our personality life is to take a secondary position and the work of the Plan and the Hierarchy is to take a primary position, standing in priority to the personality life.

We are to mould our life in such a manner that we are consistently available for Hierarchical work. We cannot say, “Master, it is holiday time with my family” etc. Just as our breathing takes no holiday, there is no holiday in our spiritual work, unless the work grants holiday. In the work relating to the grand Plan there are holidays. “From work to refreshments and from refreshments to work” is the law. It functions according to the Law of Alternation.

All desires that are natural may be fulfilled, but they must be done so in moderation. If there is no moderation, we will have no time. We are to moderate all things relating to our lives - our economic, social, domestic and professional activities. Then we will find time to look for the light within and the light without. When this becomes the only priority and all other things are secondary, one is called an aspirant. This search cannot be done among many other things.

Sources used: K.P. Kumar: Nutrients for Discipleship. Div. seminar notes/ E. Krishnamacharya: The Masters of Wisdom. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam