Higher influences are invisible. It needs courage and faith to verify their existence.

“God in his kindness to man, has placed a race of superior spirits above him to guide him.” – Plato

The lower self doubts the existence of higher influences and tries to pull us away. It is also very easy to drift away, because there are many distractions in life that look more real than higher influences. But the higher self has the patience and trust to see higher influences. It may seem like an abstract idea, but once we verify that higher influences are working with us, we can see it very clearly. They are always here, we just need to be aware and trusting enough to see them. 

All we need to do is create causes for them to work through us. Once we start believing in them and putting efforts in that direction, it becomes so much more clear what is to be done. It may seem difficult in the beginning, but we need to persist. It takes a lot of patience, and they may not work the way we want to. But we need to accept them on their terms. We need to surrender to higher influences; we need to kneel to them. We need to leave all we love for that which we love the most. And it does not always happen as we plan it. We cannot reject suffering or friction.

Some friction may seem like higher influences did not design it for us, but it is. No matter what suffering or friction we receive, we need to use it for awakening. They are not giving friction to us, they are giving friction for us. It may feel unjust, slow, and difficult, but they only give us things we can work with. Higher influences bend us. They do not break us. 

“He who throws himself at the Beloved’s feet will be rewarded with boundless pastures and eternal rest.” – Hafiz

Once we verify higher influences exist and things start working for us, we cannot just leave it to them. Though we are just mere human beings, we need to give our all to awakening. Payments are the only way to get something. And for something as rare and precious as this gift, we need to be ready to give everything. To get something real, we need to pay something real.

From the littlest of frictions to major suffering, we need to use everything to bring us to presence. Higher influences are not just involved in our major life events, they work through all the simple moments also. Small frictions, like spilling coffee on a nice outfit, not having enough salt in food, etc., we can use to transform and bring us to presence. Eventually, we also learn to create the right voluntary suffering. The more we work in their direction, the more we learn what we need to work on.

It is as simple as surrendering to their will and consistently working. 

“Do what you have to do.”  – Egyptian texts

Higher forces do not want to hurt us, but this is the nature of evolution. It is very difficult for the lower self to understand this, but the higher self knows this. Our divine part knows this and understands the purpose of everything that happens to us. We need to bravely follow them and be open to all experiences that come on the way. 

Major suffering only occurs at certain times in our life, like when we experience the death of someone we love. As painful as it may be, we need to use this shock for awakening and transformation. We have no control on what happens, but we can choose on how to work with what happens. And there is only one way to work with everything, Kneel.

“And this is how the gods declare their love,
Truth comes with pain.” – Aeschylus

In the end, there is no real purpose to human life other than serving higher influences.

Dhruvi Chavda practices the Fourth Way in India. For other articles of hers, see: https://fourthwaytoday.org/author/dhruvi-chavda/