Question: Then if this prize is sure of attainment for everyone, why strive for it? It will come of itself.
Answer: Your striving and struggle are what bring you nearer and nearer to the Goal of Truth. Even though you fail ninety-nine times, if at last the hundredth effort brings to you the realized Jnani Guru, all your labor is amply repaid. For from that moment when you find the Guru, you will be pushed continuously towards the Goal of Truth though your Guru’s secret working and hidden powers. Hence it is said, “Strive on and on.”
Take, as an analogy, these sun rays falling in the center of Makan (Makan-e-khas, the staff quarters of the men mandali), which have penetrated through some opening in the wall. Compared to the greater space of the Makan which still lies in darkness, that portion illumined by the light of the rays is small, and the rays themselves are few.
Such is the condition of the people in this universe: the huge mass of humanity remains in the dark, ignorant of any real knowledge. Only a few can he counted among the knowers of inner knowledge (antar jnani), having, gleaned light from a Realized Person. These who possess inner knowledge can he compared to the rays (kiran) just mentioned -few in number, but even so, rays merely and not the Sun itself, which remains far, far above this earthly domain and altogether out of reach.
Real knowledge means journeying towards and becoming one with the Sun. From there, having attained That, one throws light. By comparison, to be like a sun ray is nothing. They are only rays, after all.
– “Meher Baba’s Tiffin lectures”, p187
16-July-1926; Meherabad