The vast majority of humans understand that the process of spiritual initiation consists of a certain esoteric rite, whose execution transfers the common person automatically to a new world, making him an initiate overnight. They confuse certain external techniques with the internal reality of each candidate for initiation.
Gandhi was visited one day by two men who asked him to initiate them spiritually. The great master of India accepted them in his meditative environment and soon ordered them to sweep the yard covered with falling leaves. After that, he sent one of the two candidates to peel potatoes for lunch, while the other was asked to cut wood to light the fire. One afternoon, he sent the two to a neighbouring village to do the cleaning in the toilets.
And these activities continued for several days.
The two beginners waited at any moment that Gandhi invited them, finally, to the expected ceremony of spiritual initiation; they hoped, perhaps, that they would enter with him into a mysteriously enlightened setting, impregnated with the perfume of incense and to the sounds of sacred melodies and magic formulas, giving them extraordinary powers.
But none of this happened!
He who expects to accomplish great things in his life perhaps waits his entire life without discovering anything great to accomplish. So, from waiting for extraordinary things fails to accomplish small and ordinary things - and this individual starts to think that his life was a complete failure...
In reality, nothing great exists in the objective world of quantities. A great thing exists only in the subjective world of qualities. To perform small duties of the day greatly are the only possibility of accomplishing a great thing, for every task is coloured, depending on the person who performs it. Every task itself is neutral, colourless, amorphous; it is neither good nor bad, ethically; is neither small nor great, because this choice is limited in the comprehension, intelligence, and vision of man facing the task hand.
All greatness or smallness is a product of the subject who practices the respective tasks or any act. The greatness or smallness is in the attitude, in the intention, in the internal quality of those who practice it. Sweeping the streets or splitting firewood is no small task than governing a country or educating people.
He who performs with the greatness of soul any task is great; he who does with littleness of soul, or unwillingly the same task is small-minded.
When the two candidates for initiation reluctantly did the mundane tasks Gandhi gave them, they did little; if they had done with love and enthusiasm these same tasks, they would have done something great.
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