His gift to all of you should not be for you alone.

Bapak will now give some explanations in answer to the questions that have been put forward concerning the aims of Subud in human society.

Since Subud has come by the Will of God for the salvation of mankind - not only in the life of the spirit but also in the outer worldly life - it must follow that the working of Subud will result in the correction of faults in every part of man, from the lowest to the highest level in him.

From the spiritual point of view it is evident that in this present century the material forces have come to exercise a very powerful influence upon the inner self of man, and have entered deeply into him without his realising it. As a result of their contaminating presence in him, man now acts in ways that are really not in accordance with the Will of God. The influence of the material forces not only penetrates his flesh, blood and bones, but has gone deeper still, to become the inner content of man; so that although he believes all his actions to arise from his true self, in fact he has come to be no more than an instrument used by the lower forces which govern him; it is, therefore, not possible for him to correct the inner defects which dominate his entire nature by the use of his own mind, heart and desires, but only through the help of God.

Why should this help be sent from God only now and not before? The time for this has come because a situation has arisen which is not only dangerous but critical; a situation in which humanity has fallen under the influence of material forces instead of being guided by the true inner power of man, which is able to be aware of the Greatness of God. It is clear that this help has been sent from God in order to redeem man from the incessant action of the lower forces that have become dominant in him.

You, who are among the first to be rescued in this way, and who have received help from God within your selves, have been able to sense how God in His Greatness is working within each one of you. You are able to bear witness to the working of the Higher Power which is always there to guide you, so that you are able to feel and experience, to a greater or lesser degree, the change that is taking place in your own being.

Since Almighty God has bestowed this upon us, it must also be His Will that this should be given and transmitted to others, especially to those who have fallen gravely into error in their actions and who find themselves sorely oppressed by the influence of material forces. Therefore if we do not share this gift with others in our common human society, we commit a sin; because we do not act in the light of that which has been bestowed upon us.

Thus it should be clear that the transmission to other people of this infinite Life Force that you have received must be regarded as an unconditional obligation, willed by God for the accomplishment of an order in human society in which happiness and harmony may be established.

This Grace has been bestowed upon us while we are still leading a normal life; that is, while we are still living our ordinary life, making use of our thoughts, hearts and desires, living with our wives and children. This means that we are able to receive the gift of God, and to put it into practice, without any need to change our normal way of life in this world. Such is, indeed, the Will of God; that man should never forget his worship of Him, while yet fulfilling his obligations in daily life and to his family.

We are in no way able to understand how good and perfect is the guidance that God gives to us. God can accomplish that which is utterly beyond the understanding of men. Therefore we should have no doubt nor anxiety lest what we have received and what we undertake may lead us into the wrong path. Do not entertain such an attitude, for God is omniscient and all-wise, and able to bring about that which is beyond our human knowledge. Eventually you will be able to verify and bear witness to all this, when you have reached the level necessary to understand it.

This should make it clear that it is the Will of God that His gift to all of you should not be for you alone, but is given in order that it may also save other human beings who have not yet received it, so that they also can taste, feel and receive how God bestows His Grace, His Love and His Mercy on man.

To spread the wings of Subud does not mean that we influence others for our own benefit or in our own interests. On the contrary, it is for the benefit of those who will receive Subud, because thus they will have the means to correct themselves; to come to stability of mind, so that they cannot easily be shaken in their heart and feelings when anything in their environment becomes difficult or threatens to overwhelm them.

But we should not forget that, since man's inner feelings have come to be excessively dominated by the material forces, mankind in general will not believe in anything unless they can see tangible fruits to be gathered, such as health and ease in earning one's living. Therefore, our efforts to spread Subud and cause it to be accepted by mankind should be accompanied by the usual ways of helping people, such as providing homes for those in distress, for those who are unable to see the right way for themselves, for the care of old people and neglected children, for the establishment of schools and hospitals. All such undertakings would have the aim that those among ourselves who have gained experience in the latihan should work there, so that they might guide those of their fellow men who would be under their care in these places - the disabled, the distressed, the aged, and so on - to come in the end to the worship of God, and thus to an awareness of how to live their lives in the right way.

Our help to our fellow men should certainly not be confined to their external needs, but will, as time goes on, reach them inwardly, so that those helped in this way will be able to worship God on their own, just as you yourselves are doing.

Children who receive their education in a spiritual atmosphere - that is, influenced by teachers who practice the latihan kedjiwaan - will eventually become such men and women that they will not only be successful in earning a living and understand how to work, but they will also be able to use their knowledge and their wealth for the good of mankind in general living on this earth.

The love of God is utterly selfless: His love is utterly disinterested; He does not wish to increase His own wealth. If the nature of God is such, why then should His creatures - such as man, upon whom this Grace of Love has been bestowed - live selfishly, seek their own benefit, amass wealth and treasures for their own comfort and pleasure? Such behaviour, of course, does not accord with the pattern of God.

As you may remember, an example or symbol of this is given in the story of Jesus - how he received a loaf when he was on the mountain. And yet, because he knew and understood how great is God's love and mercy to the man who trusts in him, he prayed to God for that bread to be given to mankind, to the thousands of his followers waiting at the foot of the mountain. Although it was only a piece of bread, through God's mercy it could be justly distributed to give sufficient to all the people who were waiting.

The significance of this is that if a man gives to his neighbour with sincerity of heart and generosity of feeling, and with the guidance of God already working within him, that which is given by that man may return to him a thousandfold - a thousand, ten thousand, perhaps a millionfold.

But we should realise that this help should not be given at random; it should not come from merely remembering that we should love our fellow men. That is not the way to do it. We should be able to receive the reality of the necessity for help to be given to our fellow men, as is symbolised by the example of Jesus. The help was not given from his own sentiment of love, but because of its necessity; because men required that very help, and if it was not given, those people at the foot of the mountain would die.

The giving that really springs out of sincerity, through the Will of God, is not confined to one's own relatives, one's own friends, but should come from a spontaneous need to perform that action disinterestedly, even towards a person who is a perfect stranger to you. For if we give without awareness of the true nature of the giving, then, although it may take the form of helping others, yet they may not receive it with a truly grateful heart, and may in return curse the giver. Therefore in working to spread Subud, as well as in social work for human welfare - for society - we should never undertake anything in a haphazard way, merely from a desire to help our fellow men; but we should be aware and be able to receive indications from within before we undertake anything that we may wish to do or that may be wished for by Subud.

It is clear that helping other people is really important and praiseworthy, but it should never be done without a considered judgement of its consequences; for help given to other people, when it is misplaced, may become, on the contrary, poison to those being helped.

To conclude these explanations of the aims and purposes of the social work of Subud, Bapak says that we should bring help to whomsoever may need it and provide the necessary background for those who need it, so that those people may arrive at the right way of life as willed by God. For the nature of help given in this way is to guide people to the worship of God, thus enabling them to know and experience for themselves the way to live rightly both in this life and in the life hereafter.

We should not help people by halves. Help should begin from the bottom and go upwards, from the outside and go inwards; that is, it should proceed from a visible help that can be felt and perceived in the ordinary way to the receiving of the inner feeling, of the soul, so that the soul which was formerly not truly human - a low soul - may develop and become a real human soul.

This kind of help is similar to what you yourselves have received. It is awakened from below and goes upwards, or from the outside inwards, causing the regeneration of all your organs until they all become alive; which means that you will have real well-being and an awareness of how to work. For the gift from God that you have already received will lead you eventually to live rightly both the life of man on this earth and the life of a perfect human being in the world after death.

What is described above corresponds to what was demonstrated in the case of Jesus - that the achievement of a healthy soul and its ultimate perfection begins with improving physical health. Therefore, Jesus always worked for and healed the sick and rectified the hearts of men, because if that is not accomplished, the soul cannot be changed.

Thus it is clear that Subud, which you have received, accords with what was shown in the ministry of Jesus. The state of Subud is not far from the state of receiving of Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, and Abraham.

With regard to the placing of people implied in your question, Bapak agrees that we should not be in a hurry to draw them into the Subud enterprises of the future, and that they should remain in their usual work, because this Subud operates and proceeds without any hurry; we simply follow what we are receiving, and the way that God's Will guides us to act and work.

With sincerity in your worship of God and with the receiving that you find in the exercise - which will add to your inward strength and certainty - you will eventually come to the point where you have no doubts and are not easily affected by external influences, but, on the contrary, you will be influencing those who are near to you.

Bapak also agrees that none of this should be attempted in a hurry, but that we should rather wait until the right time has come, through receiving the Will of God within.

If we remember that the need of the world today is for proof of spiritual as well as worldly reality, then Subud is something which can give this evidence, even against their own will, to those who may come to admit that it really is true that within man there exists a hidden power, a power which is by no means easy for the mind to recognise and yet which is always present. It is that power which comes from Almighty God, which is created before man comes into being and which remains after he comes to an end.

It is evident - as you may yourselves already be aware - that nothing has spread so rapidly as Subud, even when we allow for the influence of the technical factors, such as aeroplanes and the rest. In two and a half years, it can be said that Subud has spread all over the world. This is a sign that Subud truly comes by the Will of God, so that the hearts of men are easily awakened to wish for and find their way to enter into Subud.

So swift a spread may not only cause consternation to some people in the future, but it already alarms some people now - so that there are those among them who feel that this Subud will really come, in the end, to influence mankind. Attitudes of this kind will always be encountered, for such is and always has been the habit of mankind, so we should not be dismayed or surprised by this.

But if man does not forget that the aim of all teachings is only God, then this Subud, which has but one aim and direction - that is, to God - should be accepted and vindicated, even commended. The same is true for us on our side; we should not try to prevent anyone from sincere worship, if their path, their way of worshipping God, really comes from His Will, so that it is all one common worship of humanity, leading in one direction - to God, Who is One for all the beings that He has created.

In the Subud exercises you may witness the fact that nothing that any of you receives goes against his own nature. A will receive no more and no less than accords with his A-ness; he will not be like B,C,D,E, and the rest. This clearly indicates that when what man receives really comes from Him Who is One for all His creatures, then he receives this without any incompatibility with what exists in his own being. It is therefore evident that Subud is neither a method nor a religion, but is in its nature the guidance of the One God received in the self of man; the guidance which originates from within, in the greatness and glory of God and for the welfare of man himself.

In conclusion, Subud is the unity and union of mankind in worship of the One God. It is not some Indonesian form of knowledge which is brought by Bapak to England, America, Europe and other countries. It is nothing of the kind, for it is God's Will that men should be awakened one by one, from within themselves, without any incompatibility with what is in them. Had it been an Indonesian form of knowledge which came here, that would mean that it would be followed by the influence of desires, passions and thought, whereas Subud is exactly the opposite. Each one of you who is now in Subud is educated by God Himself, through your own individuality, so that an English brother will come to know his real English human nature, not Indonesian, and an American brother will come to know his true American nature, and those in Indonesia will also come to know their real Indonesian human nature - so that each one of you will come to know all that concerns your real self. A will know his A-hood. B his B-hood. In this way you will really be aware of "I". It is for this reason that "I" is written in English with a capitol letter; it indicates that "I" is a special directive for everything. But most people use the "I" merely for following in the footsteps of another, and not in such a way that "I" has its own insight.

Bapak will speak a little concerning money - as to how money can be raised for the requirements and needs of our work for human welfare in the world. Bapak hopes you will undertake this by means of various enterprises according to your own skills, provided that you are not influenced by money, but can influence it; because, if you come under its influence when there is a lot of money to be administered, your thoughts will turn round and round. But if it is you who influences it, then, however much there may be, you will know how to use it according to the Will of God.

As to the ways and means of how that is to be done, Bapak leaves all that to your discretion, to those of you who may be in this part of the work; for you may be more expert in its worldly aspects than is Bapak.

This is the end of Bapak's explanations this morning in answer to what you have asked.

Thank you.