Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.” He didn’t mean earthly stuff, he meant much more.
Thankfully, there are several first ways to seek that divine realm. We know about prayer and meditation. At least we know that, along with devotion, they’re the first things we’re told to put first. But we can also apply them to our practice of everything else, even our menial tasks and mundane routines.
Seeking first the kingdom of God is less about behavior than it is about a consciousness. It doesn’t require hours of formal sadhana, but it does require taking God with you wherever it’s your karma to be. There’s a subtlety to that that we express in qualities such as love, kindness, generosity, self-offering, and a readiness to answer the call of need when and where we are called.
Swami Kriyananda wrote, “As above, so below, for that which works best on one level of life is often the best guide to what will work best on every other.”
To illustrate, I often think of a four-word reminder that was the motto of my friend Bill Grady, also known as Premdas. “Look for the good,” he would say.
What could be simpler or more profound. Look for the good and see God’s presence in all. Is there a better “first” than that?
In the course of our lives, challenges arise that in some cases test us severely, and at Spiritual Renewal Week this past summer, Shurjo gave an exceptional talk with this in mind. He told a number of stories whose conclusion was not a conclusion, because nothing ever really is. What comes next? “We’ll see,” he reminded us.
Is it a terrible blow if a broken leg keeps a runner out of a gold medal race? We’ll see. Maybe it keeps him out of being called to fight in a war in which countless others will die. Or conversely, we’ll see if someone’s good fortune in winning the lottery turns out to be financially or spiritually ruinous.
First things first also includes the practice of humility, the simple recognition that God is the Doer. God acts through instruments, the humblest ones especially, because humility helps to overcome our sense of “I” and “mine.” We suffer in this world only when our sense of possessiveness intrudes, because what we want or call our own is mortal and must eventually be taken from us.
Swami Kriyananda emphasized first things first in his song The Secret of Laughter. “Sing when the sun shines, sing when the rain falls, sing when your road seems strange. In a tempest, seize the lightning flash and ride the winds of change.”
Seeking first the kingdom of God has no “We’ll see” to regret or fear. It takes us beyond the duality and disappointments of outward activity, into the inner sanctum of peace and calmness, and into its gathering bliss. What of this world could be better than that?