GURU

Vefútgáfa  |  Uppfæra stillingar  |  Afskrá Líka við Tísta Áframsenda http://livingsolitude333.blogspot.com THE INNER MAHABHARAT .... Don't love yourself, love your Self. Posted by Hans Dholakia on 15 February, 2013 THE INNER MAHABHARAT .... Don't love yourself, love your Self. In these few words, I am not sharing a pun, intended or unintended, I wish to humbly share a great secret of true spiritual transformation. Until Self-realization, when we say 'yourself' or 'myself', we are referring to the narrow ego. Before we begin the inner journey, we are all too egoistic. In fact, the whole trouble in the universe is that people love their own ego in the form of wonted habits, ideas, people and things etc. with great attachment. Attachment eventually breeds resentment, its natural opposite in the world of dualities. We all love ourselves too much - giving ourselves our favorite food, clothes etc. We like to be praised, even flattered. We like to be considered better than others, and even in close relationships, we try to brow-beat one another. To tell such a person, 'love yourself' will be disastrous. 'Love your Self' has altogether different meaning. Your little self is ego, the body-identified and body-limited egoistic self-awareness. But Self stands for the soul - the image of God in you, your essential core. Ego is peusdo-soul that has usurped the rightful kingdom of our soul. In the masterly book, 'God Talks With Arjuna' by my Guru Sri Paramahansa Yogananda (who also authored the globally-revered spiritual classic 'Autobiography of a Yogi') explains that it is our blind sensory mind, manas, who is Dhritrashtra, literally 'Dhrit' meaning possess, and 'rashtra' meaning land. This vast land, the Indraprastha of our consciousness, is besieged by the sensory mind - blind as it is with attachments and aversions, ego and ignorance, and the resultant fear of death (the 5 'kleshas' of Avidya-Asmita-Raga-Dwesha and Abhinivesha). This field actually belongs to the Pandavas, where Yudhishthira is Calmness, and Arjuna is Self-Control. Nakul and Sahdeva are Yama-Niyama and Bhima is life-force control or Pranayama. In this unique commentary on the Gita, every character of the Mahabharat story is revealed as an inner psychological tendency. But this field is wrongly confiscated from the Pandavas by their cousins, the Kauravas, sons of the blind sensory Mind where Duryodhana is Kama, Dushasan is anger, and so on. Each of us on the spiritual path is in this inner psychological battle, a battle that my Master says, is worth winning, a battle that everyone must eventually win. Like Arjuna, each seeker-devotee has doubts. We relinquish the Gandiva of our dutiful actions so often - dismayed by conflicts of daily life which are actually caused by strong likes and dislikes, by attachments and aversions. And like Arjuna, we try to rationalize our wonted habits and attachments with false reasoning. 'How can I live with that, how can I live without that', etc. We make pious-looking but deceptive arguments to escape from needful but unpleasant dutiful actions, so as to indulge in needless, even harmful, but pleasant activities. Sanjay is introspection. Until we dispassionately introspect everyday, we don't progress. We keep imagining what we are, fearing to confront who we actually are. The soul is Lord Krishna, the immutable spark of Spirit within each of us. The Guru too is a pure human manifestation of Lord Krishna, or Universal Christ Consciousness. He is humanly divine and divinely human, so that we can relate to Divinity through him. Many people question, 'Why do I need a Guru ? Lord Shiva is my Guru', etc. Or they may misinterpret the scriptural injunction that every soul is fully divine, so in the final analysis, you alone are your Guru. We cannot bypass the spiritual hurdles, we must encounter and face them. Intellectual imagination of our latent divinity can be deceptive ; we must 'realize' that divinity, and right conduct even in darkness, even when no one is watching, is the sure test. How can we be our own Guru if we are not even our own good teacher ? Mastering oneself is the secret, we must free ourselves from ourselves, by our Self. How many times we excuse our faults but criticize others unkindly for the same faults in them ? How many times we are greedy, angry, hateful or lustful ? How can such ignorant self of ego be one's own Guru ? Indeed, a true Guru introduces you to your own innate divinity. A Guru appears when the disciple is ready, and disappears as a separate entity, merging with your own Self, when you are liberated in God. Love your Self. Love your soul, the ever-living God in your bodily temple. To love your soul, you must know it first. meditation is that process of knowing your Self. The Self is so loveable, so pure, so sweet that once you know it, you will naturally, effortlessly fall - nay rise - in love with it. Right living, right actions and daily devotional meditation together make the only way to know and love the Self. Once you love your Self, you love all beings and things because the Self is Divine and the Divine is everywhere - omnipresent. Then you see all in your Self and your Self in all. Such joy than implodes within you, such peace reigns within, that outer conditions don't matter any more. Why and how do you think Christ on the cross, amidst such physical agony and such humiliation, could still love and joyfully pray for his tormentors ? He saw his Self in all, behind their ignorant actions, he saw their innate divinity. Lord Krishna says in the Gita (6/22) : Yam labdhwa cha aparam labham .. gurunamapi vichalyate. 'And having obtained which (joy of Self-knowledge and Self-love) the aspirant does not reckon any other gain as greater than that, and established in which consciousness, he is not shaken even by the heaviest of sorrows' ; How do you think a mother loves a baby who has all messed up herself with her own human waste ? The mother sees her most adorable child behind that messy appearance. Some relevant sayings from my masters : Introspection : One secret of progress is self-analysis. Introspection is a mirror in which to see recesses of your mind that otherwise would remain hidden from you. Diagnose your failures and sort out your good and bad tendencies. Analyze what you are, what you wish to become, and what shortcomings are impeding you. -Paramahansa Yogananda, "Law of Success" If you find that every day you are becoming either touchy, finicky, or gossipy, then you know that you are going backward. The best test is to analyze yourself and find out whether you are happier today than you were yesterday. If you feel that you are happier today, then you are progressing; and this feeling of happiness must continue. --Paramahansa Yogananda Inner Renunciation It is all right to enjoy life; the secret of happiness is not to become attached to anything. Enjoy the smell of the flower, but see God in it. I have kept the consciousness of the senses only that in using them I may always perceive and think of God. "Mine eyes were made to behold Thy beauty everywhere. My ears were made to hear Thine omnipresent voice." That is Yoga, union with God. It is not necessary to go to the forest to find Him. Worldly habits will hold us fast wherever we may be until we free ourselves from them. The yogi learns to find God in the cave of his heart. Wherever he goes, he carries with him the blissful consciousness of God's presence. -- Paramahansa Yogananda, "Man's Eternal Quest" Compassion Compassion toward all beings (daya) is necessary for divine realization, for God Himself is overflowing with this quality. Those with a tender heart can put themselves in the place of others, feel their suffering, and try to alleviate it. --Paramahansa Yogananda, "God Talks With Arjuna--The Bhagavad Gita" Discrimination Remember that finding God will mean the funeral of all sorrows. --Swami Sri Yukteswar (the grand-master), in "Autobiography of a Yogi" Healing The body is a treacherous friend. Give it its due; no more. Pain and pleasure are transitory; endure all dualities with calmness, trying at the same time to remove yourself beyond their power. Imagination is the door through which disease as well as healing enters. Disbelieve in the reality of sickness even when you are ill ; an unrecognized visitor will flee. --Swami Sri Yukteswar, in "Autobiography of a Yogi" Perfection Meditate unceasingly, that you quickly behold yourself as the Infinite essence, free from every form of misery. Cease being a prisoner of the body; using the secret key of Kriya, learn to escape into Spirit. -- Shri Lahiri Mahasaya (great grand master), in "Autobiography of a Yogi" Through the use of the Kriya key, persons who cannot bring themselves to believe in the divinity of any man will behold at last the full divinity of their own selves. --Paramahansa Yogananda, "Autobiography of a Yogi" Balance Mahavatar Babaji to Lahiri Mahasaya: "The millions who are encumbered by family ties and heavy worldly duties will take new heart from you, a householder like themselves....A sweet new breath of divine hope will penetrate the arid hearts of worldly men. From your balanced life, they will understand that liberation is dependent on inner, rather than outer, renunciations.' --Mahavatar Babaji (the deathless grand grand Master), in "Autobiography of a Yogi". Breyta áskrift | Afskrá

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