Hari OM
In Gurudev's own words:
In order to perceive the insignificance of our self-asserting egoistic arrogance, we have to step away from the ego for a moment and in our detachment learn to observe it through the microscope of pure discrimination. Our permanent proximity to the ego has given our own ego-myth far greater importance than it deserves. Let us examine this more closely.
We all feel that we are irrevocably real and unquestionably substantial, as individuals in our own homes. My home is denoted by a number on the door among many such doors on the street; my street is a road or byroad off a main road; the main road is one of the many roads in the city; and the city is a mere spot on the map of the district.
The district, again, is a jot in the state; the state is a fraction of the country; the country is part of a continent; and many continents make up this globe, the world.
We know that the world is one of innumerable heavenly bodies that constitute our galaxy, each one separated from the others by billions and trillions of miles. There are millions of such galaxies in the universe. This total space, with all its many galaxies, is but an insignificant portion of the total Reality.
Therefore, in the context of this universe, what importance, significance, substantiality, or relevance can I claim for my numbered house? In this house, what space do I occupy?
There may be five rooms in the house, but all that I occupy at any given time is a fraction of a chair in one corner of one room! Yet, how stupidly arrogant and self-assertive I can be, as though besides myself there were nothing more superior, nothing more important. In reality, how microscopic is my structure and personality when compared with the Lord of lords, the supreme Reality, the all-pervading!
Having come to this misunderstanding that I am a tiny, limited body-mind-intellect equipment, conditioned by matter. The rediscovery of myself to be nothing other than the limitless, homogeneous mass of Consciousness, absolute and eternal, is the only remedy for curing the sorrows caused by my ignorance of my own real nature.
When we were little, my sister and I, while pretending to write letters to our distant cousins, wrote out our postal address in full detail; starting with the house number and going all the way to the Milky way. I'm not sure why we did it.
ReplyDeleteBut your post today reminded me of that memory.
Such a simple exercise to reacquaint with our real selves.
Thank you Yamini.