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We have become something, but have we become egoless?
We may have attained status and prestige, but have we attained the state of Divine Love?
We have traveled to distant places but have we crossed the chasm that separates us from our True Nature?
We have met many different people, but we remain indifferent to the Presence of Divine Bliss within our own souls. We do not know real happiness because our happiness is based on the waves of the mind that rise and fall.
The pleasures of the senses have taken their toll on the body, and now the indwelling spirit is ready to leave.
What is this drama? Who is its author? Who are the actors and who are the spectators? Who is seen and who is the witness? What is the point of all of this?
Some say this life is pointless and others say it is for enjoying. Some enjoy and others point the finger at those who enjoy and say “shame on you.”
Shame, shame, shame, sham, sham, sham. . . . Shame on those who make a sham of this life by wasting it in self-involvement. Who is self-involved? He and she are self-involved who live only for the petty pleasures of the mind and follow the dictates of their ego. The mind enjoys and the ego points the finger, and in the end both end up nowhere.
We did not come here just to end up nowhere. We came here to bring our mind to the divine and humble our ego. If we are not humble, we cannot realize our Essence. If we do not fill our mind with the Essence, we cannot become humble. We become humble when we reduce our ego to nothing. Then we realize the greatness of our own Essence and we experience that Essence everywhere. Wisdom will make the path clear.
Wisdom can only take root in a humble mind. The arrogant mind is like a barren field. The mind that is bereft of gratitude and is graceless is unfit for divine wisdom. To make the mind fit we need to remove the rocks (our images), clear the weeds (bad thinking habits), and irrigate the mind with the water of open-mindedness.
We have to remove the ego from the mind. We should have no place for ego in our mind, because as long as ego is there we can have no peace. Ego makes the mind agitated, annoyed, frustrated, restless, excited, bored, and depressed. These negative mental states create anger, disgust, and hatred. This cycle of violence invariably brings pain and suffering. This state of bondage can be overcome only with wisdom.
To receive wisdom we have to open our heart—we must become humble. Listening without changing is not humility. True humility means to listen to good advice and incorporate it into our lives. In fact, if we are not humble we cannot listen, because we will be busy listening to our ego. To get a grip on our ego we have to first recognize it.
We cannot simultaneously seek self-recognition and Self-Realization. If we are seeking self-recognition we are in our ego. If we are seeking Self-Realization, we will see our own ego and refuse to give it recognition. We can only learn this by sitting at the feet of a True Teacher.
A Teacher of Truth is a boon from God. To receive the guidance of a True Teacher is the highest blessing of this human life. To receive that blessing one must have the highest desire to be Liberated—to be totally free of ego. One can never become egoless just by pretending to be holy or spiritual. One becomes egoless only by becoming whole, and one becomes whole only by practicing wholeness for one’s whole life. In other words, spirituality is a way of life, it is not just a matter of reading a few books, listening to a few discourses, or going to church, or the temple, mosque, or synagogue.
Nor is it a matter of meeting someone and falling in love. Falling in love is a big hallucination; it is a fiction we create in our mind. We already have all the love in the entire Universe within us. The problem is, we zero-in on one little point in this vast Creation and feel cut off from the whole. This little point is our little ego, and when we focus on our little ego we feel like zero. We feel lonely and unhappy. Loneliness and unhappiness are born out of ego—they have nothing to do with our Real Nature.
Our True Self is already in the state of Divine Love. Our Real Self is already happy, full, and absolutely peaceful. It is only the mind that becomes agitated, insecure, and unhappy. The mind becomes this way only if it is involved with ego. Ego only becomes a problem when it is connected with the mind. When the mind-ego connection is broken, we feel connected with our Essence. To break the mind-ego connection we have to purify the mind with Wisdom.
When the mind is purified with Wisdom we understand the real purpose of this human existence. Our real goal is to experience our Essence. That’s what this drama of life is all about. This life is the expression of that Essence, and our purpose in life is to experience that Essence. There is no higher attainment than this.
This life is a drama, but it is not just for fun and entertainment. There is also a purpose to it. We should enjoy the journey, but we should also reach our destination. We can enjoy this life, but we also need to experience the Fountain of Inner Joy. The Fountain of Inner Joy is the ecstatic state of consciousness that springs forth from our connected state. When we are connected to our Essence we experience the highest state of Love, the greatest Joy, the Perfect Peace, and the Absolute Freedom.
We need to attain Enlightenment now; we can’t wait until we are old and worn out, because then it may be too late. When Death comes knocking at our door, we will not have time to put our house in order. Now is the time to work on ourselves. If we haven’t accomplished this work, we haven’t accomplished anything. This doesn’t mean we can run away from our duties and obligations. It means that we need to become Karma Yogis and do all actions in the spirit of renunciation, without any thought of ego. It is the ego-thought that causes us distress, annoyance, impatience, and frustration.
In all states of existence—whether having financial gain or loss, whether young or old, married or unmarried, appreciated or unappreciated, adored or ignored—we must remain in wisdom, service, and devotion. There is no other way to purify the mind and fulfill the purpose of our existence—to experience our Essence.
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