IT IS AN ILLUSION TO REGARD OURSELVES AS SEPARATE FROM DIVINITY
It is an illusion to regard ourselves as separate from Divinity. Through meditation, through the things that happen within yourself, you start to know a power more significant than the gross little ego. For the ego is only an idea. One has to go beyond that idea.
Do not try to destroy the ego; in attempting to destroy it, you are strengthening it.
But expand it – stretch it. And in this very stretching, greater and greater clarity comes. And how do you stretch it? By meditation and spiritual practices. It is so, so simple.
It is so simple because it is not far from you. There is nowhere to go to seek. It is just there, here, all the time. Closer to you than your very heartbeat, for it is the cause of your heartbeat. Do you see how close it is? And when man can reach that perspective, then everything changes.
DO NOT CHANGE THE WORLD; MAN CHANGE THYSELF
Do not change the world. I do not want to change the world, but I ask a man to change himself; that is all. And the world will take care of itself. My interpretation of the world can only be judgmental, according to my mind.
You could look at an object, and it could be very ugly. Some years later, it can seem very beautiful when you become more aware of that object. The object has not changed; you have changed; your perspective has changed. You have removed the rose-coloured or yellow glasses that made everything seem so yellow and jaundiced. So, the saying “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” is true. The simple sayings are so true – but we fail to understand.
We fail to understand because we are using only the processes of the ever-changing mind; the various combinations of these brain cells in this three-and-a-half pound thing inside here, forever changing there. Brain cells destroy, recreate, preserve, and go through this perpetual motion. However, to have a real understanding is to find that stillness within oneself, which can be gained through meditation. That stillness makes you know where you find the peace that passes all understanding. I will find peace with you if I am at peace within myself. But if I try to understand you, I will fail because my view of you will only be partial. It will be partial and not impartial. You see.
I am looking at you through my eyes, and if my eyes are jaundiced, I will see yellow. The fault is never in the object. The fault is in the subject. Someone does me down in some way or another; someone blasphemes me – who is blaspheming who? Not me. It is just a reflection of your mind. Is it not so in daily relationships, in our family relationships? If you blame your wife or husband or children or boss or whatever for a specific thing happening, no, you are the cause of it. You are responsible for it. There is no one else that could assume your responsibility. Not even your guru. He cannot.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang US 1980 – 21
