Secret of Life-9

SELF ANALYSIS

Religion

Religion is something that should spring from you. It
cannot be imposed on you by scriptures or discourses
unless you yourself want to purify your personality.
Once you have the powerful intent then the Lord guides
you to the right spiritual master.

A bonsai tree is miniaturized because its roots are
cut to size. Similarly you can never grow if you don't
go to the roots of the truth. No discourse can make
you grow if you do not want to study the ultimate
truth. Whatever knowledge is acquired by you, you
have to test the same in your life and experience it
yourself. This is how you unfold the supreme truth
lying within you.

Do not follow the opinion of others. Do not believe
blindly what others say. Do not get carried away by
the views of others. Do not believe anybody just
because you like him. Discover truth for yourself.
Truth will hit you powerfully, only when you
experience it and have a strong conviction in it. You
will have conviction only if you believe and you will
believe only when you see for yourself and experience.
You will experience real and infinite joy if you do
it.

There is a thick veil of ignorance covering you, which
is called "maya" in Sanskrit. Vedantic knowledge
makes this veil thinner and thinner. You can pierce
this veil as you acquire more and more of vedantic
knowledge. There is this story of a prince
approaching Swami Rama tirtha and questioning him:”
Who is God? Where is he?" The dialogue goes as
follows:

Swami Rama Tirtha: "O Prince! Tell me who are you"
Prince : "Ashoka"
Swami: That is your name
Prince : Prince of Vijayanagaram
Swami: That is your status
Prince : Administrator of Vijayanagaram
Swami: That is your position
Prince : Man
Swami: That is your species
Prince : Am I this physical body
Swami: No. It belongs to you. It is your possession.
It changes.
Prince : Then, am I the mind? Or the intellect?
Swami: They are also changing. You eat, you digest,
you distribute the digested food, you entertain
thoughts. You are the infinite power. Examine it,
reflect over it, and investigate it. Meditate
over it.
Prince: O Swami! How silly had I been? I wanted to
realize God. The God is within me. It is my Atman.
It is my Supreme Self.

"There is so much good in the worst of us And so much
bad in the best of us That it does not behoove us to
speak about the rest of us."

Do not waste your energies analyzing others. Do not
pry into their lives. You don't have enough time in
your life to know about yourself. Spend your energies
to know about you. Do not engage in advising others.
Your business is your life. Look within yourself to
prosper and find peace. You take care of yourself.
The world will take care of itself.