- When the ego vanishes, all troubles cease. You may reason a thousand times, but the ego does not disappear. For you and me, it is good to cherish the ‘I’ of a devotee of God.
- The very ego of man is maya. This egotism has veiled everything. ‘All troubles cease when “I-ness” dies.’ If by the grace of God a man realizes, ‘I am not the doer,’ he becomes a jivanmukta. Then he has nothing to fear.
- Money is also a great upadhi. As soon as money comes to a man, he becomes so different – he is no longer the same man.
- A frog had a rupee which he kept in a hole. One day an elephant walked over the hole. Rushing out angrily, the frog raised its foot at the elephant and cried, ‘How dare you walk over me!’ Such is the pride money breeds!
- The ‘I’ that makes one worldly and attaches one to ‘lust and greed’ is the ‘rascal I.’ Because of it, the individual soul and the Atman appear apart. If a stick is put on water, the water appears to be divided into two. In reality the water is one, but it appears to be two because of the stick. ‘I-ness’ is the stick. Remove the stick and the water will become one as before.
- If ‘I’ does not go, let the rascal remain as the ‘servant-I’: ‘O Lord, You are my Master, I am Your servant.’ Live with this attitude. ‘I am the servant,’ ‘I am the devotee’ – there is no harm in this kind of ‘I-ness.’ Sweetmeats cause acidity in the stomach. But sugar candy is not counted among sweetmeats.
- It’s like drawing a line on the surface of water without placing a bamboo stick on it. You find that the water has been divided into two parts – but this line does not last. The feeling of the ‘servant-I’ or the ‘I of a devotee’ or the ‘I of a child’ is only like a line drawn on water.
- People are proud of wealth, possessions, property, honour, rank, and so on. But these last for only a few days; nothing will accompany you at death.
- You shouldn’t be proud of your money. If you think you’re wealthy, another is wealthier than you, and still others wealthier than he.
- There is no harm in the ego of a child. A five-year-old child says, ‘I, I,’ but that ego doesn’t harm anybody. Iron becomes gold by touching the philosopher’s stone. An iron sword becomes a sword of gold. It keeps the shape of a sword, but can’t hurt anybody. You can’t cut or kill with a sword made of gold.
- Krishna spoke to Arjuna, ‘Brother, listen. If a person has even one of the eight occult powers, he cannot attain Me.’ Because with occult power comes pride, and when there is even a trace of pride, a person cannot reach God.
- Pride is characteristic of the tamoguna and comes from ignorance. It becomes a veil through which one cannot see God. All troubles cease when the ego vanishes.
- Whether a judge or anybody else – all this is for two days only. So give up pride and ego.
- Only the person who has no pride can attain knowledge. Rainwater flows down from a higher level; it stands at a lower level.
- As long as you have egotism, you cannot gain knowledge. You also can’t attain liberation. You will have to come again and again to this world. A calf bellows ‘hamba hamba’ (‘I, I’), so it has to undergo so much suffering!
- God is the inner controller. Pray to Him longingly with a pure mind. He will make you understand everything. Give up egotism and take refuge in Him. You will get everything.
- And then there is the ego of an old man. Old people have a number of bonds such as caste, pride, shame, contempt, fear, worldliness, calculation, and deceit. If he has any grudge or ill will toward someone, he can’t get rid of it easily – perhaps even as long as he is alive. And then there are pride of learning and the pride of wealth. An old man’s ‘I’ is an ‘unripe I.’
- A few people cannot gain spiritual wisdom. People who have the ‘I of learning,’ the ‘I of knowledge,’ and the ‘I of wealth’ do not attain spiritual knowledge.
- I say, ‘Mother, I am a machine, You are the operator; I am the house, You are the indweller; I am the chariot, You are the charioteer; I do what You make me do; I speak as You make me speak; I move as You make me move. Not I, not I. You, only You.’ She is ever victorious. I am merely an instrument.
- As long as one retains one’s I-ness, one is ignorant. As long as egoism persists, there is no liberation.
- ‘I’ and ‘mine’ constitute ignorance. If you think about it deeply, you will find that what you call ‘I’ is none other than the Atman. Think about it. Are you the body? Are you bones, or flesh, or something else? You will conclude that you are none of these.
- Do you know how difficult it is to give up vanity? You may think you are not prey to vanity, but it enters in no time from somewhere.
- Even when the goat’s head is severed, its limbs continue to shake. Suppose you have a fearful dream. After you wake up, even quite wide-awake, you still have palpitations of the heart. Vanity is just like this. Even if you forcibly push it away, it returns.
- Krishna said to Arjuna: Brother, if you wish to attain Me, even one of the eight occult powers will obstruct your reaching Me.
- The fact is that one becomes proud if one possesses occult powers. And this makes one forget the Lord.
- Do you know what it is to be proud? Say, there is a high mound. You will see that it cannot hold rainwater; the rainwater just runs off. On the other hand, low land holds water. It helps plants to germinate and grow into trees. The trees later bear fruits.
- People read a little of the Gita, or the Bhagavata, or the Vedanta and conclude that they have understood everything. An ant went to a mound of sugar. One grain of sugar filled its stomach. It took another grain in its mouth and returned home, saying to itself, “I shall bring the whole mound next time.”
- You may reason a thousand times, but the ego cannot be shaken off. The ego is like a water jar and Brahman is the shoreless ocean in which the water jar is merged. There is water inside the water jar as well as outside – all water everywhere. The water jar that you cannot shake off is the self or ego of the devotee. As long as there is the water jar [or ego] there are both I and You.
- In the age of Kali, life is dependent on food and one cannot rid oneself of body-consciousness. It’s not right in this state of mind to say, ‘Soham.’ One attends to worldly affairs and then says, ‘I am Brahman’ – this is not right. They who cannot rid themselves of worldly matters, they who cannot free themselves from the idea of ‘I-ness’, should keep the I-ness of the ‘servant I,’ or the ‘devotee I’. One can also attain Him by the path of love and devotion for God.
- Why does the vijnani practice love and devotion to God? The answer is that one cannot get rid of I-ness. Though one’s ego disappears in the state of samadhi, it reappears. The ego of an ordinary man does not leave him. Cut the Ashwattha plant and the next day you will see it sprout again.
- Krishna said to Arjuna, ‘Friend, even if you attain one of the eight occult powers, you will add to your power – but you will not attain Me by it.’ Occult powers don’t free you from maya. Maya begets egotism. What low intelligence!
- One’s ‘I’ continues to persist, it does not leave. For instance, think of a limitless sheet of water. There is water all around – above, below, in front, behind, right and left. Within this sheet of water is a pot full of water. Though there is water outside and inside, the pot still remains – one’s ‘I’ is like this pot.
- An embodied being cannot see the Lord because of his ego. When the sky is overcast, one cannot see the sun. But because one cannot see the sun does not mean that there is no sun. The sun certainly exists.
- There is no harm in the ego of a child; on the contrary, it is beneficial. If you eat spinach greens you may fall ill, but Hinche leaves are good for the health. So hinche should not be considered in the same category as spinach greens. Sugar candy, similarly, should not to be thought of as an ordinary sweet. Sweets bring indigestion, but sugar candy does not produce phlegm.
- ‘All troubles cease when the ego dies’. As long as one retains the feeling of ‘I’, so long one is conscious of differentiation. Nobody can know, nobody can express by word of mouth, what remains after the ego vanishes. Only that which exists remains. One cannot tell by word of mouth that this much power is manifested in this man and the remainder in another.
- The harmful ego is the one that is attached to ‘lust and greed’. There is no harm in having the ‘I’ of a servant of the Lord. Nor is there any harm in a child’s ‘I’ – the child is not subject to any guna (qualities of nature). One moment he fights, and the next he loves. He builds a dollhouse with great care, and then suddenly tears it down.
- There is no harm in the servant’s ‘I’ or the child’s ‘I’. This ‘I’ is not to be counted as ego. Like sugar candy which, though sweet, is not like other sweets. While other sweets bring indigestion, sugar candy brings relief. Or like ‘Omkar’ – it is not like other sounds.
- It is with this ‘ego’ that one loves Sat-chitananda. The ego cannot be gotten rid of – so one must cling to the ‘I of a servant,’ or ‘I of a devotee.’ Otherwise, how can a man live? What love the gopis had!
- One does not see God because of one’s pride. This stump of a tree of egotism is barring the door of the Lord’s room. Unless one jumps over the stump, one cannot enter His room.
- When there is a festival in a house, the master of the house appoints a person to be in charge of the store-room. He does not enter it when the person in charge is present. But when the latter leaves the store-room, the master locks it and takes charge of it himself.
- Only a minor is given a guardian. When a child cannot safeguard his wealth and property, the king assumes the responsibility for it on his behalf. Unless one rids oneself of ego, the Lord does not take up one’s burdens and responsibilities.
- God is the only doer, we are just His instruments. That is why the jnani should also be free from ego. The author of Mahimastava was proud to have written this hymn. But his pride was crushed when Shiva’s bull bared his teeth. He saw that each one of its teeth was one of the sacred verses written by him. Do you know what this means? All sacred verses have existed since eternity – he had only brought them to light.
- Just try to find out what you are. Are you bones and flesh, or blood, or the intestines? Looking for ‘I’, you find ‘You’ – in other words, there is nothing inside you but God’s power.
- It is good to have the pride of being a devotee of God, or His son, or the servant of God. The ‘I’ which is attached to ‘lust and greed’ is the ‘unripe I’. One must renounce such an ego.
- As long as one entertains the feeling of I-consciousness, one cannot go beyond the phenomenal world. By negating the Relative while meditating, saying, ‘Not this, not this,’ one reaches the Absolute.
- Imagine an immense ocean of water. A jar is immersed in the ocean. The jar then has water inside and outside it. The water in the jar does not become one with the water outside until the jar is broken.
- It is certainly God who has kept this ‘I’ in us – it is His play, His lila. A king has four sons (who are all princes) but, playing with each other, one takes the role of a minister, another a police officer, and so forth. Though a son of a king, he plays the role of a police officer.