Photo caption: Swami Dayananada Saraswaty with Prime Minister Narendra Modi
So often, we get caught in the mire of the EGO. Every day, we come across situations where we feel dejected that we have not been given the due credit for what we have achieved or worked for. Even if rewarded, it’s not easy to get contended to satiate the large build-up of our self-image. Happiness then gets so short lived. Once a certain appeasement is in the hands, then very soon, the next step towards further thirst and hunger for more is sought.
A true Sadhaka works towards the goal, tirelessly without aspiring the egoistic results, says the Bhagwad Gita – ‘Do your best and leave the Rest. Your duty is to give the ‘Push’ but to ‘Move’ is MINE’ says Krishna. If work is rendered in the form of service, it will ideally produce lasting positive results for a sea of humanity. Individual requirements will certainly be satiated as well, within this large spectrum of value-based actions.
One should remember that- Although, graced by free will, I have the power to choose my actions, yet I have no power over the result of the chosen action. This result anticipated can never be more than a probability among possibilities. It is not produced by me. It occurs both as the product of materials that “I have not” created as well as the many other circumstances, both past and present, known and unknown, which must operate in willingness and in concert for it, to occur. Isn’t this worth giving a thought?
Pride and ego, when examined, become so silly. Humility cannot be actually considered a great virtue. It is just a natural intelligence in existence. Humility is simply understanding of the world, including myself, because I am part of the world, just as everyone and everything. When I understand this, I will be neither proud nor will I be self-condemning. In fact, self-condemnation also is an expression of the ego. Try to be cleansed by the understanding that there is no locus for pride or condemnation other than the mind and its vagrant thought process.
A personal credit for anything is irrelevant and cannot be substantiated. One could simply enjoy the world as a field for the joy of work, discovery of knowledge and realisation of the spirit, without egotism. Ego and pride are born out of ignorance of the relationship of the individualized sense of I, Me and Mine with the world!
The following excerpted from-Value of Values, by the prolific illluminary Guru, Swami Dayananada Saraswaty who merged with Chit Akasa, the eternal space of Consciousness of the ever-dancing Nataraja, few years ago.
“If my strong skilful arm throws the winning pass in the final seconds of an American football game, the material and the circumstantial factors that come together, to produce this, are too many for the final result to be a matter for personal pride. I am neither the creator of the football itself nor of my athletic body. Many people and experiences contributed to the development of the skill in the arm that threw the ball. I am also not responsible for the clearing of the rainstorm so that the game did not have to be canceled, nor for the sharp earth tremor that occurred 60 seconds after my pass, since a minute earlier, my pass would have been spoiled. Nor can I claim credit for my colleague for who caught the pass to convert the possibility into the winning points”.
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