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🌺 ASHTAVAKRA GITA🌺
🌿Chapter - 8🌿
"Without Conflict Rejoice In The Self"
🌱 Day - 43 🌱
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A king and a queen were disciples of Buddha. They meditated very sincerely every day, and they attained mukti. One day while sitting in the royal garden, the queen said to the king, 'You know, I only love myself. I don't even love you, I only love myself.' And the King got down and prostrated in front of her. He felt so happy that the queen had acknowledged her true realization that she loved only herself and nothing else. If it was some other king, he would have thrown get out of the palace and imprisoned her. But the King did not do that. He was so happy to hear that. He replied, that he, too, loved only himself. He loved others and other things because they were his. He loved her because she was his queen. That he loved the kingdom because it was his. He loved his children because they were his. Because of himself, he loved himself, and whatever was attached to him.
Even if you love the Guru, it's because he is your Guru. My Guru, my country, my father, my mother, my friend, my something...Mine, mine, mine! Because of me! "It appears as though I love you so much, I'll give my life for you." You give your life for someone because you love yourself, and see them as being part of you. If this becomes very clear in your mind, you will never be unhappy.
Someone who does not have self-esteem, who does not love himself, will stagger on the path of spiritual knowledge. This is because love and devotion means conflictless rejoicing. You can't even enjoy! There is even a conflict in your mind about enjoying. If someone praises you, telling you how wonderful you are and how nicely you do something, you feel very happy and something starts happening in you. But immediately afterwards, you think that you should not be feeling that way. That it was your ego. What have you done? You put down the joy, that expanding feeling that was rising in you. You beat it with a stick and you beat yourself, too. That feeling is gone. Something happened, and you are not rejoicing without conflict.
We have heard about the Rishi Shandilya who said we can put the whole bhakti in one sutra: atma rati avirodhenaiti Shandilyah. Rejoice in the Self without conflict. But this conflict has gotten so deep inside you. Even if you are with someone whom you love very much, the mind will bring some conflict. You can't be totally there with them. Something is pulling you back. You want to eat, so you eat but again something is pulling you back.
Your ideas about right and wrong are pulling you back. Your ideas about ego are blocking you and telling you to be humble; to be like a speck of dust. People may tell you that they are nothing; that they are your dust. Why make yourself dust? You don't want to be nothing; instead you want to be dust, something separate. And we think this is humility! In India especially, people think that showing great humility is a virtue. People recite shloka like, "I am a bundle of sins and I prostrate." I don't know who made this shloka! "I am bundle of sin and born out of sin." Patit pawan. That may have been the level of understanding at some time. When a turn takes place in person's life, when he realizes that what he has been doing in life is not conducive to his evolution, he turns around. At that turning point he says, ' Yes, this is all nonsense. Now I take refuge.' But continuing with this all your life is stupidity. It is like going to the bathroom, washing your feet but getting stuck at the door. You are neither in nor out. That is the position when people think they are sinners all their lives. I'm not saying one should not realize the futility of the past, because that gives one the impetus to move further. But if you hang on to the idea,then you will never see the Divinity that is in the Self, in this body. As soon as Janaka realized he was nobody, all the conflicts disappeared and he could rejoice in himself totally. One hundred per cent rejoicing in the moment!
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji
ASHTAVAKRA GITA
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