Currently humanity is in difficulties due to two causes: Natural calamities and its own ego-based approach to living. The second factor is a more common driving force than the first. It is correctable and so it is the responsibility of every citizen to contribute to that transformation. The collective is made up of the individual and hence the change has to take place in the individual first.The habitual neurology drives people to identify themselves with a nation, race, religion etc and that is where the human unrest has its origin. ‘Mine is the only way’ kind of exclusivist attitude divides people and brings about antagonism causing rivalry and hatred. The conventional mindset is based on the ego-self functioning through emotional attachment to people, property, belief systems etc. It is rooted in the ‘I am the body’ idea coupled with the psychological factors of success and failure. The thought based reality makes the ego-self look real while such a self has no existence outside of thought; in other words, the ego-self has no intrinsic substantiality. In contrast, the True Self is the very essence of our being and it has no beginning and no end. It does not have to look for any identification for it to sustain itself. That is also why the True Self is anonymous. It forms the primal living force and it is the same in all beings. The true nature of this Self is experienced by many NDE people. For example, the following lines taken from the article “I Died At 10.52 AM” by Victor Solow (Reader’s Digest, October 1974) reflect the firsthand experience of the True Self under NDE.
“Now I was not in a place, nor even in a dimension, but rather in a condition of being. This new “I” was not the I that I knew but rather a distilled essence of it, yet something vaguely familiar, something I had always known buried under a superstructure of personal fears, hopes, wants and needs. This “I” had no connection to the ego. It was final, unchangeable, indivisible, indestructible pure spirit. While completely unique and individual as a finger print, “I” was, at the same time, part of some infinite, harmonious and ordered whole. I had been there before.”
In the Bhagawad Gita, chapter 2, Krishna talks about the soul in living beings. He mentions that the soul is ancient and immortal and represents a spark of the Divine. The bodily death does not end it. Many things mentioned by Krishna in that connection clicks with Solow’s experience.
When we pay attention to the True Self as different from the ego-self, we move into a different dimension of living. The self-importance, driven by the ego-self, begins to dissolve and pure compassion flows towards all beings. Even though this transformation takes place in slow stages, it is irreversible and soon takes the human being into vibrant living. There is self-care as well as care of others, all rolled into one abundant feeling for healthy life, psychologically and physically. As more and more human beings come into this awareness, the exclusivist attitude, national prejudices and sectarian practices would disappear. The associated tension which people go through as a result of those harmful mental stances would evaporate, leading to mutual respect and camaraderie among them. Harmonious and peaceful living on this beautiful planet would become a practical reality.
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