Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 03.10.2017 morning, Sofia)

(continues from the previous Monday)

Question of Yogeshvara: The envy that we feel consciously towards others or unconsciously towards God, and maybe also the envy towards the spiritual masters – how can we solve this problem? How can we get rid of this?

Swami Tirtha: Somehow envy is a very old friend of the fallen souls. We have this long-term friendship for lifetimes. And sometimes it is obvious, as you said, other times it is hidden. Envy is like a reflected version of pride. Because either I’m proud of myself or I’m envious of others. Either you are proud of your achievements, your knowledge, your whatever; or you are envious of the achievements and the knowledge of others.

The ultimate distortion of human consciousness is to envy God. It’s the deepest hole of illusion. How to get out, how to escape from that trap? I think this was your question. Spiritual practice and cultivation of the service mood, meditation and all other elements are our help to escape from this trap. So, we need to mobilize all our efforts to somehow escape from this deep well of illusion, to try to climb up higher and higher and higher. But if somebody comes and drops a rope into this well, and if we can grab this rope and climb up on it, then we are more fortunate. The teachers, the prophets, the gurus, the pure devotees – they will help us to come to the surface. So, our efforts plus the divine mercy will help us to achieve full success.

If we have some bad patterns in our system – it happens, right, envy is a bad pattern of the consciousness – we need to substitute that with a good pattern. Why do we always read about humility, service, offering respects, etc.? Because this is one way to control this envy, this pride. So, the purpose of practicing humility is not to be humiliated, but to get rid of these bad patterns. Which is not so easy, because first we have to catch ourselves that ‘Again the bad pattern is working over me! Again I see only the bad side of the other person.’ It’s bad training – to see the mistakes and forget about the good things. So therefore, our masters and our authorities will bring both parties: “And now glorify each other!” To give a better pattern.

Basically, this is the hard time, the hard work of spiritual practice – to tame the wild animal. When our first reaction – automatic or instinctive reaction – will not be something negative; and even if something negative comes to us, comes to you, your feedback will slowly-slowly be better, more refined.

(to be continued)