Knowing your real nature can make you friendlier

Knowing your real nature can make you friendlier

It is ironical that despite the great strides made in the areas of science and technology, the world has not become a better place to live in. There is hatred and mistrust among nations. The very survival of human life seems to be in jeopardy and the fear of World War III looms large.

In such a world, the one thing that is urgently needed is true understanding of humanity. One often wonders why does a human being create barriers between himself and others? Why does he feel animosity instead of love and brotherhood towards his fellow humans? According to Swami Muktananda, the sage of Ganeshpuri, humans do such things because they lack true understanding about themselves. They are blissfully unaware about the greatness that lies within the human heart. Man imagines that he is ordinary and weak and that his life is meant to drift along aimlessly. Yet if he were to look within himself, realisation would dawn upon him that God lies hidden in the heart of every human being, and everyone has the power to realise that.

Great sages like Kabir and Nanak emphatically say that getting a human birth is a rare blessing because only a human being has the capacity to know the Divine Consciousness vibrating within him and has the ability to experience his identity with God. In fact, the human body is a temple within which God dwells in the form of the Self. Kabir said, “If you have not seen your own Self, if you have not perceived the knots of your heart and washed away the filth of your mind, then what does it really matter if you are a human being.” Human birth thus is a priceless jewel and precious moments of life should not be frittered away in vain, worldly pursuits and nurturing feelings of animosity towards fellow humans.

The question then arises: How to realise and get connected with the Self that dwells within? In his ‘Yoga Sutras’, Patanjali explains that although the Self is always blazing within us, the restlessness of the mind acts as a barrier. Moreover, our inner instruments are not refined enough to explore the subtle, inner realms of Consciousness.

Swami Muktananda explains that within every human being lies a great and divine energy called Kundalini; the awakening of this latent energy through a sadhguru’s grace is essential for all of us, because only when it is activated and unfolds within us that our inner instruments become worthy enough to experience the Self.

Swami Muktananda says: “If everyone could experience that inner truth, if everyone could understand his real nature, there would no longer be enmity among people, but only friendliness, affection and the feeling of universal brotherhood … When we look at ourselves with the true awareness of humanity, we will see that same humanity in everyone else, and then we will realise that everyone in the world is a child of God.”