August 28, 2025
My guru often pointed out, "Serve someone self-forgetfully." If you are able to reach that point of self-forgetfulness in the service of even one person, then it is possible for you to acquire a taste for it, and this period of self-forgetfulness might become more and more permanent, more and more expanded. In the course of time you may not only forget the self, but find out that the self does not exist.
This again is possible only when that which is called Karma Yoga is combined with meditation, prayer and all the rest of it. The master suggests a certain inner approach of constant meditation, and observation. This may or may not be so easy for all: where it is not the yogi suggests some kind of an auto-suggestion. That is again based on the understanding that you are what I have taught myself you are. First you were a total stranger, then I am introduced to you by somebody. Now the relationship of a friend develops. What is it that has made you my friend? Thought. So if I start thinking now that you are a manifestation of God and go on thinking it, it is possible that one day I'll really see God in you.
As you go on, you realise that there is disharmony inside. We see this in our relationships too. I think he is my friend, but when that friendship is put to the test, something cracks. That 'but' butts in and creates some disharmony or shows that there is some disharmony within. In the same way I think, or I teach myself to think, "I am nothing, it is God who does everything, but..." The 'but' comes up again. God does everything, but if there is a garland, put it around 'my' neck! 'I am nothing' but this self comes up - you become aware of this contradiction.
There is deep, deep within each one of us this feeling 'I am so and so' and that has to be shaken. You can adopt any sort of yoga practice you like, or you can attack it from all sides at the same time. Though some of the yoga practices are considered to be easier than others, all are always slippery. The self can get into any dress, take any form, and still it becomes self. Only God knows how to make it non-self.
If someone is suffering and you want to help, it is good to tell him that the soul is not suffering, but is full of bliss. Offer consolation at all levels and ask, "Can I help you?" Don't just talk philosophy - it is cruelty. Put yourself in his position.