The holy scriptures declare, “O Man, in you there is something which is really unchangeable. The real Self within each and all of us is perfect rest and the real self being infinity cannot move. It is the finite only that can move. It is the body that goes through a change. By mistake, by ignorance, the unchangeable nature of our true Self is attributed to circumstances of body which indeed is a combination of few molecules to be disintegrated sooner or later.
So the first and foremost thing to love ourselves sincerely is to understand that we are not the body, mind, thoughts, intellect or the astral body because they are ours and we are not they. The house or stick or handkerchief belongs to us and we cannot be a house or a stick or handkerchief. So we must realize ourselves who we are and then we shall sincerely love ourselves. A holy voice of Gurudev Shri Swami Vishvas Ji rings in our ears:
अपनी न की तलाश, बड़ी भूल ये हुई |
बरसों किए ख़राब, खुदा तलाश में हमने ||
We made a big blunder of forgetting our own true Self, true nature and wasted years after years in search of God. I must practice the idea, “I am not this body, mind, intellect or ego. I am all knowledge and All Bliss. I and my father are one.”
Swami Ram Tirth preached, “Atma, Self or God is not separate from man. He is man’s own Self. The question is why do we not make efforts to realize Self or Atma who is all pervading and Almighty? The reason is that he is not different from man and there is no desire in him to see Him. As it is well known, they desire for only that thing which they do not possess. Had Atma or God been something away from man, they would have tried to achieve Him. But the fact is that He is nothing different or away from the man”.
It is the adamantine wall of boisterous mind which stands against our true Self and which never allows us to love our true Self. Instead we love our ego, we enhance our pride and spend the whole life in moving far away from our own Source. So we must realize our true Self in order to love Him. He is the One who is all pervading, all knowledge and Bliss. He is not sitting in seventh heaven or hell. He is in the innermost shrine of ours.
जब अपने ही दिल में खुदाई है, क़ाबा में सजदा कौन करे |
जब दिल में खयाले-सनम आ बसा, फिर गैर की पूजा कौन करे ||
When God dwells in one’s own heart, who would bow before Kaba? When true Self is our own Self, who would go to worship the stranger?
‘Love Thyself’ does not mean to love the ego, to boast of one’s achievements, to have pride in name and fame, but ‘love thyself’ means ‘Realise yourself’ who we are? We are the self-effulgent, pure ones but overshadowed by the mind, the ego and the thoughts. We don’t have to make strenuous effort to raze the adamantine wall of mind or to get rid of thoughts. Any effort to control the restless mind will make it more violent. We are just to watch the mind and its doing in meditation, without any interference or involvement.
That true Self of ours whom we must love unflinchingly is hidden under reckless and wayward thoughts. In meditation, thoughts diminish gradually and vanish eventually. Then we come face to face with Reality. When thoughts disappear, ‘Bhav and Bliss’ appear. When that stage is reached, we must retain it.
तेरी याद में रो लेना, यह प्यास हमारी हैं |
विरह का इक आँसू, कई शास्त्रों से भारी है ||
A bewailing in your remembrance is our thirst for you and a tear drop out of Bhav, separation is far greater then many scriptures.
Such is the bliss of meditation that PREM, LOVE flows out spontaneously for our own true Self. But we must understand what true meditation is. A general understanding of meditation is concentration of mind. It is to think about an object concentratedly. But meditation is not thinking at all.
It is not about this or that
It is not about an object
It is not objectivity
It is subjectivity
A spiritual master said, “The innermost care of man is subjectivity. That is meditation. Subjectivity means without any evaluation, judgment, appreciation or condemnation. When we sit silently in meditation and close our eyes gently, a thick darkness appears and a caravan of endless thoughts starts from somewhere and nowhere. We are just to watch and watch them without being involved in them. This is known as subjectivity – being indifferent, not of our concern. Through regular and persistent meditation, darkness will start evaporating and thoughts will lose their strength. We shall go beyond mind and have the vision of our true Self whom we would love unflinchingly. It is not frothy talk. We have to realise it and then all the miseries and worries will fly away.
ढूँढ़ता फिरता कहाँ है, मन के मंदिर में तू देख |
वो सखा मन में रमा है, मन के मंदिर में तू देख ||
Where are you searching for Him, go to your own innermost shrine where HE resides well beyond this boisterous mind. Then you will say that HE is the One, our own true Self whom we must love selflessly, persistently and intently and then Bliss will be ours.