Spiritual Musing - 13 SELF-ish

When last year my friend and I had great fortune of attending a session with Ma Anand Sheela - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9LmZ-tNYTo, we asked a question – “Do you believe Bhagwan’s vision for the new man is being lived?” Ma Anand Sheela simply replied – “I am living it”.

I happened to add in response that this is the most important answer or guidance for me because I realized in that moment that I am still focused at other people. Rather than focusing on myself and asking myself if I am really living Bhagwan’s vision for the new man, I was more focused and interested in knowing if others are living Bhagwan’s vision or not. This answer from Ma Anand Sheela was a big eye opener for me.

And as I see, this is the biggest obstacle in our journey of evolution. I won’t use the words “Spiritual Journey” or “Materialistic Journey” as duality is only in mind. Existentially, all journeys are one only, i.e. for our evolution. We may be conscious or not, but we are evolving with our every experience of life, though it is better to be conscious of the same.

So, the biggest obstacle in our journey of evolution is that we are focused at others. We are very much concerned as to what others are doing in their lives? This is the worst cunning game mind plays with us. Mind will make you focus on everyone else and everything else in this whole world but it will not let you focus on yourself.

Let’s understand this –

Mind utilizes our sense organs as a tool to function and go through this life. Now, the biggest issue is that all our sense organs are directed or projected outside, like Eyes, Ears Nose etc. Their main job is to collect information from outside and bring it inside to mind. So, we can say that Sense Organs are working fine if they work in incoming mode.

But the problem is that if we are not conscious or aware then human mind takes control of our sense organs and starts using them in outgoing mode. Then Sense Organs are utilized by mind in analyzing the world outside or other people’s lives rather than own life.

As I said, this is the worst cunning game mind can play with us because once we start focusing at ourselves and realizing what all things are wrong in our lives then mind can never remain peaceful. Its convenience and peace will be lost as we will take some efforts to improve our lives. This is why; Mind is always focusing us on others.

Even in that outgoing mode, Mind makes us focus on other’s drawbacks or limitations. So that, we can feel happy that we are doing better in our lives. If you can just see things from conscious state then you will realize that this is exactly the way mind works.

This is why; politics is as popular among people as every politician tells his people that how bad or evil are other people, so that his people should feel good and have ego satisfaction. Just pay attention that how politicians of X country convey to their people through media that their enemy Y country is suffering. The main purpose is that people of X country should sleep over their situations in life because they are not in as bad situation as people of Y country.

And this trait is very much prevalent in our lives in different areas of life. The moment we get into any troublesome spot in life which hurts our ego, the mind immediately conveys to us that you are still better than your enemy and many others in this world. End result is that if at all we had taken a step to improve things in our lives then now it is not possible as mind has given us a sleeping pill again that my life is much better than others and mind’s conveniences continues.

I remember one discussion with one of my friends, about a decade ago, to whom I tried my best to give examples of various celebrity figures who have achieved great things in their lives, so that this person should get inspired to take some actions in his life to improve his life situations. But with every example I gave, this friend or I should say mind of this friend came-up with one or the other excuse, like – “ohh this celebrity is controversial or that celebrity divorced his spouse or that one was caught in a case”.

If we observe closely then we will realize that how mind is escaping from any situation where it has to start taking some efforts or actions so that its convenience should not be broken and mind can be at ease again by saying that others are also not doing well in their lives.

So, if we really want to utilize this life and evolve through life experience then all we need to do is to redirect our sense organs to ourselves internally. Regardless of what anyone else is doing in his life, we must ask ourselves at every point of life as to what we are doing in our life to evolve and grow.

If at all I learnt anything from Osho in last 8 years then it is to focus on Self. Osho says that in the journey of evolution, you should be absolutely selfish.

As I understood, Osho might have meant that we should be totally focused on taking efforts for our evolution regardless of the fact that who is doing what in his life.

In many of Q&A Sessions, Osho was asked questions as to X people are doing this or Y country is doing that and at every time, Osho replied that what is your concern? Why can’t you focus on yourself? Then he explains that just observe who is giving you these questions about others? It is your mind and your mind will make you focus at everything else except yourself.

I guess this is what I am trying to convey here that even if we want materialistic prosperity in life then also we need to focus on Self and our own efforts. So, for evolution and progress at any level, we have to redirect our sense organs to ourselves and focus them on our actions rather than other’s actions. Then only we can expect some improvement happening in our lives.

Right now, most of us are absolutely affixed at others and their actions or behavior. As long as this fixation on others remain, it is difficult to expect our own evolution. It is absolutely fine to be “SELFISH”.

Hope this helps. Thanks,

SPB