Words from the Master

Because of our social ego, we are all the time so self-conscious also. We are self-conscious because we think that people are looking and talking about us all the time. Be very clear: When you are self-conscious, you are very egoistic. You think that you are a big entity and that everyone’s eyes are on you all the time. This is why you get self-conscious.

If you thought that you were a ‘nobody’, would you be self-conscious? Only because you think you are a ‘somebody’ you are self-conscious. And on top of it, you think that you are exhibiting humility by being self-conscious. This is actually something that you don’t even know you are suffering from. You simply continue to think that you are only being modest and humble and you continue being like that.

When you become self-conscious, you are living and yet not living. It is like a barrier to your beauty and grace. Your beauty does not come forth freely because of this. Look at animals and nature. They flow so beautifully and freely. Why is it so? Because they are not self-conscious. They are simply happy just being one with Existence. The moment you start thinking that people are watching you, ego has stepped in and you lose your natural self.

Children are not as self conscious as adults are. If you watch them play, you will see - there will be so much of beauty and innocence in the whole thing. Even when you take pictures of yourself and others, you will notice that pictures taken without you being aware that you are being photographed look much better than the ones taken asking you to pose for the camera.

The moment you are asked to pose, you become self-conscious. Your ego is afraid as to what people might say and dent it. The self-conscious ego is all the time calculating the pros and cons in everything. It is all the time weighing others’ eyes and opinions and losing out on its own freedom.

Even in our meditation classes, if you see, I tell you to tie your eyes with the eye bands given to you before starting the meditation techniques. But what do you do first? You first see if the other people are tying their eyes properly! You are so self-conscious even inside the meditation hall. Some of you don’t do the meditation properly because you are self-conscious of the volunteers and myself who have our eyes open! You simply do the meditation in a restrained fashion and end up losing the very purpose of coming to the meditation camp.

When you stop calculating and start being innocent and open, you will be filled with wonder and freshness all the time. Life will never become dull and restrained for you.

And one more thing: The innocent person never does any harm to anyone because to do harm, you need to calculate. Even if they do harm unknowingly, people will not get hurt because they know that they didn’t really mean it. Their very body language will speak out their innocence and stand by them.

______________________
This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.