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Excerpt:
“Purpose: The courage to be who we are” by Sri Prem Baba
I, as a spiritual master, but above all, as a conscientious human being, have the obligation to tell the truth, no matter how painful it might be: we human beings are heading for a great failure. We have been unable to find this so desired happiness until this point in our passage here on Earth. This is because we are looking in the wrong place— outside ourselves. Happiness does not lie in the future, in material goods, or in the opinion other people have of us. It is here and now, inside us.
We need to have the courage and humility to give up our pride and take responsibility for our mistakes. We need to cure ourselves of egoism and only self-knowledge can bring about this cure. It was precisely with the intention of offering instruments that allow and facilitate the process of self-knowledge but, above all, with the aim of giving movement to an energy that can drive a real transformation that I decided to write this book.
Each and every one of us has come to this earthly plane with a mission, a purpose to be fulfilled. Despite the fact that on the surface we are not equal and have different qualities, we are united in one unique purpose that, at the end of the day, is the expansion of consciousness. Consciousness expands through love. That is why I often say that our work as human beings is to awaken love in everyone, everywhere.
We can compare the process of the expansion of consciousness to the growth of a tree. The root represents our memories, our inheritance, our ancestors, i.e. our story on Earth. It keeps us grounded and doesn't allow us to fall. It is the root that supports the tree trunk, which in turn represents our consolidated values and virtues. The stronger the trunk, the higher we can reach. The branches represent the development of our virtues in gifts and talents; the leaves represent life's driving force and our eternal capacity for renewal. And when we manage to turn ourselves into channels of love through our gifts and talents, flowers and fruits bloom representing exactly what we came to undertake, offer, or deliver to the world. The flowers and fruits represent the manifestation or the realization of our life's purpose.
I now want to invite you to embark with me on a journey towards the expansion of consciousness. It is an adventure full of uncertainty and challenges that will take us from the seed to the fruit, from Earth to heaven, from forgetfulness to remembrance, from being asleep to the state of an awake consciousness. It is a journey that reveals the infinite unfoldings of love—this power that inhabits us, moves us and liberates us.
Love is the seed, the sap and the flavor of the fruit. It is the beauty and the fragrance of the flower. The beginning, the middle and the end. Awakening love is the reason why We are here.
May the message contained in this book serve as an inspiration and guide for your journey.
A POTENTIAL IS BORN
o make a journey on this physical plane we need a means of transport. For the soul to move towards divine consciousness, we need to pass through
human consciousness. In order to go through this experience here on Earth, benefiting from a human personality, the spirit needs a vehicle, because it would be unable to cope with this experience without an ego and a body. Therefore, we are born with a body and a psychological structure created to develop an ego. Ego and body form a vehicle, an instrument created in such a way that the spirit can undergo this material experience.
Principle of the idea of "I".
The soul is the individual portion of the spirit that manifests itself through this vehicle. It is the bridge between the material and spiritual planes. The soul follows the Being throughout its evolutionary journey, through cycles of death and rebirth, and ceases to exist when the individual consciousness expands and merges into the cosmic consciousness.
This is the way that consciousness finds to expand itself through the human being on the material plane. Just as a plant is born and grows from a seed, the cosmic consciousness shows itself and expands through an individual consciousness. In this sense, the ego is like a seed that is planted in the ground with the aim of growing, maturing and producing fruit. This seed brings with it a divine potential that will express itself in a particular way through each one of us.
There are many definitions of the word ego. When I use it here I am referring to it as the principle of individuation or also the principle of the idea of “l.” Although the ego has a very important function in the divine project of expanding consciousness (the goal of which, at the end of the day, is to re-establish a state of Unity), it also represents the birth of a sense of separation, i.e. it is the principle of the idea that we are separate, one from the other. As we have a body, a form, the mind creates this illusion of separation. At the physical level, which is the level of appearances, we are actually separated, but we are one at the level of the spirit.
However, this illusion is part of the divine game here on Earth and is at the service of the expansion of consciousness. It is what in the Hindu cosmic view is called mahamaya, the great illusion. At the same time as it covers our view with the veil of duality, mahamaya is also our great teacher. Through it we learn what we need to learn and gradually we begin to see beyond it. Mahamaya is a distortion of reality that can take many forms, including egoism—the illness of the ego.
Seeds of love
When we allow ourselves to contemplate and become involved in the beauty of life, observing the phenomena of nature, we notice everything is fantastic and that life certainly goes well beyond this daily reality we capture through our physical eyes. Have you ever wondered how it is possible that fruits and flowers of the most varied sizes, colors, fragrances and flavors simply grow from trees? This is fantastic. Even if you know how nature operates, if you can observe these phenomena in greater depth, you will immediately see how extraordinary it is. A seed is an example of this. From a small grain, a majestic tree grows. The seed contains a minimum portion within itself, a quantum of an essence that is printed in a genetic code. This code contains the information on its maximum potential, which is also what it will carry out when it is planted in the earth. Its maximum potential is the fruit it will produce.
Similarly, we human beings bring a portion of divine consciousness that wants to expand and express itself through us. We also bring a code, a program, something to be fulfilled. This program is the purpose of the soul. We came to this world precisely to carry out this purpose, which I also usually call vision—a vision to be shared with the world.
The purpose manifests itself in a very particular way in each one of us. Each individual soul arrives here with a specific program to be carried out and this program or individual purpose is aligned with the greatest purpose of life. I am referring to what in the ancient wisdom of yoga is known as dharma—the universal law that governs life and unites all beings around the same purpose. In the last instance, dharma, or humanity's greatest purpose, is the expansion of consciousness. However, I usually call it the awakening of love, since consciousness expands itself through it.
If we know the purpose, then we know what we came here for. And what we came here to do is intimately related to that which we are in essence, i.e. the individual program of the soul is related to the consciousness of the Being. Just as an orange tree can only produce oranges, the human being can only produce one kind of fruit: love, since love is its essence. However, love is a fruit that can show itself in infinite ways. Every soul brings within gifts and talents that are the unique way in which love expresses itself through us.
Challenges of growth
- At the same time as each soul brings gifts and talents with it, which are its virtues and potentials to be developed, it also brings challenges that will serve for its growth. Certain challenges are part of the very program of the soul and are printed in the DNA, such as genetic diseases and physical limitations. Others will be created from the choices a soul makes during its incarnation. However, the challenges are tools of learning regardless of their nature.
| also compare these challenges or obstacles to stopping places on the developing soul's journey. It is a long one and we often feel tired. Sometimes, we need to stop and regain our energy and eat, at times to fulfill agreements in specific places. But every stop serves in some way to allow us to recover and absorb what we have learned. The stopovers help us review the map of life and find out where we are on the journey. During these moments, we can also review the places where we have been and the holes where we've passed over in order to prevent new falls. However, we stop mainly to rescue parts of ourselves that have become trapped in the past and to absorb certain lessons. By doing so, we gradually gain strength to follow the route to the final destination.
These stopping places where the soul parks temporarily to absorb certain lessons and free itself from the chain of reactions, created by mistaken actions in the past, are what we call karma. This Sanskrit word literally means "action" but it refers to a cosmic law—the law of cause and effect (action and reaction). This states that every effect has a cause: everything that shows itself in our lives now is a product of our actions in the past. For every action, there is a reaction. Therefore, karma involves not only the action but also the inherent reaction to it.
One kind of yoga, called Karma Yoga (the yoga of action), speaks about the practice of “non-action,” which is an action that does not create reaction—a cause without effect. However, for an action not to create any reaction, it needs to be deprived of egoistic interests. This is the basic foundation of Karma Yoga (yoga of action), the principal instrument of which is detached action or service.
A lot is spoken about yoga nowadays but very little is really known about it. Yoga is not simply a system of physical postures and meditation. Yoga is a great combination of techniques and tools that can act in all levels of our system (physical, mental, psycho-emotional, energetic and spiritual) and has the function of helping us to reconnect with the greater reality, with our essence and also with our true identity. Therefore, yoga is a way of selfrealization or liberation. When we recognize our true identity, we become free to be who we are.
Karma Yoga is the road to freedom through action; it is the kind of yoga that leads to self-realization through selfless service. Selfless action frees us, as it allows us to stop producing reactions and, subsequently, to free ourselves from the web of karma. But this is only possible when karma (action) and dharma (purpose) are aligned, which means that our actions correspond to what we really came here for. The more aligned they are with the greater purpose, the fewer effects our actions will cause and they will bring more consciousness to the planet since the purpose of the individual soul is directly linked to the collective dharma and karma.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
We saw that there is an internal purpose (of the soul), a program that is born with the person. However, there is also another purpose, which is external—a program that is formed during life, along with the development of the ego and through contact with society. This program, which is drawn up based on external influences, is what I will call here the “ego program.”
The ego program not only depends on external factors but will also depend on karma as that is what determines the conditions in which the child arrives on this earthly plane. Depending on the social conditions, level of knowledge and spiritual development of the family, the child may learn some kind of lessons, develop particular skills and consolidate values and virtues of the soul. At the same time, the child might experience traumas and create images (fixed or frozen psychological scenarios) and limiting beliefs that will be part of this programming.
The purpose of the ego, or external purpose, is like the peel of a fruit and is a layer on the surface that covers up the real program of the soul. However, the peel also has a function and serves as a protection to allow the ego to develop and build what is necessary for its experience. But a moment arrives when this outside layer needs to be removed so the true purpose can manifest itself fully. Just as we need to remove the peel of the fruit to enjoy it, so this external program needs to be removed for the internal program to reveal itself.
The human entity arrives on this terrestrial plane free, loving and trusting. When it is born, the child still has a recollection of who it is and what it has come here for. However, with the passing of time, through the contact with the world, the child gives in to the outside influences, acquiring beliefs and repressing its natural expression. As we know, the base of the personality is formed during the first seven years of life. Some characteristics are acquired later, in the following seven years, but the foundation is made in the first seven years and the beliefs installed in this period will permeate the person's whole life.
So the child begins to feel deprived and insecure at a very early stage. It starts to feel jealousy, anger and envy . .. and this does not happen by chance. The child learns this from people around it, particularly the parents but also from teachers and other close relatives. These people take part in the process of developing the personality of that soul. They unwittingly end up transferring their woes and neediness onto the child. This leads to a vicious circle in which ignorance procreates ignorance.
When the child begins to go to school and starts a social life, it receives new inputs (besides those that come via the parents and relatives) about what is supposedly right or wrong, on what it should be and do in life (which is usually not what the child would like to be and do). New limits and rules are imposed and new ideas (prejudices, opinions, beliefs) are conveyed. Obviously, limits and rules are needed for the child's own good, but no one teaches that certain rules will need to be abandoned as they should be at the service of the development of consciousness and not the opposite.
Every human being brings a view in favor of the sustainable development of the planet with it. He or she brings a wisdom, a power. However, as a result of these outside influences, this view is gradually forgotten, and its power gets reined in. As this power is reined in, it turns against the human being, and forces that go against his or her purpose are created. The program of the soul impels the person to move in one direction but the mind conditioned by outside factors makes the person follow another. This contradiction creates suffering.
Forgetting the vision
We can say, in a synthetic way, that we are here to carry out a journey from the state of forgetfulness to the state of remembrance—remembering who we are and what we have come here for—since, as we have seen, on arriving on this Earth, we are wrapped in a veil of illusion that operates by amnesia.
People usually have a clear view of what they have come to do until the beginning of adolescence: they carry a strong wish, they bring in them dreams that are expressions of their purpose. However, these are gradually forgotten. Adolescents gradually start believing in external voices, which insist on saying that this is an impossible dream that cannot be realized, that this road is not good and also that the person is not capable of doing such a thing. They gradually give in to these voices until they give up and completely forget their dreams and start to dream other people's dreams.
If you have ever had the opportunity to follow the growth of a child, you know it is born trusting and loving in the purest way. The child, which has still not been corrupted and contaminated by the beliefs and afflictions of the adults around it, simply holds the hand of its father and mother and goes with them without knowing where it is being led. However, the child gradually stops having this trust and starts being struck by fear in the shape of wariness and insecurity and by hate in the form of anger and vengeance.
But why does this happen? Because the child is taught that. The child learns from an early age that it is a victim of outside circumstances and, as a result, it also learns that it needs to defend itself. It gradually acquires the most varied mechanisms of defense and beliefs and restraints. These mechanisms are limiting because although they serve for protection, they also create separation and forgetfulness. The walls you build around yourself for protection are the very ones that keep you isolated from the world.
This combination of protection mechanisms and forgetfulness make up what I usually call "inferior nature", "lower self", and also “evil.” What we call evil is nothing more than a grouping of defense mechanisms human beings develop from an early age to protect themselves from the pain of the shocks of humiliation, rejection and exclusion. When speaking of evil, I am not referring only to the behavior of criminals and those who are corrupt, since all of us have gone through shocks of this kind. Therefore, all of us are carrying some evil within us, and the more evil a person shows, the more pain he or she carries within his or her system.
Contamination by education
Obviously, education plays a major role in the formation of the child's personality as well as in the process of expanding human consciousness. This process can be made easier or harder through education. This is why we should give due importance to this issue. I believe it is only through education that we can trigger the transformation that is needed to save our planet from the process of degradation it is currently in. However, for any significant change to occur, we need to carry out a great reform in education and this reform begins with us adults.
The process of educating our children should begin by reeducating our lower self. This is the only way in which we will really have something to give. If not, what we call education will continue to be just a reaction to the past and only a projection of our childhood pains. We are projecting our woes onto the children and we want to shape them into what we consider the best. However, we are not always right about what is the best precisely because we are dealing with a belief, i.e. a fixed image of something. Belief is built on negative situations from the past. This means that something went wrong and something hurt you, then you started to believe that life is always like that. This is a generalization.
Therefore, we face a great challenge ahead. We need to cure our woes so we can educate our children properly because, if we continue to act based on our own traumas, we will continue to undermine our children's development and divert them from their natural path and their purpose in life. This will only be possible if we are ready to assume our responsibility and get to know ourselves because by knowing ourselves, we will free ourselves from the beliefs that restrain us and the idea that we are victims. We will then be able to support the sustainable development of the child's personality, which means not projecting our anxieties onto the children and providing the strength that enables the children's vision and wisdom to be revealed to the world.
We have to give up the need to have our expectations and neediness fulfilled through our children as this is the root of the problem. I know it is no easy task as it is very difficult not to repeat patterns and impose points of view on the child. Not knowing your own self and having no awareness of your own neediness and limitations means that you will inevitably want to shape the child in line with your expectation. If you were badly hurt, deprived and humiliated, it is very likely that, once you are in a position of power and authority over the child, you will become lost and want to abuse this false power. By doing so, you end up re-editing your past in the present time, which means that you are repeating your own life story through the child and transmitting your miseries to it.
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