Most people in the world live in a state of self centeredness. They think the world revolves around them and they expect the satellites around to move as per their desires. Their ego does not permit them to see that the world and other planets revolve around the sun and the entire cosmos follows the divine order and pattern of exact movements in their orbits and revolutions. They are totally absorbed in themselves, their opinions, their rights, their books, their clothes, their car, their status etc. Such self absorption excludes love, compassion, giving, understanding and joy which are all divine qualities. Living such life means they exclude the divine rights which is their divine heritage. When man lives as mere mortal and forgets his divine origins, his life is miserable and he makes everyone around him miserable. Let us see the story of a self centered princess:
There was a spoilt princess who was extremely egoistic and thought she was the centre of the Universe. Being the only daughter of the king she was always indulged and spoiled. Once she developed a sore in her eye. Being a spoilt child, she refused to obey the doctors and did not apply medicine in her eye. She kept touching the sore spot all the time and the eye got worse. The king was worried and proclaimed a large reward to anyone who could cure his daughter. Many tried but none succeeded as the spoilt princess refused to cooperate and kept doing what she wanted to do.
A wise man came to the court to heal the princess. He claimed to be famous physician and he had a guaranteed cure for the princess. He examined the princess and stepped back looking concerned. He said that as such nothing was wrong with the princess’ eye but there was a much greater problem. He refused to tell the princess what the problem was despite her pleas and screams. At the king’s order the physician reluctantly revealed that the princess would grow a tail which would be very long. If she could detect the first moment it appeared, he might be able to prevent it from growing.
All were deeply concerned. The princess stayed in bed, day and night directing all her attention in detecting when the tail might appear. In a few days her eye was fully healed.
We are like the princess. We react in the same way. When we have a little problem, it becomes the centre of our life and everything else revolves around it. We shake up our homes and work place and everyone has to know and pay attention to our little problem. In great ignorance, we repeated this behaviour through many life times. We always think: What I want is paramount! My wishes, my desires, my likes and dislikes all come first! As long as we think in this way, we won’t change and will suffer from non - fulfilment of expectations and anger and frustrations. Driven by desires and rejections, we will be born again and again in this samsara or world without finding a way out. As long as we are self centred and have strong likes and dislikes and attachments and aversions, we will find no peace or balance in life. We cannot rest.
Let us step out of this self centeredness. Loving and caring for family and friends and society, give and take, putting the needs of others occasionally before our needs help us to overcome our obsession with self. When we do the SitaRam Mantra, over a period of time, a transformation begins within us. We begin to have love for God and this love will reflect in the love we give to others. All divine qualities of selfless love, compassion, forgiveness, non violence etc begins to grow in us and we live with all in peace and balance.
