Human Personality

May 8, 2002

• In this yoga, knowledge of personality is extremely helpful. It may not be necessary when concentration lies beyond that as all-inclusive concentration.
• One may be aware of the smallness of ambition and may be fighting it in his parents or family manners. He can find himself fighting ambition, ambitiously, as traits of one generation become subtle and disguised in the next.
• One may find himself resourceful and very much so. At the same time, he may KNOW that his originality of resourcefulness lies in imitation.
• Having this knowledge, the desire to be ORIGINAL, not imitative, will give him originality.
• Biological and psychological rules about the succeeding generations are worth considering in our context to know where we have fallen into their trap.

- Traits become more pronounced in the next generation.

- They reverse as a subconscious complex.

- The next generation sticks to the same trait in a sublimated fashion under the impression of having given it up.

- They follow the earlier generation in another walk of life.

- The truth is the succeeding generation can change ONLY to the extent the society has changed.

- The individual may again try a psychological version of the physical trait. The key is he cannot give it up.

- Devotees, on close examination, will find themselves exactly like their family in their traits with the change demanded by the society.

• Some examples:

- A devotee from an affectionate family has extended that to all devotees as sympathy.

- A corrupt generation is followed by rectitude.

- A self-respecting family has readily taken to Mother's rule of not taking initiative.

- An atheistic tradition accepts the rule of not praying to Mother.

- A family that ruined itself because of pampering the erring members creates an organisation similar to it.

- A family that has migrated into the locality follows the rules of early days of being resourceful.

- A capable family pleads for capacity in the devotees.

- A Kshatriya family starts fighting the hostile forces.

- A Vaishya family recognises the value of productivity.

- A Brahmin family readily takes to rituals in Mother or converts Mother's life into one of rituals.

• Human personality must have one trait as the spearhead and all the four traits must be blended as the basis of personality.
• Caution, Patience, Responsibility, Gradualness, Generosity, Conservation, Abandon, Adventure, Balance, Greed, Evil, Ignorance, Perseverance, and Maturity are the traits of Nature along with their opposites.
• When moving from the social surface to the psychological depth, one can SEE he is exactly in the mould of his own family in one way or another.
• He may have progressed very much but the knowledge that real progress starts only when the Nature of the family is crossed over is a helpful knowledge in yoga.
• Another dimension of personality is what one brings from his previous birth and what was seen in him as a child.
• His personality is a blend of these two trends.
• Personality is a product of Nature. Yoga lies beyond the ken of Nature.