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727. Self-Awareness

One who is aware of his Self is at a moment of spiritual awakening. By tapas, he realises the Self he is now aware of. Realising his own Self, one becomes a Jivamukta. Leaving his own body, his Self merges with the Self of the universe in moksha. What is the parallel to an ordinary citizen, a householder? It is commonly said we do not know our weakness. That is a great truth. Taking the clue from The Mother, I have been insisting that we do not know our strength. Should a man know his strength and be willing to build on it, we see he rises like a meteor. Now greater heights call him. It is then one needs to know the other side of his swabhava or character.

A man who develops his strength rises to the maximum his own circumstances permit. When he looks at his weaknesses and removes them, the present circumstances change and new favourable circumstances arise. His rise has, then, no limits. Kamaraj who started as a volunteer, rose to become the President of Tamilnadu Congress in 1940, an impossible feat. Now we can say the opportunities of his own circumstances were exhausted. Then newer circumstances arose and he became the Chief Minister and then the most popular President of the All India Congress, a post no one from Tamilnadu had occupied since 1930. Examining these periods from the point of view of strength and weakness, the law will emerge clearly. One who wants to follow this strategy may need an example or some useful hints. In the decades following 1950, we saw Tamil scholars were rewarded a greater recognition than before. Till then, Ph.D. holders in Tamil were not appointed Vice-Chancellors or Principals. In fact, it was not a qualification even to become a Headmaster. What I am asking people to do - to build on their strengths - the changing political atmosphere has done in this respect.

The second half, to remove one's weakness, is harder but more rewarding, especially as it sets no limits. It actually removes ALL limits or barriers to one's growth. One suggestion to mitigate its bitterness is to observe someone close to us - a brother, a friend, a partner - as we know him inside out. Also, he is one whose defects we are acutely aware of. Once we know it in all the details, we can safely assume that ALL those traits are in us. A spiritual rule says the outer fully reflects the inner. Those who are with us are with us because they have exactly the same qualities that we do. If your partner is one who has a mannerism, and you are sure you have no such mannerism at all, please scratch the surface and you will find that mannerism would have become a mental habit that inhibits your larger mental potentials. It is not so important to know your partner as you know yourself. Knowing yourself is Self-awareness in individual life, a spiritual equivalent to Jivanmukta. Should you try to raise this awareness to realisation, you will be at the top of your society.



story | by Dr. Radut