You are not limited

Everybody is concerned about their inner life; everyone craves for a sense of peace and harmony that is central to their being. We may not want to renounce the world to find that elusive peace; but we are ready and willing to spend some time focusing our attention on the rich interior world that is within us

All of us subsist on a physical plane; we cannot do without those basic needs — roti, kapda aur makaan as they are called food, clothing and shelter

However, all of us have desires that go beyond these needs; we crave for more wealth, more possessions, more acquisitions, but the intelligent ones among us know that wealth and possessions cannot really make us happy. We live by our passions; beyond what we crave passionately, we live by our own sets of morals and values; we look to higher ideals; we are fascinated by the rare moments in our life when we are filled with awe, wonder and a sense of mystery... feelings, moods, aspirations that send our spirits soaring.

We all know that none of these finer feelings can be captured by a materialistic way of life.

In the past, the distinction between spirituality and the workaday world was so sharp that people turned their back on one to face the other squarely. They renounced the world and worldly activities to contemplate on the higher things of life. But today, the boundaries have softened.

What I mean about the blurring of boundaries is that all of us, laymen and women, students and working professionals, businessmen and managers, young and old, are deeply concerned about their holistic growth as human beings. Everybody is concerned about their inner life; everyone craves for a sense of peace and harmony that is central to their being. We may not want to renounce the world to find that elusive peace; but we are ready and willing to spend some time focusing our attention on the rich interior world that is within us.

In 1938, I was doing a postgraduate course in Science. For the first time, our college, the D.J. Sindh Government Science College, Karachi, had imported a new X-ray machine for its Physics Lab. At that time Sadhu Vaswani happened to visit Karachi. I had often spoken to him of my research project and was keen to show him the X-ray machine which then represented new technology. One night, at ten o’clock, Sadhu Vaswani called me and said, “I would like to see your laboratory.”

We went to the laboratory and I showed him the working of X-ray machine.

"Transcending the ego is not a state of self-annihilation: it is a state of bliss because we realise our identification with the entire universe, with the Divinity that animates all creation"

Gurudev then asked, “Do you have a telescope here? I want to see the galaxy of stars.” I gave him the telescope.

Gurudev scanned the sky. Seeing the stars and planets through the telescope he said, “It is a wonderful sight. It seems as if the stars have descended on earth.” I too viewed the stars through the telescope. Their brightness was stunning.

Gurudev said, “Just blow your breath on the telescope lens.” I did so. Gurudev said, “Now take a look at the stars and tell me whether you can see them.” I could hardly see anything as the glass was misted. All I could see were shades of light. Gurudev said, “The telescope is covered with a thin layer of mist and that is why the vision is blurred. In the same way, God is there, bright and illuminated. But the ego blurs our vision and we are unable to see the shinning divine light.”

We must understand this clearly: transcending the ego is not a state of self-annihilation: it is a state of bliss because we realise our identification with the entire universe, with the Divinity that animates all creation. We realise that we are not the limited, weak, miserable creatures that we took ourselves to be, crawling between birth and death.

Swami Vivekananda tells us:

The essence of Vedanta is: Aham Brahmasmi: Tat Tvam Asi. That art thou! You are essentially Divine. Vedanta recognises no sin; it recognises only error. And the greatest error, it says, is to think that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable creature

There is no room in the Hindu way of life for such defeatism or negative thinking.