PROGNOSIS & DIAGNOSIS OF SIN | VANITY | PART 2
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PROGNOSIS & DIAGNOSIS OF SIN | IWGR I | RAMA राम
|| 2 | VANITY ||
We say that vanity or pride , you might call it one of the faces of Satan < : Ignorance : > , has taken a stronghold of everybody in this world .
How is it ? At the same time we know that the body does not deserve any pride , that this body has no right to take airs of superiority or to be proud .
Everybody knows that the body does not deserve or is not worthy of any vanity or pride , and yet everybody has it .
How is it ? Wherefrom did it come , this universal phenomenon ? From where did come this universal anomaly , this universal paradox ? Wherefrom does it come ? It must come from within you . The cause is not far to seek .
There is in you the Greatest of the great , that is your real Self . You will have to realize that and know that ; and when you realize and know the true Self , the Atman, you will no longer stoop down to seek praise for this little body .
If you realize the true Self , if you redeem your own heart , you are your own redeemer .
If you realize GOD within you , then to hear praises for this little body , to hear any tributes for your body will appear to you as belittling yourself , will appear to you as bemeaning yourself .
Then you will stand above bodily vanity or selfish pride . This is the way to stand above bodily vanity or selfish pride .
The true Atman within , the true Self being the Greatest of the great , the Highest of the high , the God of gods , how can it give up its nature ?
How can this Atman degrade itself , believe itself to be poor , wretched , vermin or worm ? How can it degrade itself to that depth of ignorance ? It cannot give up its nature ; it cannot give up its nature . And that is the cause of vanity or pride being universal .
But vanity or pride is not justified by this explanation . Vanity or pride for the body is not justified .
We know that the earth moves ; and relatively to the earth , the Sun is stationary . All know that the Sun does not move and that the earth revolves ; but we make a mistake , we fall into an error , we ascribe the motion of the earth to the Sun and the rest of the Sun we ascribe to the earth .
The same kind of mistake is made by the people who hunger for pride , who are subject to vanity . The same kind of error comes in here .
Here is the Atman , the real Sun , the Light of lights , which is Immovable , which is really the source of all glory , and here is the body , like the earth , all the time changing and worthy of no praise , worthy of no glory , but we make a mistake in attributing the glory of the Atman to the body and the worthlessness of the body to the Atman , the real Self .
This error , this mistake , this form of ignorance is the cause of seeking aggrandizement for the little body .
Now if this ignorance could be called Satan , if Satan could be translated as ignorance , then we might say that herein comes Satan which puts the things in confusion ; the Atman's glory to the body and the body's worthlessness to the Atman .
Remove this ignorance , remove this ignorance and you kill vanity or pride .
SOURCE | SATYAVEDISM.ORG
OM! TAT SAT
