Realize your greatness

When I am praised, I feel great. When I was a boy, every time the teacher praised me, I was motivated to do something even better. As an employee I liked my boss when he appreciated me. Even as an old man, I feel great whenever someone praises me for what I have done ten years ago. In the history of mankind, all great things have happened because someone has achieved it in an attempt to become great. Otherwise why should anybody do something extraordinary with so much  effort? Every gold medalist in the Olympics has taken tremendous effort to achieve this moment of pride.

  Fundamentally everyone one of us feels great when appreciated, irrespective of our age, work and place. When we feel great, we are happy and want to repeat the performance. But this greatness is only short lived and disappears when we find someone greater. This is due to our inner urge to be the greatest. If I feel I am great, you also have the right to feel that you are great. But who is greater? As a boy I was dreaming of something great that nobody has done in human history. This inner urge is there in every one of us. The intensity may vary from person to person due to the circumstances. But as individuals we are limited. When we look at the sky and see the countless stars, everything around us becomes so small. We feel small and limited from the stand point of an individual, identifying with our body, mind and intellect. However we continue to make our efforts to become greater and greater. Whenever we feel limited, we pray to God and seek His help. This is good. However our prayer also is limited as we are not aware of what exactly we want. Therefore there is a never ending cycle of prayer, achievement and prayer. By the time we realize this, we are already at the end of our life.

 There is another interesting situation here. If everybody is attempting to become greater and greater, who will be the greatest? Can this problem be solved? Let us look to Bagavat Gita for a solution of this fundamental problem.  Gita says, “All pervasive space is not affected by anything. In the same way the self abiding  in all states in the body is not affected.” Let us imagine a lab where several bottles are kept. These bottles are of different sizes from 100cc to 2000cc.The space in a 100cc bottle is smaller than 200cc bottle. There is a space in 300cc bottle which is greater than the space in 200 cc bottle. Space outside all of these bottles is much bigger. In fact there are differences only in the sizes of bottles. If the bottle is broken, the limit is gone. There is nothing called small space and big space. There is only one space, it has no limits.  Every object is in space. There is space inside our body as well outside. As our body, the earth, sun, stars every object that we can see are in space, they don’t affect the space. Every individual is like this bottle space. One thinks of oneself  greater or smaller than the other. What limits us is our body notion like the bottle space. This is due to ignorance of true nature of self.

In the above verse of Gita, three states of our body are mentioned. They are waking state (jagarat), dream state (swapna) and sleeping state (sushupti). Whatever happens in dream state is real for the dreamer. But when he awakes dream becomes unreal. In the same way for a dreamer the waking state does not exist. We generally don’t realize this. We consider only dream as unreal as we always relate to our body in waking state. In sleep, we are not aware of anything. So Gita says, our real ‘Self’ is a witness of all the above three states and beyond any change or limitation like the space.  There are two aspects compared here. The space is all pervasive and unaffected, so is the self. That which is all pervasive is unaffected and can only be one like the space.

 If I really want to be great and unlimited, the first step is to shed my body notion.  I have identified myself with my body, which is limited. So I feel limited and I want to compete with everything and become great. When I surrender my ego, I can discover my real self with the guidance of a teacher. I am great, you are great and everyone is great. It is just the ignorance that covers the individual and makes one limited. A thorough study of “Self knowledge” under proper guidance can help us discover the real greatness and happiness in us.

-Arasu Ramanujam