DAILY GURU

Tuesday 22nd Of February 2005

Let me now share with you a story. A big piece of sponge was divided into many small pieces, which were thrown into a large container of water. All those pieces of sponge got soaked in the water, which was one homogenous body of water. After a little while, the water in each piece of sponge started identifying itself with the sponge, and began feeling and believing that it was a separate independent entity.

The water stayed as one body of water. Each quantity of water present in each piece of sponge stayed connected with all the water in the container, but strangely, the water present in each piece of sponge started believing and acting as if it was part of the sponge, and was a definite entity separate from all the other pieces of sponge and the water in the container.

The water is the spirit, and the pieces of sponge are the materials composing the physical body and the feelings and thoughts. There is one spirit expressing itself through various forms, but each form thinks and feels that it is separate and independent.

This erroneous belief in a separate individuality is the ego. From this ego come disagreements, selfishness, anger, resentment and violence. Each expression of the spirit, through each body, erroneously believes in its separateness as a unit, and fights for its existence. These units, when united with other similar units possessing similar characteristics are called a family, tribe, nation or race.

It is not easy to see that everything in the Universe is the expression of the one Spirit. The illusion of life is so perfect that it is hard to look through this illusion.

When the mind is active, everything looks real. The mind is the projection machine, which constantly projects pictures on the screen we call reality. In sleep or while there is no consciousness of the world such as in a swoon, this projection machine is temporarily switched off and everything disappears. The world reappears after the mind is switched on again.

It is the mind and ego, which are responsible for the appearance of the world. When you are able to switch off the mind and the ego you realize in a direct manner the Spirit that is always here, beyond the illusion of the outside world.