Every human being, including you, is unique and extremely complex. As discussed earlier, our fingerprints and brains are unique to each individual. I said this before, but it needs repeating to make a point: as with the rest of the body, there are commonalities in structure and function, but for each of us, our brain’s interconnections and performance are highly variable from one person to the next. The same is evident in the way we approach our spiritual lives, how we take up the path. No one way is right for everyone. Sri Aurobindo wrote, “When nature created the human being with all its possibilities for good or ill, she knew very well what she was about. Freedom for experiment in human life is a great thing. Without freedom to take risks and commit mistakes, there can be no progress.”
It is a grave mistake to believe that our way is the only way, that our path is the only path. We never know who is the leaven of society. It might very well be the “other”. The power of our soul lies in its freedom to sincerely and with great devotion stay on the path that we’ve chosen without proselytizing or condemning others. The power of the soul then lies in our ability to maintain our connection to God, to the Divinity, to the source energy, without allowing the pettiness and fears of the mind to interfere.
One of the great conundrums of life is that it is our nature to hide our true nature from ourselves. When we hide our true nature from ourselves, we get attached to our intellect and we begin to believe “that every brilliant idea is also a luminous idea. It can with equal vigor trump up argument for and against God: it has no infallible sense of truth…generally impressed by any show of power and is willing to see in it the Godlike.”[1]An elder of the Coos Nation in Oregon said, “Innocence is not knowing. Ignorance is knowing and not doing anything about it.”[2] We can feel it in our bones when we’re too attached to our intellect. Our bones get wracked with pain. Energy congeals in our sinews. Our real power, separate from our intellect, is the independent life of the soul.
[1] The Mother (of Auroville), 1992, The Soul and Its Powers, compiled by Wayne Bloomquist. Lotus Light Pub., Twin Lakes, Wisconsin.
[2] Personal interview, 1998, Coos Bay, Oregon.
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