How To Leave The Influence of Body-Consciousness

If there is one vice present others are not far behind. So too, if there is one positive quality it can take the soul forward to perfection, gradually embracing all other virtues on the way.

By focussing on my virtures, not stay on my defects, they will strengthen. Beacause the destination in Raja Yoga is high, defects are bound to apprear. If, instead of becoming unhappy, I look at my strong points, without ego or body-consciousness, and seeing them as gifts from God, they will take me far beyond negativity.

The negative approach of trying to tackle the vices is like a little boy trying to plug up all the holes in the wall of a dyke. Eventually he runs out of fingers and toes to block the holes and is unable to stop the flow. The positive approach is to take God's help. I go beyond the defects that keep appearing, bey seeing myself more and more in the mirror of His qualities.

What else but virtue can I give to God? Only the love that is in my heart. I am then able to serve the world with honesty. If the soul says, "It's too difficult to carry on", Shive Baba will say, "Who told you to go alone? Just sit in my lap and I will carry you. You are like a child learning to walk, who wants to leave its mother's hand but falls over. Stay in my lap and I will take care of you." The soul takes the positive approach and goes on inculcating positive natural qualities. Automatically, the vices are replaced by virtues.

It is sometimes difficult to realise that any problem or disturbance I feel is because of the influence of the vices within the self. No-one or nothing external can really upset me, but I upset myself. By not blaming anyone else if I am unhappy I free myself. The more I become free from body-consciousness, the more tolerant and accommodating I become. Because I am no longer intellectually in bondage to my own identity, I no longer categorise others according to physical criteria. I don't try to impress them with my qualities but with the qualities of my highest Father.

Knowledge of God and His acts impresses upon me that I am His heir, the inheritor of His qualities. When I know God and His most beautiful form and abode, I can develop to my maximum potential and thus experience constant happiness.

Forms Of Body-Consciousness - Laziness

When the weight of past sins is heavy it produces a type of spiritual sluggishness that hampers the effort to change thought, words and actions. The laziness on a subtle level deludes the soul into imagining that "Everything is alright. There are no problems. I'm OK." The soul rejects the impulse to make internal efforts. There's an expression in India that spiritual endeavour "isn't as easy as going to your aunty's house". Many desist from practices like meditation after only a few tries because laziness pulls the soul towards complacency which it mistakes for contentment. Laziness, you could say, is one of the main perpetrators of a negative state of mind, robbing zeal and giving birth and sustenance to the other vices. All of the above negative forces surface in the mind at any appropriate situation unless the soul is in the sweet remembrance of the true Mother and Father. When I know myself from God, these vices and their offspring such as sloth, vanity, jealousy, fault-finding, etc are intruders into the original texture of the soul. In front of me, I can see a state of complete freedom, and it is a state definitely without these negative forces.

Forms Of Body-Consciousness - Anxiety And Worry

In the natural state there are no ripples of gloom. I am perfectly peaceful and content. Nothing disturbs me. In ignorance I am worried when expectations meet disappointment, when someone to whom I am attached goes away or has an accident. Worry saps the life-energy and drains away courage, zeal, reason, memory and happiness. As a yogi, the only worry I have is forgetting God and my relationship with Him.