The ultimate victory
October 2015
By Dada Vaswani
On the occasion of Dussehra, Dada JP Vaswani, spiritual head of the Pune-based Sadhu Vaswani Mission, offers us this thought-provoking l
Within every one of us there are two selves. There is the lower self with which we are familiar. It is what we call the ego self. It is the self of passion and pride. It is the self of lust and hatred and greed. It is the self of selfishness and miserliness. We have identified ourselves with this lower self. Actually this lower self, this ego self is such a tiny thing. It is a speck of a speck of a speck. But because we have identified ourselves with it, we magnify it beyond all proportions in our daily life. This ego self sits on the threshold of our consciousness and easily catches us, captures us, misleads us, leads us astray. But there is the larger self, the nobler self, the true self, or in the words of the Bhagavad Gita, the Self Supreme. We are unaware of the existence of this self. But in the measure in which we identify ourselves with this larger self, this supreme self, in that measure the divine power, the potential that lies hidden within us will be unfolded, and we will find wonderful things happening in our daily life. You may have heard the name of Caruso, that great singer. Concerning him, William Burk said: �Caruso was not a singer, he was a miracle.� Truly, he was a miracle. It is said that through his singing, through his music, he could create such powerful vibrations as would break a glass into pieces. They used to keep a glass in front of him and Caruso would sing. Merely by the vibrations that he created by his singing the glass would break into pieces. We are told that he was a failure when he began his career. When he gave his first performance, the people were so sadly disappointed that they took sticks in their hands and chased Caruso out of the city. But Caruso was not the one to give up. He was found pacing up and down in his living room, uttering these words as if they were a mantra of his life. The words were: �You little me get out of me. You big me get into me! You little me get out of me, you big me get into me! You little me get out of me. You big me get into me!
Eschew the smaller self and align to the higher self
There are these two ME�s, there are these two selves, the little self, the little me, the big self, the big me. Invite the big me into your life, hand over the charge of your life to that big me and you will find wonderful things happening in and through your life. The battle between Sri Rama and Ravana, may be seen as the struggle between the higher self (representing qualities of forgiveness, kindness and compassion) and the lower self (representing qualities of aggression, desire and violence). Sri Rama is symbolic of all that is noble and virtuous. Ravana is symbolic of aggression and force. Man has the free will, he has the freedom to choose between Sri Rama and Ravana. If we wish to be true winners in the battle of life, we too must make the right choice; we must choose good over evil. Sri Rama�s life teaches us that true spirituality is not flight � it is a heroic fight against the lower self of passion and pride, of lust and hatred and greed. Life is a battlefield and everyone is called upon to stand up as a hero, a soldier of the Spirit. Ravana�s life teaches us that ultimate victory belongs not to physical might, cruelty and injustice but to humility, purity and compassion. The ten-headed monster is within every one of us. Every one of us carries within him the ten-headed monster, and we have to wage a war against this ten-headed monster and the Dussehra comes to proclaim the victory of righteousness over the forces of evil.
About the author : Dada J P Vaswani heads the Sadhu Vaswani Mission and is the author of over 50 books in English and many more in Sindhi on happy, successful, spiritual and non-violent living.