Swami Ramakrishnananda’s birthday
A teaching from Swami Ramakrishnananda
“When we drop the ego from our consciousness and live in God, we have unlimited power. God is the only existence that is real; all other existences are unrealities behind which God exists as the reality. This maya is so irresistible and it is this maya which makes us selfish. Only when God is gracious to us can we lift the veil and get a glimpse of Him. Then all selfishness drops off.
“The word ‘selfishness’ is not always understood. When by ‘self’ I understand the body or the little self and I do something for that self, I am selfish. But there is a Self which is beyond this physical body; when I do something for that Self, that is worshipping God. The man who lives in that higher Self is never selfish. Try to feel God inside yourself and you will overcome all selfishness. When you live constantly in the presence of Divinity, the ego loses its power; but so long as the ego rules a man, he is a bond-slave. All your anxieties and worries come from egotism and selfishness. Let go of your little self and they will all disappear.”
–God Lived with Them, Swami Chetanananda