{"id":555,"date":"2015-02-12T14:13:18","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T19:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/?p=555"},"modified":"2015-02-12T14:14:38","modified_gmt":"2015-02-12T19:14:38","slug":"the-further-we-step-in-the-direction-our-ego-drives-us-the-farther-away-we-stray-from-our-true-purpose-in-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/the-further-we-step-in-the-direction-our-ego-drives-us-the-farther-away-we-stray-from-our-true-purpose-in-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The further we step in the direction our ego drives us, the farther away we stray from our true purpose in life!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWe are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one&#8217;s own ego and one&#8217;s own desires.\u201d<br \/>\n<em>&#8211; Pope Benedict XVI<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u00a0<\/em><br \/>\n<strong><em>Kabir &#8211; The couplet<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n\u092a\u093f\u092f\u093e \u091a\u093e\u0939\u0947 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0947\u092e \u0906\u0938, \u0930\u0916\u093e \u091a\u093e\u0939\u0947 \u092e\u0928 \u0964<br \/>\n\u0926\u094b\u0909 \u0916\u095c\u0917 \u090f\u0915 \u092e\u092f\u093e\u0928 \u092e\u0947\u0902, \u0926\u0947\u0916\u093e \u0938\u0941\u0928\u093e \u0928 \u092e\u0928 ||<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Transliterated:<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nPiya Chhahe Prem Aas, Rakha Chhahe Man |<br \/>\nDou Khadga Ek Mayan Mein, Dekha Suna Na Man||<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Translation:<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nThe lover desires to possess (the full) love (of the lover), but also wants to retain his own heart |<br \/>\nTwo swords in one scabbard, this is not something normal or workable ||<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>My understanding:<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nThis week, as I continue to reflect on the stranglehold ego possesses on the self, I am watching the play of ego in trying to subvert the self into a confused plethora of emotions \u2013 all designed to distract, confuse, and remove the focus of the mind from the self to more immediate physical needs (which on closer inspection do not justify their presence as any need, true or otherwise).<br \/>\n&amp;nbsp<br \/>\nIf this is the state when this is my primary focus, what protection does the average person have in a normal life where society, family and the \u201cpressures\u201d of the day rule roost on the day\u2019s priorities?<\/p>\n<p>If so, are those priorities right? I asked the question, and forced myself to stay calm in the face of the presented storm. Slowly, all of them, spent in the absence of their fuel (emotion), died down, and I began to realize that the frenzy was just a false front designed to scare me into submission, not a presentation of reality. As they died, I began to realize that calm is my natural state \u2013 not otherwise as life has led me to believe.<\/p>\n<p>This allows me to look at the activity from a position of great inner strength, and has realigned my day for me.<\/p>\n<p>Try it \u2013 this is truly liberating!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWe are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one&#8217;s own ego and one&#8217;s own desires.\u201d &#8211; Pope Benedict XVI \u00a0 Kabir &#8211; The couplet \u092a\u093f\u092f\u093e \u091a\u093e\u0939\u0947 \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0947\u092e \u0906\u0938, \u0930\u0916\u093e \u091a\u093e\u0939\u0947 \u092e\u0928 \u0964 \u0926\u094b\u0909 \u0916\u095c\u0917 \u090f\u0915 \u092e\u092f\u093e\u0928 \u092e\u0947\u0902, \u0926\u0947\u0916\u093e \u0938\u0941\u0928\u093e \u0928&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kabir","category-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":557,"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions\/557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.akella.org\/mani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}