Develop Enthusiasm in Life

It is a very important aspect in life. Study the life history of successful people and you would find that one of the ingredients was tremendous enthusiasm or the passion to live life. One should have passion to live life. It is said, Edmond Hilary who climbed Mount Everest, failed thrice earlier. Later at a party hosted in his honour in New Zealand, he looked at the portrait of Mount Everest and humorously remarked, ‘Mt. Everest has a problem. The problem is, it cannot grow more than about 29,000 feet, whereas I have the ability to grow in my ability to climb Mt. Everest.’ What he meant was that he has the ability to grow whereas Mount Everest stood at the height of about 29,000 feet. Look at his passion. In the very next attempt, he scaled Mt. Everest successfully.

In us there is a ‘lower-self’ called Jeevatma and a ‘higher-self’ called Paramatma. One can either operate from the ‘lower self’ or from the ‘higher self.’ When one operates from the ‘lower self,’ one finds his life is not powerful whereas operating from the ‘higher self’ results in the opposite. This is the choice before us.

If one operates from the ‘lower self,’ life opens up as a threat. While operating from the ‘higher self,’ the life opens up as opportunity. Operating from the ‘higher self’ consistently generates enthusiasm.

Any situation viewed as threat is an example of one involving the ‘lower self.’ The ‘lower self’ operates as an interfering thought or an obstructing thought. The ‘higher self’ operates as a supporting thought, not as an obstruction. In any situation in life, if seen as opportunity, it is supportive. If seen as an obstruction, it is like a danger or a threat…. it is a function of the ‘lower self.’

Our bodies have an immune system; if it is weak, the body is prone to disease. So too, we have a psychological immune system. If our psychological immune system is weak … we are upset, hurt, frustrated. Like genes in our bodies, our minds are also products of evolution of many years. When our psychological immune system is weak, we are prone to perceive external situations as dangerous or as obstruction. It only calls for strengthening the psychological immune system so as to be powerful individuals.

How do you make it powerful? Like how we make the physical body powerful by right exercising and dieting, so too, the psychological immune system can be made powerful by not allowing the ‘lower self’ in us to operate... instead we should encourage the higher centre to operate in our daily lives.

In our lives we operate from acquired knowledge, rather than the cosmic intelligence of the cell. Where do we draw our identify from? Most of us draw our identify from our acquired knowledge. Don’t we? Why is it so? Because through acquired knowledge, our ego is established, our identity is established, our address is established. Whereas in cell intelligence that we have not created, but are gifted with, our uniqueness is not established. Ego is established in the ‘I.’ The acquired knowledge is the ‘lower self.’ The knowledge from which we are born – the cell evolution is the ‘higher self.’

Let us draw our identity from this growing cell that is the ‘higher self.’ But alas, we don’t trust this. Instead we trust our acquired knowledge. In life we should eliminate our ‘lower self’ and operate from cosmic intelligence. The acquired knowledge will be supportive in our growth and not obstructive. Understand this distinction.

Acquired knowledge should support the ‘higher self,’ not obstruct it. For example, in a game of tennis, when you see a ball coming from an opponent, your thought should not interfere with it and obstruct your spontaneous effort to hit a ball. But if you think, ‘Oh, I am going to miss it because my history of missed stroke last time’; then acquired knowledge is obstructing. As a player, you cannot succeed.

Suppose, the ‘higher self’ looks at a ball in a different way - “With a focused awareness I allow my being that has evolved to guide me in hitting a ball. In case I miss it, the ‘higher self’ being a learning and evolving being, makes required corrections the next time I face a ball... but whereas acquired self or the ‘lower self’ creates an image that I am not good and I am not lucky. This image makes me look at a ball next time as a threat and acts as an obstruction. The ‘lower self’ is rigid, while the ‘higher self’ is flexible in learning and growing. I will not allow my static conclusions to decide my action instead allow my flow to decide a response.”