Bhagwad Gita - Post 146

Dear All,

Let us move on to the next few qualities of a devotee whom Lord considers as near to Him.

Quality#2

Maitrah, Karuna

Friendly & Compassionate to all

Maitri comes from the Sanskrit word for friend. The root of love for ourselves and others is friendship. 

You must learn to befriend yourself before even thinking of loving other people. 

If you are constantly at war with yourself, how do you think you can live peacefully with another? If you cannot love yourself, you cannot love anyone else.

Remember the talks on “Love All” in Sai Center in the context of  Loving the entire creation which is subsequent to Devotion transforming to Love. 

One who finds / discovers / realizes  God as love within himself, cannot help loving the entire creation of the same lord. 

Karuṇa

Compassionate

Compassion, in this case, is the desire to relieve the suffering of others. 

The notion of the word karuna is that having related to our own suffering we know how scary the darkest parts of our mind can be. 

We then see others grappling with similar afflictions and our heart goes out to them quite naturally. 

We have empathy for them. And, thankfully, because we have learned to befriend ourselves, we know how to skillfully help others do the same thing. 

When we realize that we can help others because suffering is the universal affliction, we can all be there for each other.

Quality# 3 & 4

Nirmamo, Nir Ahankarah

Free from attachment and ego

Nirmamo: They have no sense of ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness. 

Free from attachment here means what??

Free from excessive attachment towards objects, human beings, relationships etc. which emerge due to our Ahankara, Ego. 

How??

You take up any excessive attachment you have in this world or you have had in the past, in this world and introspect the very base of such attachment.

You will realize that the attachment is 100% born out of your own attachment / identification with Body, Mind and Intellect. 

They never believe that they exist independently outside the supreme beatitude of God. Neither the devotee of the Supreme Person nor the devotee of the Universal Being ever considers himself or herself as existing independent of God. 

Free of Ego - it is an abolition of personality — either by self-surrender or by inner communion of spirit with Spirit. 

No sense of ‘I’-ness (Nirmamo). ‘I’ does not exist, because there is only one ‘I’ that can exist — the Supreme ‘I’ — and, therefore, nothing belongs to me. 

Neither have they any sense of existing independently by themselves, nor have they a sense of possession of any article whatsoever in this world. They are free from ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness.

Dear All,

It may be noticed that out of the qualities given till now, No hatred towards any one, friendly, compassionate, free from attachment and ego, the subtlest quality observed, which cannot be seen or witnessed at a grosser level by anyone who comes into contact with such a devotee is,

FREE FROM EGO

And, how this quality, “Free from ego” is explained above??

Neither the devotee of the Supreme Person (in the path of devotion) nor the devotee of the Universal Being (in the path of Jnana) ever considers himself or herself as existing independent of God.

A whole theme “MANAS BUDDHI CHITTA AHANKARA (MBCA)” has been allocated only for explaining the process of  “getting free from ahankara”.

And, come to think of it, unless one is not free from ego, how can one be a friend, how can one be compassionate, how can one be free of attachment, how one can be free of hatred, as per the commentary on all these qualities??

Love.