So long you have thought of yourself as having certain qualities, with their characteristic feelings and emotions. Patanjali says you are masquerading as these passions and desires because you have done it for so many incarnations that you have utterly forgotten your real nature. Once you realise that each day you are only impersonating different characteristics according to your changing feelings, you will not be the same person; you will be able to cast off these delusive states. When you realise that passion and anger are not part of your true nature, these emotions will no longer have any control over you. Every person is innately wonderful; he has only to rid himself of the mask of ego consciousness. Remember that.
If you put a diamond near a black cat, the diamond will reflect black. Can you then say the diamond is black? No. As soon as you remove the black cat and allow light to play on the diamond, it dazzles with its own natural luster. The black cat is your restlessness, which darkens your consciousness with emotions and obscures the light and joy of the soul. The very nature of restlessness is such that by the time you are feeling pleasure from one thing you are already looking for something different, a persistent discontent stirred by feeling. But bliss- the joy of God hidden in your soul- is always new, always constant in your consciousness. Because it gives complete satisfaction, there is no restlessness in you. I hope you understand the value of what I am telling you today. It is the way to freedom from all sorrow.
Extract from the book “Divine Romance” by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda.
