If at this moment you could completely calm your body, your thoughts, and your emotions, you would instantly become aware of your true Self, the soul, and of your great body of the universe, throbbing with the joy of God. The soul would be “established in this own state.” Isn’t ot strange, that the joy of God is there, yet you cannot feel it? The reason you do not know His bliss is that you are intoxicated with ego feeling (chitta).
If I put a screen before me, I will still be here, but you won’t see me. Take the screen away and you will see me. So the screen of feelings arising from the ego (ahamkara or body-consciousness) hides God’s joy. Remove the screen through meditation and you will behold that joy.
Your real nature is calmness. You have put on a mask of restlessness: the agitated state of your consciousness resulting from the stimuli of feelings. You are not that mask; you are pure, calm Spirit. It is time you remember who you are: the blessed soul, a reflection of Spirit. Take off the mask of feelings. Face your Self.
Whenever you become angry or filled with hate you don a guise of evil. A person who gets angry enough wants to kill. He doesn’t want to, really- that is, his soul doesn’t want to- but because the soul had identified itself with feeling, his anger makes him think so. Therefore it is not good to remain in the ordinary state of human consciousness, subject to such violent emotions. You imprison yourself in various moods, and that is the cause of all your sorrows. To escape, you have to dissolve the feelings and emotions connected with body consciousness. Meditation is the way.
Extract from the book “Divine Romance” by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda
