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Soul Sustenance 05-07-2012
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Going Beyond False Identifications
The more I identify with the physical factors of my life, the more I become a prisoner to my destiny or the various up and downs of my life. E.g. if my self-respect is attached to my beautiful new car, how will I feel about myself when the car becomes old and its beauty and shine reduce? Or if I my car is stolen or gets immensely damaged in a road accident? Then, I shall find myself in an identity crisis. The same will be true if my business or job is everything to me. If one day, I am in a good financial state and I enjoy a very respectable and dominant position, and the next day I find myself in a dispute in my profession and I suddenly lose all of that, and nobody wants to know me, I will feel as if I have lost my soul and have almost died. The problem is sometimes so great that people do, literally, lose their desire to live. It happens, too, in relationships, when your partner leaves you either due to a separation, a divorce or even death - a partner in whom you have invested all your love and emotions. Or if my identity is tied to my back balance or property, and suddenly I am broke.
All of these are actually false identifications, and the crazy part of living this way is that I can never be satisfied, even if I succeed in maintaining my false identity. These kind of false identifications do not keep me placed stably on my seat of self-respect and either bring about an inferiority complex or a superiority complex - both of which are false, so both bring insecurity. Even while I am externally successful, having my identity based on that success means I am a slave to them. I've handed over my self-esteem to them. I become addicted to it.
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Message for the day 05-07-2012
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There is victory for the person who opposes the weaknesses instead of
the person.
Expression:
Instead of trying to win over a person who displays any negative
qualities, one needs to oppose the negativity itself. The one who
knows the art of doing this will never do anything to encourage the
weakness in the other person but will provide all help to finish it
fully.
Experience:
Since I am able to look at the weakness only and am trying to finish
it, I will be free from negative feelings of dislike and hatred. There
would be a genuine feeling of love, which in turn provides the right
environment for the other person's growth.
In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris