Rejoicing Without Conflict

Excerpts from Gurudev’s discourse on the Narada Bhakti Sutras

- Gurudev

The moment joy comes in life, suddenly you feel guilty, “Oh, I shouldn’t be enjoying this, no, no, I shouldn’t feel good about me. I shouldn’t praise myself.” And if someone praises you, you feel an expansion. As soon as you feel that expansion, suddenly something happens and you say, “No, no I shouldn’t be feeling like that, this is ego.” You think you are boosting your ego. These types of conflicts put you down. Self blame is the worst thing that can happen to a seeker on the spiritual path. If you blame yourself, how can you ever go near you? Because you never want to go to something which you blame, which you dislike. So if you blame someone, you cannot be one with them. And if you blame yourself, you cannot go deep into yourself. You cannot get in touch with yourself, your centre. In our society, we have made so many arrangements to feel bad about ourselves, blame ourselves - so much guilt, calling yourself a sinner and a hopeless person, good for nothing. And we think that this is humility. The so called humility we practice is nothing but boosting the ego in an indirect way. It is not humility at all. In the name of virtue, in the name of humility, we try to put conflict in our consciousness. In the name of service, in the name of love, unknowingly we are creating more conflict in our consciousness. Then you can never settle peacefully within yourself. Meditation cannot happen within you.

But once the Divine love has caught in you, the spark has come, then the conflict resolves and you settle so deep - this is another sign of Divine love. Okay, if this is not happening, conflicts are still existing, what do you do?