A day in Kolkata consists of morning worship, which is called mangal aroti, the darshan, or associaiton of His Divine Grace, our spiritual reacher and then a reading from one of the scriptures, bhajans, or devotional songs or prayers, and then prasad, blessed food. For me personally, there is also a lot of introspection and moments where I am the observer watching all things unfold and how I react to them.
I have been observing also the way the Bengali devotees behave. Humility seems to be inherent within their nature. It is that feeling of having nothing more than the mercy of the Lord or living according to what is given to you or what comes your way. They are not proud of their false identity because they do not have much but their own body to represent themselves; not their car, or their house, or their money, or their muscles…They live an austere life with a good amount of suffering and hardship.
It makes me think about why it is so dangerous to have position or think that you have one. The minute you do, you take your position for granted, consider yourself above everyone, and begin looking for disciples and acting harshly. Pride blinds one from beauty. Pride is a symptom of: “I think I am the center of the universe” therefore you see yourself only and others are according to your needs and how they can serve you. And then, because it is a gross thing and naturally you become unhappy, you begin finding fault in others and treating others so rude as to make them as unhappy as you are.
I pray to be satisfied with any connection to a higher plane of existence and not for the search of position, name, and fame. It is like that song: “Avatara sara” that we sing in the morning; we are surrounded by an ocean yet we deny ourselves a drink. We take that which is nectar to be poison, and that which is poison to be nectar. Name, fame, pride, and material wealth is like poison because it habituates you to think that you are this false identity which is so temporary.
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