Ignorance is the inability to see the changes in the changing world and inability to see the Non-changing in your Self

🌷 Katho Upanishad 🌷

        

       Chapter 4

 

       Beyond the layers of existence

      🌻 Day 33 🌻

The Self is formless in the midst of forms. All these forms – one is yelling, one is

shouting, one is calm, one is crying, one is laughing; all these forms behaving in various ways are all just permeated by one form that is my Self!

It is Changeless in the midst of change. Everything is changing but that One Thing is not changing. When you are so hard on yourself you say, “Oh! Nothing is changing. I am not changing.” My dear, look a little deeper. When you feel you are not changing, that too is the true! There is something in you that is not changing. Forget about your behaviour, your feelings and other things. Everything around is changing and what is not changing is the True Thing inside you. Instead of looking at the unchanging, you are saying the changing is not changing. That is ignorance. “Nothing changes, nothing is different nothing is changing,” – you are focused on the form and still you are unable to see the changes in the changing world. This is ignorance. And that makes you unhappy, “Nothing changes. I did pranayama, but nothing changes. I did this but nothing changes, Oh, my God!”

Ignorance is the inability to see the changes in the changing world and inability to see the Non-changing in your Self. There is something that is not changing. Even if

you have grasped it yet, still I tell you, everybody has had glimpse of that experience – that “something in me has not changed” or “I have not changed.” Acknowledge happily. We acknowledge unhappily, “Oh, nothing is changing in me. I am hopeless.” Stop lamenting that “nothing is changing in me, I behave the same” right from today. Why do you be hurt and blame yourself on that issue? Instead of

miserably saying “nothing is changing in me” with your attention on change, put your attention on the Non-changing and happily say “nothing is changing in me.”

Twist “I am not changing” – to “I am Non-changing.”

In Sanskrit bravery and patience have the same word. The brave on is never impatient. Patience should not be mistaken for lack of courage. One who is brave is not aggressive. Who is aggressive? The one who is weak. These are two different concepts between the Orient and the Occident. In the Occident, bravery means aggression, not patience. In the Orient, bravery means patience, not aggression. A brave one doesn’t have to be aggressive; he knows it is very simple and can handle anything. He will never lose his calm, never act in a hurry. For him it’s like lifting a finger. All the martial arts are developed on this principle – patience. Someone is coming to attack and the martial artist is just focused. He is patient holding the hand in a particular way. He is not shaking, shivering, going aggressively, yelling and pouncing on them. He patiently waits for opponent to attack them he defends. And in defence he just one thing and the other person falls apart. The law of martial arts is that the attacker is the weaker one. The one who comes to attack, the aggressive one is weaker. One who resists the attack is the strong one. Defence is the best offence.

- Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Katho Upanishad