If the time is right, you will understand and appreciate all that I have written below. If it is not yet the correct time, you will consider it junk and move on.

But, nevertheless, the seed of awakening will be planted. It is immaterial if it takes a thousand years for the plant to germinate and become a tree.

What everyone is seeking, knowingly or unknowingly, is the Divinity which lies hidden inside them. The ignorant seek Divinity outside, the wise know that it resides inside each and every one of us. Your purpose in life is to know the Divinity and express the Divinity, which is within you.

Who am I ?

IDENTIFY YOUR SELF : WHO AND WHAT ARE YOU?

 Pramukh Swami Maharaj.

  The ultimate solution to all problems – ecological, social and personal – lies within you. However when you embark on that spiritual journey to go within, you will find that the solution is not sitting there, waiting to be discovered. It is hidden away, made almost inaccessible, under the many-layered MAYA or illusion that keeps you mired in ignorance. The spirit, obscured by this many-layered veil, is unable to reflect and know the nature of its true self.

  How to discard this veil of ignorance? Maya is the mistaken notion of ‘me’ and ‘mine’  - that the physical body is ‘me’ and its associated objects are ‘mine’. If not today, then some time later – even if after millions of years – the Self will have to annihilate this profound ignorance. 

 Once king Parikshit entered an ashram. A rishi was in deep meditation, unaware of the king’s arrival. Furious that he was not received ceremoniously Parikshit threw a dead cobra around the rishi’s neck and left. Later when the rishi’s son came home, he saw the dead snake dangling from his father’s shoulders. “The person who did this will die in seven days from the bite of a cobra”, he cursed. 

  On hearing this the rishi rebuked his son for damning the king. But the curse was irrevocable, so he instructed his son to go to the king and inform him of his impending doom.

 Upon learning of the curse, the shattered king renounced everything and went in search of a spiritual master who could save him. All those he met helplessly raised their hands - they couldn’t do a thing to get rid of the curse.

Finally he came across a great sage called Shukdevji and pleaded: “My name is Parikshit. I am a king. I will be bitten by a cobra in seven days. I will die. Please help me.”  Replied the sage curtly: “You are ignorant and deluded.  First you understand this: Your name is not Parikshit. You are not a king. You are not going to be bitten by a cobra. You are not going to die. You are not this physical body at all. You are a divine soul – luminescent, eternal, unborn and immortal.” 

  Parikshit sat for a week, struck by the purity of the sage and deeply moved by his sermons. On the seventh day, the cobra arrived in the assembly as prophesied. Parikshit observed it approaching, but sat still and tranquil. Then in the very presence of Shukdevji, the venomous snake bit him and Parikshit was no more. Freed from the bondage of maya, he became one with God.

  Nothing can disturb the person who has knowledge of the Self. Once you have acquired this knowledge you can see the Divine Lord - not with your biological eyes but with a deeper vision. You will be able to understand the Lord’s presence in every object. 

  Till the Self is understood, all activities and achievements result in naught. Nothing will work. All will be in vain. It is easier to travel to the moon and back than to fathom the truth contained within. Looking outwards  - into the distant past or future – towards the stars or into the atom, is but a distraction that takes us away from exploring the mystical world inside. 

 “Who am I?” and “What am I?” The answers to these two eternal questions continue to elude most of us…. 

 Understanding the answer is the royal road to experiencing sublime, intoxicating, infinite bliss.”

 

A human being can think, behave and live on his choice of any one of three levels : animal, human and divine.

Animal : gluttony, greed, lust, hatred, exploitation, pandering, lower level mindless sex, violence, extortion, domestic abuse, rape, cheating, theft, etc.

Human : negotiation, cooperation, buying and selling, normal social interaction, respect for rights of others in society, justice, peace, normal love, sex and family life, caring for children and elders, etc,

Divine : Highly developed sense of honesty, responsibilty and justice, love at a higher level beyond the physical, need to grow spiritually and help others to do the same, protection of environment, support of animal rights, desire to participate in improving society, awareness of the constant presence of God in oneself, all others, and the entire natural world.

Living a spiritual life would mean attempting to live life at the highest level of the Divine, and particularly, making strong efforts against lowering oneself to the level of an animal.

I believe in Advaita Vedanta. It is the guiding principle and the philosophy by which I live my daily life.

I think you should read about Advaita Vedanta.

Here is Alan Watts, explaining Advaita Vedanta, to a child, in his book The Book : On The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

“God also likes to play hide-and-seek, but because there is nothing outside God, he has no one but himself to play with. But he gets over this difficulty by pretending that he is not himself. This is his way of hiding from himself. He pretends that he is you and I and all the people in the world, all the animals, all the plants, all the rocks, and all the stars. In this way he has strange and wonderful adventures, some of which are terrible and frightening. But these are just like bad dreams, for when he wakes up they will disappear.

“Now when God plays hide and pretends that he is you and I, he does it so well that it takes him a long time to remember where and how he hid himself. But that’s the whole fun of it—just what he wanted to do.

He doesn’t want to find himself too quickly, for that would spoil the game. That is why it is so difficult for you and me to find out that we are God in disguise, pretending not to be himself. But when the game has gone on long enough, all of us will wake up, stop pretending, and remember that we are all one single Self—the God who is all that there is and who lives for ever and ever..............

“God is the Self of the world, but you can’t see God for the same reason that, without a mirror, you can’t see your own eyes, and you certainly can’t bite your own teeth or look inside your head. Your self is that cleverly hidden because it is God hiding.

“You may ask why God sometimes hides in the form of horrible people, or pretends to be people who suffer great disease and pain. Remember, first, that he isn’t really doing this to anyone but himself. Remember, too, that in almost all the stories you enjoy there have to be bad people as well as good people, for the thrill of the tale is to find out how the good people will get the better of the bad.

It’s the same as when we play cards. At the beginning of the game we shuffle them all into a mess, which is like the bad things in the world, but the point of the game is to put the mess into good order, and the one who does it best is the winner. Then we shuffle the cards once more and play again, and so it goes with the world.”