Beauty Over Power Bhakti Sudhir Goswami

What you are at present, under layers of acquired prejudice and false ego, is not the self that is worth of self-expression.




People think that they’re all about “self-expression”, and “I’ve just got to be me”. Sure, you should be you, but nd out, who you are rst. Don’t assume that what you are at present, under layers of acquired prejudice, acquired tendency and false ego, that false self, cocooning and enveloping the actual self, is the self that is worth all of this self-expression.

The hallmark of spiritual culture: who I am? Where have I come from? What is my purpose?




What is real freedom, what is liberation, what is spiritual inquiry beyond the base necessities of existence? That's actually the hallmark of spiritual culture. Vedanta says, “Athāto brahma jijñāsā”. Now that you've achieved human life, inquire about Brahman. That's where it begins, that's why it starts with word “athāto”—“now”. Some commentators explained, “It means, now, that you've achieved human life, this is what it's meant for.” What did Socrates say? “The unexamined life is not a life worth living”. Meaning, “ātma-samīkṣa”, self-analysis—to try and understand: who I am? Where have I come from? What is my purpose?

We have unique spiritual forms and features, but being covered by layers of ego they are pervertedly expressed into this plane.




The body is the biological expression of the soul’s delusion. So no two are identical, actually, and in that sense not equal. They’re all unique. We have unique spiritual forms and features called swarūp, but at present it is covered by layers of ego—acquired prejudice, acquired tendencies. It’s being pervertedly expressed into this plane, and we’ve taken on these varieties of forms that are all unique, but they’re perverted re ections of the original.

Spiritual culture is about recalibrating your position on the basis of your reality potential.




We are told, the body is karmic dress. Shall that be the means to de ne an individual? Well, no. It should be, we can’t deny— someone is a human being, someone is a dog, someone is a tree. And we are responsible for the karmic dress we are situated in at present. But if we limit de ning ourselves to that, that would be as if to limit de ning ourselves to the clothes that we are wearing.

To see yourself in terms of gender, nationality, age is not having a proper glimpse of yourself, and who you are.




Now we have people thinking the most important aspect of their lives is their sexuality, and they need to express that to be free, liberated, and live a life of happiness. So then we have to consider: what is freedom? What is liberation? Freedom for the senses, or freedom from the senses? If you are viewing the self from the outside in and seeing yourself in terms of gender, nationality, age—all of these things, you’re not having a proper glimpse of yourself, and who you are, and what is your potential.

Humanistic sloganeering: monarch conception in mortal existence.




You wake up one day and gure out—you are being inundated with humanistic sloganeering telling you to believe that, “We've moved away from the monarch conception. Now you're king!” People who swallow humanistic sloganeering are ill-prepared to deal with mortal existence, which is the only type available here presently. It all ends up in the graveyard, then what? —Oh, nobody knows. —No, you don't know, and nobody you know, knows. But that doesn't mean that nobody knows.