Lord Krishna says the body goes through the changes of childhood, youth and old age (kaumaram, yauvanam, jara). But something within it remains the same in childhood, in middle age and in old age. We say: “I am young,” “I am middle-aged,” “I am old.” The body has gone through death and change, but change happens only if there is a changeless principle within you that is unpolluted.
Discover that changeless being. “I was young, then I became middle-aged.” But the “I” in youth is the same as the “I” in middle age and old age. So, if you want to bring excellence to any issue, look at the core of the issue. The Lord says that when you look at yourself, don’t focus on the periphery—see the core of yourself. You say things are changing, yet there is a contrast called a changeless principle.
Intelligent people should be grateful to fools because, without fools, intelligence cannot be defined. If you say, “I am intelligent, and I am upset with my subordinate who is a fool,” I would say that your subordinate is the contrast through which you define yourself as intelligent. If everyone were intelligent, then what would be the essence of intelligence? Intelligence exists only in contrast to the lack of it. Therefore, every intelligent person should be grateful to the unintelligent.
Everything exists in contrast. The periphery of you is constantly changing, while the core remains unchanged. If you master the knack of looking at your core, then when you face a problem, you will naturally look at the core of the problem, not just its periphery. You will not be disturbed by the periphery, because the periphery exists only in contrast to the core. Hence, Krishna says that while things are changing, something within you remains unchanged. On the surface of the ocean, there are waves, but deep within, there is a certain stillness. The waves of the ocean are beautiful, but in its depths lies stillness. Discover the totality of the ocean; discover the totality of yourself.
The periphery of you is change, death. But there is also a core within you that is changeless. If you don’t discover that core, then you are living in the world without truly knowing yourself, and that is a maddening attitude towards life. Know yourself. At that core lies a pure and unpolluted centre within all of us. In the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, this is called asmita. If you don’t discover asmita, your intelligence and excellence will never grow.
Having understood through Buddhi Yoga, the path of discriminative intelligence, use Bhakti Yoga to pray to the Lord for the blessing of discovering your inner centre. Don’t live only on the periphery of your being; dip into yourself with love and the grace of the Lord. Our inner essence is: we are nobody, and our personality is that we are somebody.