Let the new year bring devotion, humility, and understanding. Life without these three has neither substance nor depth. Acquire these three qualities through effort and prayer, with effort having a prayerful attitude. With prayer in one’s heart, one learns to surrender and allow God to play the game of life.
Jesus, Moses, and an old man were playing golf. Moses hit a ball that passed through a huge pond, eventually falling on the other side. Then Jesus hit a ball that passed through the pond. Here again, the pond gave way. Even a small hillock after the pond gave way, and finally the ball landed on the other side of the hillock. Now it was the turn of the old man. When he hit the ball, it got stuck in a huge tree. There was a strong breeze, which made the ball fall into the pond. A frog in the pond caught the ball. A snake caught the frog. An eagle watching from the treetop caught the snake and flew away. In between, the eagle dropped the snake from its grasp, and the snake, in turn, released the frog, which then released the ball. The ball fell right on the 18th hole of the golf course. Moses looked at Jesus and said, ‘Never play golf with this old man.’ The old man was Jesus’s father, Jehovah, the Lord.
When Jehovah, the Lord, played the stroke, the breeze, the eagle, the snake, the frog, the pond helped mysteriously. When you surrender, unseen forces begin to assist you in reaching your goal. When you put in effort with deep prayer, you discover that invisible, mysterious forces come to your aid.
It is not ego that leads one to a goal, but commitment. A commitment born of understanding enables one to reach that goal. Ego creates only pressure and stress—an arrogant ‘I’, an ‘I’ devoid of sacred understanding. With humility, one still retains an ‘I’, but it is an ‘I’ grounded in the awareness that the ingredients of success are not solely the result of one’s effort, but also include a variable called grace. Humility brings the understanding that effort is only one variable, and that several invisible forces also lend their support. From this awareness arises gratitude toward those unseen forces. Through gratitude, humility deepens. In humility, the ‘I’ does not demand; it expresses thankfulness instead.
The ego creates tension in life through its persistent demands. Such a demanding nature breeds tension, and tension does not allow one to enjoy success fully. An egoistic person, even when successful, cannot truly relish that success. It is like a person with a toothache who cannot enjoy a good meal. An ego-driven individual does not experience success in its fullness, as ego breeds arrogance.
By contrast, when a humble person encounters success, gratitude naturally arises, allowing him to enjoy it completely. In a state of thankfulness, one is bestowed with the ability to savour the miracle of one’s success. Such a person also includes in his perception all the invisible forces that have contributed to that success.
Within us, there is a ‘lower self’ called jeevatma and a ‘higher self’ called paramatma. When one operates from the lower self, life appears powerless; operating from the higher self produces the opposite effect. This is the choice before us.