Theos-Talk Archives (December 2006 Message tt00806)

WIDENING TOWARD THE UNIVERSAL 
(From "The Theosophical Movement" magazine, August 2003) 
Rabindranath Tagore in his Sadhana states: "To the man who lives for an idea, for his country, for the good of humanity, life has an extensive meaning, and to that extent pain becomes less important to him." This is a statement which becomes self-evident upon consideration. This is to state, a person is free of suffering to the extent he is unselfish. This is because he is not consumed by his own needs and desires. The selfish person demands the personal attention of others, often by calling upon them to do things he is entirely able to do himself. He demands attention by reciting his pains and troubles to anyone who will listen. He calls attention to any area in which he may excel. In short, he lives but for his own pleasure.
Tagore observes: "Pleasure is for one's own self, but goodness is concerned with the happiness of all humanity and for all time." He adds: "From the point of view of the good, pleasure and pain appear in a different meaning; so much so, that pleasure may be shunned, and pain courted in its place, and death itself be made welcome as giving a higher value to life.
The limiting nature of selfishness and separateness is centripetal, increasingly restricted, until the personal self's choice of movement is reduced to a minimum. The interest of the self-centred person is increasingly limited, the imagination failing and faulty, gradually losing its ability to respond to the creative impulse. The will becomes narrow and ineffective. Thought loses its elasticity and its ability to recognize Universals. The feelings become dejected and frustrated, suffering the torture of hopelessness and despair.
Our Individuality, by its nature, seeks the Universal. The more vigorous our Individuality, the more it widens toward the Universal. It seeks to embrace more and more of its environment. When inspired by "goodness," when it seeks its own in others' good, when it realizes that all separateness brings pain and misery and that the feeling of Oneness brings happiness, then personal interests and accentuation of "me" and "mine" becomes abhorrent and meaningless. This was the Message of Unity proclaimed by all those who have gone before. Then, gradually as we grow, we find a great change in our attitude: "Gradually the Conscious Will replaces the subconscious Desire." This is the Way of Life, the Path, the Road to Greatness, for it arouses increasing awareness of the Universal Self, the true Individuality, and that is the essence of Greatness.
 


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