Ego is the greatest aspect of the mind.
But greater than ego is envy. Do not be envious of anybody. If he
drives a Mercedes, good for him. If he drives a Ferrari, good for
him. But don't be envious of him. Many of us are envious of other
people, their progress and success. We shouldn't be. Just accept
life. In the simplest form, it comes to you, but because you're
looking for life in extravagance, not in simplicity, you lose it.
Life can never appear to you in extravagance, only in simplicity. And
when you know your soul (your atma), simplicity becomes your
foundation, your wall, roof, windows and doors. But if you don't
know, then we decorate the walls, roof, windows, and everything else.
Live in that simplicity. I'm not saying
you must not have good homes – I'm talking about the home you carry
around you: your body. The Bible
says the “Kingdom of God is within”. Don't destroy the temple
with your mind. Just enjoy it and see how good you feel.
You know, Kumaresen paid a lot of money
to travel with me. And when we landed in India he had a viral
infection from the water and was in bed for four days. But we carried
on. From Chennai we went to Arunachala, then to Bangalore, and he
slept while I did what I had to do. We went to Appaji and I insisted
he come with me. He slept all the way to Bangalore. We reached
Katmandu and he slept. When he was okay I said, “You spent so much
money and wasted your trip”. What he said to me was, “I'm sure
God didn't want me to see all those places – there was a reason
behind it”. As soon as he saw Mount Kailash he was fine, and the journey
after that was excellent. He said to me, “Maybe Kailash is where I
needed to go”.
There was no sorrow or sadness that he
had spent so much money and couldn't do everything because he was
sick. Is he successful? Yes. Why? He envies nobody. His neighbour can
be richer than him and it doesn't bother him, but it bothers us. If I
drive a BMW or Mercedes tomorrow, none of you will come back because
you think I took your money to buy it. See how the mind works. But
you don't think that you didn't give me a cent. You'll say, “Guru
took all the temple money”.
