Knowing Who You Are

Guru Dev Swami Vishwananda
Know that when you are close to the Divine, you transcend difficulties according to how much your mind is focused on the Divine or on your true Self. Everybody wants to attain this true Self but everybody wants to attain the true Self only by being good. You don’t need to be good; you don’t need to pretend to be good. You just need to be yourself. Even if people think that you are bad, you have to know who you are.

Hands of Light
Before a darshan, Swami Vishwananda told the following story: Once, a Rabbi gave a lecture to his students. The Rabbi quoted from his Bible: “The one who is close to the Divine, close to Yahweh [Christian name of God], is the one who smiles in the midst of difficulties.” Then his students stopped him and asked him, Reverend Sir, can you please explain to us how it is possible that we can smile in times of difficulties? The Rabbi told his students, “Well, it's very difficult to answer your question because when there are difficulties, I also forget to smile."

It’s true: our mind is so engrossed in negativity that we forget the reality. The Rabbi continued: “It’s very difficult for me to tell you how to smile in times of difficulties or in times of great tests. But I know one person in the village who has gone through many trials in his life. When he was just one week old, he lost his parents. Then later on in life he did not succeed in anything he did, but he was always very joyful and smiling.”

The students went to the house of the man in the village the Rabbi had told them about. The students knocked on the door and an answer came, “Who is it?” The students said, “We are students of the Rabbi and we have come to ask you certain questions.” The man replied, “Tell me; what questions do you have?” The students said, “We came across this line in the Bible that said, “The one, who is closest to God smiles in the midst of difficulties.” The man answered, “Well, you have come to the wrong address because I am 78 years old, yet I don’t know about difficulties, so I can’t tell you how to smile in them.”