Passage 13

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In plain words

Whoever you serve, you must feel that you are serving God. Others are not others: they are the Paramātma! The feeling that they are others must go out of you. The feeling must come that this one too is the Paramātma. Nowhere is there a jīva without divinity.

A man with no faith at all says ‘My God’ in some times of trouble. A little story. Once Nehru went to the Madurai Mīnākṣī temple. There they had put a very precious emerald on Mīnākṣī's neck. He asked how much it might be worth. Nehru saw the worth of the emerald. All the devotees saw Mīnākṣī, who had taken form. The devotees saw divinity. This man saw it in a worldly way. ‘It will be many lakhs,’ they said. “Oh my God!” he said. Where did this ‘God’ come from? Surely it comes only because there is God in him too. Even in wonder there is God. When something falls, we say, ‘Oh my God.’ In this way, without our knowing, divinity comes forth in man. In every man there is divinity. At the final moment all these come forth. Everything outside is only man's reflection.

Anger is the giant ghost

A small example: when the Pāṇḍavas were living their twelve years in the forest, one day Kṛṣṇa went to the forest to ask after them. He stayed there one night. At night they were keeping watch, each one for an hour. Dharmarāja for a while, Bhīma for a while, Arjuna for a while: in this way they were keeping watch. For security they were going about in this way. Then Kṛṣṇa asked, “Dharmaja, will you give me this service?” and said, “Tonight I will do one hour.” “Ah, do it, Swami, do it! You are the protector of the world, and You are the protector of the Pāṇḍavas too,” said Dharmarāja. As each one kept watch, it seemed to the Pāṇḍavas that a ghost was growing and growing, getting bigger and bigger. The Pāṇḍavas made a hero's effort to fight it and could do nothing. As Kṛṣṇa was going, Dharmarāja said, “Swami! In this forest there is a giant ghost. It is a great demoness; it may trouble You, so You must not go!” he said. “Dharmaja, if you had recognised the truth that I am God, what could this giant ghost do to Me?