Choice is Yours

Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj

2-12-1934 Evening

One should first know, "Who am I?" This is easy. If there is total inward renunciation, the "I" is Brahman, and then Brahman alone, is. However, first there should be renunciation of objects. If we do not know the Self, we only live as individuals (jivas). We should get up in the morning very nicely. What does that mean? If at the time you wake up, you tell yourself that you are Brahman, you become Brahman.  We should wake up as a king, and live like a king. If you wake up with a feeling of being a beggar, then you will continue begging. One behaves according to the attitude and feeling one adopts. We are the "knowingness" itself and therefore we become a king or a soldier in no time. We ourselves decide what we want to become.

Work is always going on for millions of years. It will never be complete. We will never say that it is enough. The feelings of "my wife" and "my children" are the riches of the individual. The riches of God are such that there is no need for anything. Adopt the attitude that "Nobody belongs to me, I am the Self, alone." The Goddess of the "jiva" is actually the "eclipse of misfortune". The Power of Shiva, is the Goddess of Liberation. Now, whom to wed is in your hands. You may choose whom you wish. Hunger, thirst, desire and anger may be with you for hundreds of thousands of births. You will get that which you choose (jiva or liberation).

It is difficult at the beginning to aspire for the state of Brahman, but it becomes easier afterwards. You should learn to educate your mind to be your own Guru, your own Master. Day and night, you should think of Brahman, and meditate on it. The mind must be helpful. When the mind has a habit, it is doing the same thing again and again. Once there is the attitude or state that one is the All-pervading Brahman, the mind becomes purified in repose in the Self. It becomes the Guru, and then you will have no difficulty at all. If we think of the devotee and God, that the devotee is God, the individual is Brahman and nothing else. However, as soon as there is attachment to objects, you become the individual, the Jiva. When the attachment to objects ends, you are Brahman. When you begin to demand something you become smaller and smaller. One who has no desire is great. To clap is dependent on two hands. Unless the two meet, there is no clapping.