Blue Star Learning Centre

A Path to Freedom Through Action
There is a yoga of action, karma yoga, which says that we can become free through the path of action. Of course who becomes free if not the ego, coming into a space where it is in deeper surrender to Self, where it loses its selfishness, centred in its Source. So in the path of action, the ego has to go through transformation. You have an opportunity of transforming your ego every time you act....

You bind yourself to the karmic play through selfishness of the ego. So whenever you act out of selfishness, you are strengthening the bind that the ego is going to get involved in. When you create a desire for example and you become attached to it, that is a bind in the play that has to be fulfilled. When you become negative about something and you hold that attachment to the negative, that too has to be cleared up.

The idea is to be able to act unselfishly in the play. Is that a possibility, that you can act totally motivated, totally happy, totally excited, but unselfish? Easy to say but I am not sure if it is so easy to do because very subtly, whenever you act, you have an expectation; you are setting a condition. You see it; you give someone something and you expect something back in return. You do something good, you expect recognition or reward. And that is built in the society; we tend to recognize and reward so we are building egos. Can you give without the need for recognition and reward? Can you really do that at the most subtle level? And is it good to do? Is it wise to do? Is it the way that we can free ourselves from that bind in the karmic play?
Sri Vasudeva

Be Emotionally Intelligent in the Play
Are you aware of how a low consciousness can allow the manifestation of lower emotions, and a higher consciousness can evoke higher emotions? Who is in charge of this? In the ignorance we feel that we have no power: “I hate this person. I am just made up this way, I cannot do anything about it.” We feel that we have no power. Then in a more heightened consciousness, we begin to say, “What is this inside of me? Why am I so jealous? Why am I so unforgiving?” In a higher consciousness, we tend to separate ourselves from the lower nature. The motive becomes, “How can I change this? This depresses me. This depletes me. This creates conflict in my space. I do not want this.” That desire for transformation will help us to grow the consciousness....

The question becomes, “How do I pull myself away from that negative emotion that seems to be so strong in me? How can I become more forgiving when I do not want to forgive? Please help me. Grant me more awareness. Open my mind, Lord, Dhiyo Yo Naḥ Prachodayāt, illumine my intellect. Tamaso Mā Jyotir Gamaya, take away the darkness from within me.” And in that prayer, when it is sincere, grace comes, the Master comes, shaktipāt comes. The Universe in its benevolent nature grants our desire. “Oh now I am seeing these qualities that I owned. I do not want to have them anymore.” In higher consciousness, we learn to accept the lower nature; we do not fight with it. We begin to feel the power to detach from it and to choose another. That is what is called ‘emotional intelligence’; the ability to observe the emotions in the play, the ability to accept the duality that exists within us and the power to change it.

So we need to be conscious of the way emotions play in the space, and we need to develop more consciousness to be able to deal with them. We need to be emotionally intelligent. I do not need to tell you how powerful emotions are. They make us cry. They make us commit su***de. They make us contract and withdraw and move away from everything. They bring disease into our bodies; they foul the system up. I do not need to tell you what emotions can do. On the contrary, they can bring so much brightness, unity, love, kindness, compassion and charity into the space. What awesome power we have as spiritual beings in a human experience to transform the experience, to change our state of well-being, and to influence the world around us. All we need is more consciousness, to be more conscious. And when we are weak, we need to pray, “Grant me more wisdom. Grant me more understanding. Let me learn to manage my emotional nature. Let me learn to be emotionally intelligent in the play.”
Sri Vasudeva