BHAKTI FOR BEGINNERS · 21
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'I'm a taxi driver, a banker, a student' — all these are roles for a while. The one who plays them doesn't change
ātmā — душа, истинное «я»; kṛṣṇa-dāsa — вечный слуга Кришны
'I'm a taxi driver, a banker, a student' — all these are roles for a while. The one who plays them doesn't change
ātmā — душа, истинное «я»; kṛṣṇa-dāsa — вечный слуга Кришны
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"You are the atma, the soul, Krishna's eternal servant. Yet you think of yourself differently: I'm so-and-so from New York, I'm a taxi driver, a bank manager, a student. That's what you've identified with."
Ask someone who they are, and out come the labels: "I'm a taxi driver," "I'm a bank manager," "I'm a student." Each is true — and each is temporary. The licence changes, the city changes, the job is left one day. But the one all of it kept sticking to remains. Śrī Prem Prayojan Prabhu says: under every role you are the atma, the soul, Krishna's eternal servant; we've simply forgotten it and fused with the part, like an actor who stopped leaving the stage. Notice: as a child you were one way, now another — yet the "I" inside is the same, looking out through the same eyes. That unchanging "I" is the real you. Roles are put on and taken off. The one who wears them isn't born and doesn't die with them.
Today, catch yourself at "I am my job" and correct it: I'm the one who does it.
Source: Three Aspects of Gaura Lila · 2023-01-07
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