I am frequently asked, but 'Swamiji what will happen if I do this with my business competitors? Should I look upon them as the same?' You may not be able to do that. But at least with your family members and friends, see what is common. Don't create differences with them. Relate to what is essential.
Everybody is different, everyone is unique. The more importance we give to uniqueness and the more separateness there is from one thing to the other, the greater the likelihood of likes and dislikes. One particular person or thing I may like and some other person or thing I am likely to not like. The more importance is given to the distinctions or separating characteristics, the more likes and dislikes or attachments and aversions there will be. That is what creates desires and conflicts.
That is what is called as samsara- desires affections, actions, appointments, disappointments, further desires, further reactions, further disappointments and further desires, with concerns all the time about whether I will get what I want. All these concerns are samsara. Any samsara is a result of giving reality to what distinguishes rather than giving reality to what unites, giving importance to the incidental rather than to the essential.
Today, what is given importance is what distinguishes one from the other. My hair style must be different from others. My clothes must be distinct from others. There is always an emphasis on distinguishing myself from others; somehow that seems to be the mark of success. In fact, that is what creates separateness, isolation.
It is true that everyone is unique and everyone is different, and therefore you cannot coalesce or merge into one. There is no need. There is no need to melt down the ornaments for us to appreciate them as gold. Ornaments can remain ornaments and we can still appreciate them as gold by recognising that the form and design are incidental. The gold is essential, inherent; whereas the form, the name, and the use are incidental.
The incidental is not real because it is subject to change. You can change an ornament. If you melt it and give it a different design and shape, then its name and form changes, its use changes. What was formerly a bangle may now be a ring or several rings or a necklace or an anklet. That incidental part is subject to change. How much importance should we give to that? Importance should be given to what is essential. In an ornament, the gold is essential. Its form, its design, and its name are all incidental.
We need to completely transform our perception. If the world is Ishwara, if it is a Brahman, then it is reverential and it is to be worshipped. If it is merely names and forms, merely an inert world, then it is an object of my pleasure. Do I look up on the world as an object of my pleasure, or do I look up on the world as a field of my worship? Lord Krishna teachs karma Yoga. Karma Yoga is performing karma, duty, in the spirit of worship. Lord Krishna says, यतः प्रवृत्तिः भूतानां येन सर्वम् इदम् ततम, the one from whom the beings were created, who pervades everything" that is Brahman or Ishwara. स्वकर्मणा तमभ्यर्च्य सिद्धिम् विन्दति मानवः, worshiping him by one's own duty, a person attains perfection." Worshipping Ishwara by our karma, our duties, our day to day activities, one attains perfection.Therefore first what is required is a complete shift in perception. The world is not a place to extract gratification; it is the place to offer worship.
if you have been accustomed to extracting joy from objects, you might wonder where gratification will come from if you make the shift. Lord Krishna says that the act of offering, the act of worship itself will give you that joy. In fact, it gives much more lasting Joy. The joy that comes by extracting pleasure from objects is a binding Joy, only a momentary joy. On the other hand, the joy and satisfaction that you gain by worshipping, by contributing, is a lasting joy, a freeing joy, a healing joy.
serving is an excellent way to heal our pain and wounds. Serve, and in doing so we tap into our own goodness. In the course of time, any hut, guilt, and womens are purified from the mind; the all evaporate. In this way, the life of yoga- life of worship in the form of offering action is a very healing process. The act of giving or offering, even when a small thing is given or offered, is very conducive to the sense of dignity, self-esteem, and self satisfaction.
By this process of transforming our perception of the world and performing action with the attitude of worship, सिद्धिं विन्दति मानवः a person gains purification. traditionally, worship is confined to an altar of worship, with a particular ritual or image of God. Lord Krishna makes worship more general; the whole world is made the altar. As a Ramana Maharshi says जगत ईशधि युक्त सेवनम् serving the world with the attitude that it is Ishwara is worshipping Ishwara.
Excerpted from Mandukya Upanishad book.