Love Your Calcutta Where You Are

Q: What is the role of altruism or service to others on the path to self-realization?

A: Service to others is a natural result of self-realization precisely because you realize that your Self is one with the Self of others. It is the highest expression of love. It is the opposite of self-love or egotism.

One who engages in self-love, in looking out for numero uno, will gladly cause suffering to others for self-gain or self-preservation. They live in the duality of me against them with division, separation, and conflict. But when you are self-realized, you realize the truth, the reality that you and your brothers and sisters are one. You feel their pain (have compassion) and it is impossible not only to cause them pain but also to stand idly by and watch them suffer.

A self-realized being can become a bodhisattva and remain on Earth to help free mankind from the suffering of ignorance, for all suffering is due to not realizing our oneness with God, with all, with the Universe. Kuan Yin and Babaji are such bodhisattva and they work with those on the path to self-realization and bodhisattvahood such as HRM, Sunyogi Umasankar, and Omraam. Omraam is not only a bodhisattva now but also a World Teacher.

This unconditional love of Self in all is the hallmark of wholeness, of happiness. Every selfless act of unconditional Self-love brings peace and joy, and since there is so much suffering in the world, the opportunities to experience this peace and joy are endless.

This is what keeps saints like Mother Teresa going in spite of great difficulties. She said “Whenever you share love with others, you’ll notice the peace that comes to you and them.” She also said that life is a dream and a game. So she was awake in the dream and having fun in one of the darkest corners of the world – Calcutta. She also said, “Stay where you are. Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering, and the lonely right where you are – in your own homes and in your families, in your workplace, and in your schools.”

These are the words of a self-realized being, a bodhisattva. Aspire to be one. When you realize that you are ONE, you will be one.