Purification of the Heart - 04.27.10

“Those who are on a true path of purification and spiritual truthfulness, and a complete striving to reach union with God, are very rare and very special. But your specialness consists in realizing that you’re not special,” reveals Shunyamurti, the director of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. And indeed one of the main obstacles on the spiritual path is not allowing one’s ego to reappropriate one’s spirituality. “You cannot be special as a separate ego because your ego is illusory.” And all spiritual communities are based on the understanding that all members “are part of a single Being.”  And thus a spiritual community cannot exist without each member withdrawing his/her projections and searching within for the source of one’s anger, hatred, or envy of another. “But it is an ongoing day-to-day need to nourish each other with love. And that has to be the primal vow of a disciple. If one is not willing to do that, then no matter what other yamas and niyamas one is willing to do—including fasting and living the most ascetic life—it won’t matter because one’s closed heart will prevent one from reaching God because God is pure love.” Recorded on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 27, 2010.