Page 46 - NAMAH-Apr-2023

Self-forgetfulness and its beauty

Dr. Monica Gulati

Abstract
What bothers virtually every one of us is self-obsession. That too, an obsession about a separate
self, that is me, myself, limited in this frame of body, mind and life. And believing that limitedness
and sense of separateness to be true, one finds oneself always incomplete, lacking, not enough,
and which takes us on a perpetual journey in a want to be more, more, always more; and which
ultimately can only be fulfilled in the Divine. And isn’t it a paradox, that the more I live a life
of self-forgetfulness, not making the little ‘me’ the centre of my world, the more life takes a
deeper, truer meaning? In self-forgetfulness, I find true contentment. This article explores self-
forgetfulness advancing towards self-giving, in the light of the words of the Mother and Sri
Aurobindo.

is temporarily being formed, as the ego
personality, it helps to focus on what my
likes are, what do I think about this or
that, what do I not like, etc. It helps me to
carve my shape out of the mass of collective
suggestions. But when one is formed enough
as a personality, soon the obsessive, repetitive
focus on this falsehood of a separate self,
brings nothing but darkness, limitation and
suffocation and a burden to carry; it tells me
The right place and the burden of self- now that it is time for the self-obsessive way
obsession of life to wither away, and a new life be born.

The Mother says, there is nothing wrong If we look at our thoughts throughout the
with this world, things are just not in their twenty-four hours of the day, we will see
right place. Self-obsession has a place in that for a majority of us, it is all revolving
human evolution. When the individuality around the ‘little separate self’, the ‘me’ —

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