We are born beings exploring what life means as humans. The ego-mind continually seeks the meaning of life in the dimension of time and space, but we are also born with a divine potential that exists in the timeless zone. This is the true Self, the soul that we are.

The ego-mind lives within the limitations of its self-image and self-concepts. It seeks meaning through acquiring and achieving on the material plane. It is a warehouse of memories, storing the dualities of success and failure, ecstasy and agony, pleasure and pain. The meaning of life is measured by increments from the past. Pleasure, happiness, and fulfillment equals success versus pain, misery and disappointment which adds up to failure.

Mired in the self-image, we believe that love, joy and satisfaction come from outside ourselves. Memories of the past plague us and create division and conflict. Our quest invariably fails as long as we remain stuck in our own self-concepts of what the true meaning of life represents.

What appears to be coming from another, either acceptance or rejection, is like the reflection of the moon in a pond. It is an illusion created by the projection of memories, the masking of the present by the past. In our reactive perception, what appears to be present is not real. Just as the ego-mind believes the reflection of the moon to be real, so too, love coming from external relationships is a mirage. The question remains: how skillful a diver do we believe we are to find the moon in the water?

Receiving love from another can never replace the experience of love that comes from the hidden source that resides within. When we seek love from another, the feeling that exists within each of us is replaced with feelings about love. Feelings, good or bad, are emotionally generated experiences from the past. They are the same illusory reflections of projections, distortions and reactions.

Searching for the meaning of life through the ego-mind is an endless journey through time and space. The meaning of life can never be discovered with the ego-mind that is separated from the source of oneness that is love within. Love is who we already are. Reconnecting to the source within is the meaning of life. This inborn urge to merge with the Divine is the fulfillment of the longing of the soul. Only when we realize that the Self beyond the self-image is our true self can we access the being beyond the human form that is our destiny.

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Yogi Amrit Desai is a world-renowned yoga master and teacher of holistic living, who melds ancient wisdom with modern adaptability. His piercing insight into the nature of life is a road map to fulfillment. Yogi Desai is the creator of Kripalu Yoga and the founder of the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. At age 83, he lives and teaches at the Amrit Yoga Institute in Salt Springs, Florida.
www.AmritYoga.org

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