Someone asked Hafiz what spirituality meant and he answered in one ode:
“Unless you go against your lower self,
you cannot unite with your higher Self.”
Now what is the lower self? That which makes you think you are small, that which makes you feel that you are not satisfied, not happy, that which makes others see you as small.
So, the meaning of going against the lower self is to transform this in quite the opposite direction. Be that which makes you look big and makes others see you as big. Remain pleased and contented, happy and satisfied. When you are displeased, unhappy or upset and moody, it is your lower self asserting itself.
People always put the blame for their dissatisfaction and suffering on others. But the fact is, when one suffers it is one’s own fault. Mansari became excited, she was angry and suffered, and she laid it all on Elizabeth, Norina and Lucky. But if she had gone beyond the lower self, she would have taken it calmly, swallowed it and remained unaffected. If you are firm, nothing will upset you. If you try, you will surely have it.
I do not want any repression, but I do want transformation. I never for one moment say that you must not get angry. Don’t be confused. You must get angry when the occasion arises. But, at once, you must get it out of your head. If you are not hungry, to fast has no meaning.
-www.lordmeher.org, p2143
Sept, 1940; Meherabad
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“Spiritual freedom has to be won by oneself for oneself through watchful and unfailing war against the lower self and the lower desires.” (www.lordmeher.org,p2313)