our real identity, our real motivation - stephen knapp

7/30/2019 Our Real Identity, Our Real Motivation - Stephen Knapp

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Our Real Identity, Our Real Motivationby Stephen Knapp

The second chapter of the Bhagavad-gita explains how we are not thesebodies, but our true identity is that we are spiritual beings that exist in thesetemporary material forms, like a driver in a car. The soul cannot be burned,dried, withered, or harmed in any way. It is eternal. The soul does not diewhen the body dies, and only wears the body like an ephemeral suite ofclothes. It is also full of bliss and knowledge, and we naturally feel thathappiness when we regain our spiritually constitutional position.

More than this, the living being is an expansion of the Lord's Divine love. Thesoul is an emanation of God's ever-increasing light and affection. Thus, thesoul has a natural proclivity and need to serve, to love and seek love.Therefore, while in these bodies our greatest need, beyond the requirementto maintain the body with food, clothing and shelter, is to love and be loved.Practically, whatever else we have, materially speaking, it is hardly enough ifthere is no love. We may have everything we require but will still feel empty,unfulfilled and alone without love. So, as we can plainly see, everyone in thisworld looks for this. People will undergo all kinds of tribulations to find loveand to keep it if they think they've found it with someone.

Since we are already parts and parcels of the Lord on the spiritual platform,we are longing to reconnect with God through a loving relationship. However,we may not realize this when we are ignorant of our true spiritual identity. So,to understand this we may require jnana or knowledge of who and what weare. But only through bhakti, or loving devotion, expressed toward God canwe be emotionally and spiritually fulfilled. Therefore, this is why no religion oryoga or spiritual process is complete without bhakti.

When we forget our spiritual identity, then in our attempt to find love we willlook for others in this world with whom we may find loving reciprocation. The

whole planet is moved by this process of looking for love. But in such a caseit is often based on giving and receiving sexual affection related to eachother's body. In these types of relations, we usually want a return for what wegive. In other words, if we are not satisfied or do not get what we want, we nolonger feel as loving toward that person. Or we get angry when ourexpectations are not met. Or when we get attached to someone as the objectof our affection, if there is a threat that he or she may leave us, we getdisappointed or jealous.

In this way, when we are not in touch with spiritual reality, we may get

distracted or even confused about where to find real love. Some may becomework-a-holics, being so busy they can't feel what they really need, which mayhelp divert them from feeling lonely or the lack of love in their life. Others may


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want power, thinking that once they have money and status or a fancy car,etc., they can command the attraction and respect of people, and acquirelove in this way. Even the rapist is looking for love, but is so disturbed orangry that he thinks he has to forcefully take it in a certain way, or in acontrolling situation. So no matter what we do, it is based primarily on our

inherent need to acquire or express love.These and numerous other scenarios, however, are caused by lust, not love.Love shines on. It does not burn like lust. It is unconditional when it isspiritual. But it becomes demanding when it is material, or based on pleasingone's own mind and senses.

The reason for this can be explained in an example we can use of aflashlight. A flashlight can give off a beam of pure bright light. But if you put apiece of red cellophane paper over it, it still gives off a light but it is now red.So we could say the light is now perverted. Similarly, we are all spiritualbeings, parts of God, and Divine expressions and manifestations of theSupreme's spiritual love. And we emanate this the more in touch we becomewith our spiritual nature.

On the spiritual level, our natural tendency is to love purely and receive purelove. That is always what we are looking for. However, once we are in thismaterial body and we are covered by this form, our love often comes outdifferent. When that love is filtered through the mind, body, and ego, it comesout perverted. It comes through in the form of desires, wants and needs forpleasing our mind and senses, which is lust and not real love. This lust is thecraving for one's own pleasure as opposed to giving of oneself. It comes outas a desire to satisfy our own feelings, our own sense of what we think loveis, based on the desires of our mind and senses. Then we are no longerlooking for real love, although we think we are, but looking for the means tosatisfy our own emotional and sensual desires. This is based on the illusionthat we are these bodies, and the goal of life is to satisfy these bodies,senses and minds. It is like seeing everything through the red tinted paperthat we put over the flashlight. It is the never-ending attempt to please thetemporary body instead of the soul, our real identity. Thus, we go on looking

for love in many of the wrong places. This is also the way of remainingunfulfilled except for the fleeting moments of sensual pleasure, excitement orthrills that one may find along the way.

When you begin to see our real spiritual nature and how we are all God'sDivine manifestations of love, we will see that almost all we do is motivatedby the desire or hope of finding or expressing our love. We simply have torealize what kind of love we really need and make sure our own lovingpropensity is not improperly directed towards temporary objects. We have tofocus it on the real spiritual identity of each other and towards God. Once weturn our attention and love toward God, it is like a misplaced spark being putback into the fire. It returns to its naturally bright and hot nature, instead of


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getting cold and fading out due to being in a misdirected and incompatiblesituation.

When I talk about this spiritual love between us, I don't mean the attraction orrepulsion that is given toward the body, or giving affection to each other's skinbag. The love has to be directed toward the real us, the spiritual beings that

exist on a higher level than the material identity of the body. If our love is tobe based on Truth, it has to be based on the Divine knowledge of the soul. Inthis way, though our relationship may change with time, the connection will beeternal.

When we see God everywhere, we will see that we are all parts of God, andwe all deserve each other's love and respect. When we know how to realignour love toward God, then we exist in our natural position of being God'sloving servants, and loving and respecting each other, and all of Hiscreatures. Thus, through bhakti we reach the highest spiritual expression andcan become fully satisfied and blissful. Then we attain the natural goal of lifeby experiencing that loving reciprocation for which we always hanker.

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our real identity, our real motivation - stephen knapp

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