Cynics and Mahatmas

(Carpers and Great Souls)

Self-Inquiry: Your "Mahatma Ratio"

We all have both the Cynic and the Mahatma (Great Soul) in us. Step back, observe your attitudes and behavior—and candidly ask:

(a) To what extent am I a cynical carper or a great soul?

Divide 100 points between your: Cynic_____ Mahatma_____

(b) What 2 or 3 things should I do over the next year to shift my

scores more toward Mahatma?

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In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna explains the difference between the Cynics & the Mahatmas:

“There are bound to be cynical people with trifling objections who lack faith and are unaware, and there are bound to be great soul (mahatmas), who are guided by their more divine nature.

The Cynics…

___ 1) disregard Me, Divinity, when I come to the world clad in a body, and relate to Me as just an ordinary mortal

___ 2) are unaware of My transcendent majesty and thus cannot relate to the Real Me

___ 3) are ignorant of Atma, their True Self

___ 4) do not know that I am their very soul!

___ 5) are ever-agitated, never in peace

___ 6) live hurtful lives fraught with disaster

___ 7) live slothful lives of ignorance, seeking only to satisfy bodily needs

___ 8) will fail to find Me.

The Mahatmas…

___ 9) know My true nature

___10) offer constant devotion to Me, Brahman, the Godhead

___11) bear great love for all others

___12) steadfastly revere Me

___13) literally become the love they feel for Me (because the mind takes on the coloring of that which it continually reveres)

___14) venerate Me as the One God in the many

___15) know that My attributes and forms are inexhaustible

___16) see My million faces in everyone

___17) perceive all things and all beings in the universe as aspects of Me, the one Self, Atma, who resides in all.

___18) To the cynics, the secret of divinity is a closed book, they are compelled to return to the cycle of death and rebirth. The great souls, however, as they constantly put their attention on Me, turn godlike and eventually merge in Me.” – Krishna

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