They become copyrights and lose their inspiration
Rama Tirtha makes a great point of it. He says “many people with great will and devotion make a success of something because they are unselfish and they are devoted to it for its own sake. Then something happens and they lose their inspiration. They become copyrights. They think they are proprietors of what they have done. This drags them down into a cage. The 19th century genius Helmholz. who consistently came up with new ideas in various fields of science, once remarked, ‘Suppose you have a new idea, but no time to develop it at the moment, but you mention it casually to a colleague. He says nothing to you, but goes away. And then a year later he puts out a brilliant piece of research, based entirely on your idea which he has confirmed. He now publishes it under his own name, giving no credit to you.
Now if you feel mainly glad that a new truth of nature has been established, you are a scientist. But if your main feeling is that you have been robbed, then you are not a scientist but something else.’
The world authority on radioactivity, who revolutionized the picture of atomic structure, was Lord Rutherford, a man of extraordinary one-pointedness and purity of purpose. An American guest research student in the laboratory once suggested to Rutherford casually that he could patent some of his ideas and make a fortune. He recalled later that Rutherford sprang to his feet menacingly; the well-meaning student thought he was going to be attacked, and fled. Yet even Rutherford, despite his quite extraordinary flashes of insight, did not see nuclear power as a possibility: ‘the atom will always be a sink, not a reservoir’. In fact no practising scientist did foresee it.
Rama Tirtha says:’ There is a legend in which a magician who hated the world, created three demons, fighting demons, and he created them simply with minds and bodies but without egoism and they were invincible. They could stand up to all………..The people said:’ They are destroying the country, what shall we do? And Rama Tirtha said, well tell your champions, go up and challenge these and then when they come out, cry ‘oh no no no and then run away. And when the next challenger comes, challenge the and then call out: ‘oh no no no, they’re too strong and run away. In this way. So they did that and then these creatures became weaker and finally they could be killed. Now the wise man was asked: ‘Well what happened’. He said: ‘When they fought, they fought simply without egoism…..but when they were challenged and the people ran away, egoism began to come up and they began to think’ why, if we are so great, but they don’t even try. They run away. It created egoism in them and they became weak.
Now can we just try to drop the knowledge of name, place, expectation and even the body itself. Just sit, take a deep breath, let it out and sit and drop off the knowledge. Deep breath and then sit. OM
Thank you
© Trevor Leggett
Titles in this series are:
Part 1: Loosening the Knot of the Heart
Part 2: Swetaketu was a naughty boy
Part 3: Flexibility is life and rigidity is death
Part 4: Vasanas and sanskaras govern human lives