Let go of this ‘I’ and ‘mine’, because this is the cause of misery

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verse 71

 

vihāya kāmān yaḥ sarvān 

pumāṁś-carati niḥspṛhaḥ 

nirmamo nirahaṅkāraḥ 

sa śāntim adhigacchati

 

He who abandons all desires and lives free from longing, who has no “I”  

or “mine”, and has extinguished the sense of egoistic self-importance,  

attains peace.

 

So when the big, ‘I’, ‘I’, ‘I’, and ‘mine’, ‘mine’, ‘mine’, and ‘this belongs to me’ – when all these are removed from the mind, one becomes peaceful. The feeling of ‘I want this,’ and ‘I want that,’ brings pain to the people of the outside world. Here Krishna says that the one who has great expectations in life, who desires many things, in a very egoistic way, doesn’t have peace of mind. Even if one wants to be peaceful, it’s very difficult, because this self-importance, this egoistic feeling, will eat one up. What you need is humility. Because of your own self-importance, you will never be able to respect others.

 

Arjuna has asked Krishna, “How does a realised soul walk in the world?” Krishna says, “The realised soul walks in the world, but they don’t do it for their own self-gratification, they don’t say, ‘I want this, I want that.’ They accept everything and when things are not there, they don’t bother about it. So let go of this ‘I’ and ‘mine’, because this is the cause of misery! This will be the cause of your downfall! Because of this egoistic self-importance which you give to yourself, you will never attain peace, you will not be peaceful.”

Bhagavad Gita