Did you thank God today?

Ego manifests itself in different forms. We usually refer to ego as pride. We can have pride of knowledge, power and wealth. We attribute all that we are and all that we have done to our own individual efforts. We think we are superior to others in many ways.

Most religions say that God is the Creator. It is from Him that the entire universe came into being. We are but small specks in the entire scheme of Creation. If we examine our thoughts, how many times do we thank Him for our life? Few people go through their day-to-day lives remembering Him and His gifts.

True, we say mechanical prayers either at places of worship. We remember him when we want Him to save us from a calamity or from serious illness. But most of the time we hardly give Him a thought. Some even deny His existence. Scientists removed God from their view of the universe because He could not be verified by scientific instrumentation.

There are some enlightened scientists who have begun to question how such a perfectly designed universe and such a complex, well-planned organism as a human being could come about through chance. Those who delve into the intricacies of nature and are in awe of it have the humility to recognise there is some higher power responsible for this universe.

Pride of knowledge comes because of traps laid by the mind. When our soul enters the body, it works in this world through the mind. The brain is a complex organ that receives sense impressions from the world. Our culture makes us interpret these impressions in a certain way.

Besides receiving and interpreting impressions, the brain is a vehicle by which we can communicate with the world through language, to make our thoughts known to others. There are many involuntary actions controlled by the brain breathing, heartbeat and the release of hormones that regulate body functions.

Many think that the brain is the seat of thought. But there is a difference between the mind and the brain. The brain is like a computer which performs many functions. But it is the mind that controls the brain. The mind is a product of the causal plane of creation, a mixture of spirit and matter.

With the mind in control, many of our decisions and actions are based on meeting the mind’s desire and wishes. Because the object of the mind is to keep us enslaved to the world, it controls us. The soul, having forgotten itself, goes along with the mind.

We go to school and gain knowledge of this physical universe. We are bombarded by sense impressions at every moment. Our brain has the capacity to take in billions of bits of information, store and retrieve them, much like a computer.

Words can be combined in billions of ways to create new stories, books, ideas, new inventions. The notes of the musical scale can be combined in billions of ways to create a wide variety of music. The mind can keep us occupied and involved in this world for aeons and aeons.

The mind has forgotten that the colours of the palette it uses to paint have been created by God Himself. That the notes of the scale that it uses to compose songs are of God’s own making. The brain it uses to communicate with the world is also a creation of God.