How do we come to a ‘realization’?

The word ‘realize’ comes from the word ‘real’. ‘Realization’ means to get rid of an illusion. So when we live with an illusion and if we remove that illusion, we get reality and that is called realization.

For mankind to come to a realization is a long way off, but to know that we are living in an illusion is not too far away, which is why we are now seeking yoga and meditation courses. We are beginning to ‘know’ that we have been living in an illusion. Until a few years ago, we were seeking peace and happiness through material things, but we realized that even when we had all that we wanted, it was simply gratification, and not true happiness. Even with a fancy car and a fancy house and a fancy job, there was something missing; there was a hollow inside.

So we decided to try religion, but religion could not fill the vacuum. It was too much on the surface and too much about rituals. Then came yoga and meditation in the pursuit to fill up that empty space. So today, we are aware that an empty space exists; that we have been living our lives in an illusion. We are expecting the world consciousness to change. We need to realize that the world consciousness doesn’t change; it is the individual consciousness that changes and we need to change our own respective consciousness.

And the change in consciousness is simply this. If there is a wallet lying on the road and I see it, my first thought is ‘Hey, there is a wallet there. Somebody look after it otherwise someone may steal it’. This thought is because I would have stolen it had I been alone with the wallet, or at least I would have thought of stealing it. I judge as I would have done. I judge others from my own standards. But if I simply walked by, oblivious to even the thought that anybody will want to steal it because it is not theirs, then I am absolutely innocent. But when I think that somebody could steal it, then I have stolen it already in my mind.

This consciousness has to change, from the physical, mental and emotional to the spiritual. And that change is a realization.