Our Altitude

This, then, we must realize: The human body is an extremely precious possession. Each breath that comes and goes is so invaluable that the wealth of seven continents and treasures of the seven seas fail to buy it. He who barters away his life in the human body in exchange for the dross, the sense pleasures and other worldly objects, is the most pathetic of fools.
_{Maharaj Sawan Singh, Discourses on Sant Mat, Vol. I}

The saints urge us to seek self-realization while in this human body. Even the angels cannot unite with the Lord. Self-realization is not to be confused with self-improvement. When we visit a bookstore and go to the self-improvement section, there are hundreds of books advising us on how to become richer and more powerful and how to influence people and achieve better performance, including worldly name and fame. This is all guidance to make the mind stronger and more influential.

The self in self-improvement refers to the mind but the self in self-realization is the soul. No matter how worthwhile and encouraging self-improvement books seem, when people say that this stuff is pure Sant Mat, they could not be more wrong.

Sant Mat requires us to control and subdue the mind and withdraw it from the world. Self-realization aims to end the dominance of the mind by bringing it in touch with the divine sound current and awakening the soul. Self-improvement is about making the monkey mind a more powerful monkey.

The saints say that we should think that we are nothing, that we do not exist. Self-improvement gurus want us to tell ourselves we are great; we can achieve anything.

We are trying to raise the seat of our consciousness from throughout our entire bodies to one single point, to the eye centre. This is the supreme task of changing our altitude and has nothing to do with adjusting our attitude.