Do not follow crowd.

There are 7 layers of our existence. Body, breath, Mind, Intellect, Memory, Ego and Self.  Those who have done the Happiness Program knows in detail about 7 layers of existence.   Among the 7, except Self, all others are made up of matter, the 5 elements, earth, water, air, fire and Space. Self is formless, untouched and unchanging. Self/ Awareness is called the Purusha/Brahman and everything else we see, feel and perceive are called as Prakriti.  

We are a combination of Prakriti and Purusha. Purusha is a constant witness within us whereas Prakriti is undergoing change constantly.  

The first level is body.  Millions of cells are being born and millions are dying this very moment.  Our body appears to be one whole, but it is an amalgamations of millions of cells.  Our body is a product of evolution.  The DNA contains all the information about us.  As a body, we are not one, we are a crowd.  Are you getting this?  Many viruses and bacterias are living in our body right now. 90% of bacterias are coming from outside and stay for few days.  If virus is removed from the body, we will also die immediately.  

In the body, we got this little grey matter called brain.  Body is a product of millions of years of evolution, so this brain too.  Unlike other organs, brain functions in a totally different way.  All organs are functioning on their own with very less control from outside.  May be we can change our heart beat a little faster or slower, but most of the functions are controlled within the system itself.  But, brain is controlled mostly by outside. 

Let us look at the brain.  Brain is inside our skull, but all that it contains is information from the world. It receives information from outside world and according to the information, it controls the hormones, chemicals and other functions of the body.  What does the brain have?  Language.  No other organs know language.  Language is words.  Words are coming from the world.  A new born does not know any words. It is introduced to words from world around it. We can say that our body is  biologically conditioned and the brain is socially conditioned. 

We constantly receive data from outside world.  The brain collects everything from outside and stores it.

Suppose, if you are to decide  what brand of car you want to buy,  immediately, all data related to car will pop up inside the brain.   Friend suggested one model. Your wife does not like that.  You want to show off to your relatives.  But, there is no enough parking space in your apartment, the car is expensive, the features are less, you already have one, what to do with that, Petrol price is too much, should I buy a car now?  But, I love that Red colour one.  

Thoughts are so many and they are conflicting each other.  And, each one will pull you in different direction. You are torn in between.  The one thought, which is stronger than others is going to win.  Yet, that will not be your own.  You saw a car advertisement in fb or instagram which has entered into your brain and you thought that I should buy that car.  Google knows everything about you.  YouTube knows your desires.  

Our brain is influenced by so many factors all the time.  Truly we are not one single person.  Parents, school, society, culture and religion moulded us. We are what we are right now, because of the environment and people who are present in our life.  We wont like Cricket if we are born in Brazil. Do we?  All our likes and dislikes  and passion have also come from outside only.   

Our mind is not one.  It is a crowd.  It is living in conflict and confusion because nothing is original to it.  We borrowed it from so many sources like books, TV, media, scriptures etc., 

Our feelings and emotions are also not ours.  They are chemicals and harmones induced by thoughts.  The agenda of brain is to protect life in this body and prolong it.  It secretes chemicals in the body to continue survival.  All the experiences which is life threatening is considered to be negative and all the experiences supports life is considered to be positive by brain.  

You may check this.  Whenever you feel afraid, just see, something must be threatening your life in a subtle way.  All emotions are linked to this survival only.  

Ego appears to be one.  But, it is not one.  You are father at home, manager at office.  Two different egos.  Sometimes you feel inferior, other times superior. All identities come and go.  You are not one in identity too.  

The only constant and unchanging is your Awareness.  It remains unchanged from brith to death.  It knows.  It knows without words.  It is pure intelligence.  

What do we give importance to?  Whom you are following? What you are identified with?  Awareness or Matter?  

Do you see, why Self knowledge is very very important?  Unless we know ourself, we are not living our life at all, it is driven by crowd.  That's why we are dissatisfied and unhappy even if we got all our desires fulfilled.  Our desires are not our desires at all.