Self-Deception

We are never deceived so badly as when ourselves deceive ourselves. By vigilance we can protect ourselves against deception from outside, but when we deceive ourselves our whole life becomes full of falsehood. We cannot always stand guard on ourselves; indeed our own self may be our worst enemy.

Subtle are the ways in which our nature plays false with us. We think we believe things which we really do not believe. We really believe things which we think we do not believe at all. We pretend to be what we are not; we really are what we pretend not to be. We know things to be wrong, yet somehow justify them to ourselves; we know things to be right, yet persuade ourselves against them. Under such circumstances truth will have no chance in us. As long as we depend solely on our own mind and intelligence, we shall never be completely free from this dark play of self-deception.

Our hidden desires and attachments will pull the string from behind and divide our intelligence against itself. We must rise above our egoistic desire-soul and stand on the higher self which is the real truth of our being. Established in the immutable peace and infinite freedom and absolute purity of our true universal self, we must entrust to the divine Mother our whole nature with all its truth and falsehood, its right and wrong, its good and bad. The only way of escaping from self-deception is to surrender ourselves completely to Thee, Mother Divine.