One of my favorite Bhagavad Gita verses:
The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature.
. . . The person in material consciousness is convinced by false ego that he is the doer of everything. He does not know that the mechanism of the body is produced by material nature, which works under the supervision of the Supreme Lord. The materialistic person has no knowledge that ultimately he is under the control of Kṛṣṇa. The person in false ego takes all credit for doing everything independently, and that is the symptom of his nescience. . . .
This verse keeps me from getting proud about my achievements, keeps me from getting depressed about my failures, keeps me from getting disturbed by others' success, and keeps me focused on my path spiritual goals.
When I come across those who just keep talking about themselves, especially about the good that they are doing, my mind immediately takes shelter of this verse. No doubt these people are doing many good things, but they forget that it's their nature that is driving them to do what they are doing. It's not them.
The fundamental spiritual truth is that we are spiritual souls who currently occupy a material body. This material body, along with its nature, is awarded to the soul based on its desires and past activities. But, as this verse states, the materially engrossed soul thinks that he is independently working even though he is always under the control of the nature he has been awarded by forces beyond him.
This illusion is perpetuated by others similarly illusioned who praise the successes of these illusioned souls. Real success is to get out of the control of material nature and reestablish oneself in one's constitutional position of being a selfless loving servant of God. When this happens, our original nature drives us to continuously serve the Lord with great joy.
The path to perfection is to just use one's current material nature in the service of God. Gradually the material covering will get eroded and one will get established in ones original nature that is selfless, loving, and God centered.
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