The belief of ‘I am John’ i.e. the identification of the self as being the body is a false belief.  It is egoism.  Egoism is to believe that which you are not.  However positive use of this egoism will procure worldly happiness and comforts i.e. if you give happiness to others, your good deeds will bring you happiness and negative use of this egoism, will bring you misery.  One cannot always do good deeds; negative deeds are committed inadvertently and so people experience both happiness as well as misery in life.  The good exists along side with bad.  Such is the nature of the worldly life.

However, if you want true happiness, happiness that is eternal and not dependant on anything, then you will have to acquire the real belief and come to know your real Self.  To come into your real Self is liberation.  It is liberation from both worldly happiness as well as worldly miseries.

The following three statements are natural principles and they encompass the essence of all religions.  If you abide by them, there is natural compliance with the dictates of every religion.

1. Have a positive ego to be happy. Positive ego is the ego of not hurting any living being, in the slightest degree.

2. Negative ego is the cause of unhappiness and misery.  If someone insults you and you harbor animosity and enmity towards that person, then it is a negative ego.  If you go to the authorities to avenge yourself and expose that man who happens to be hoarding illegal goods in his house, there is no bigger fool than yourself!  You would have that man arrested because of your animosity? You would do that just for vengeance! That is a negative ego. Negative ego is very detrimental.  The moment you think about sending someone to prison, you are imprisoning yourself.

3. If you want liberation, become free from your false identification and projection of your real Self with your worldly self; i.e. your belief of ‘I am John’.  Your understanding in life should be whatever comes your way is the result of your past mistakes.  Accept whatever comes your way and deposit it in your karmic account. If someone insults you, accept the insult and do not lash out, if you want to bring closure to all your pending karmic accounts with that person. If you can afford to perpetuate the worldly life, then you are free to retaliate with twice the force!

Do what you like, i.e. treat people the way you like to be treated.  In Aptavani One (The first major reference text on the science of Akram Vignan by the Gnani Purush Dada Bhagwan), Dadashri has said that the world is like a water well.  If you yell into the well, ‘You are a thief’, an echo of ‘You are a thief’ will come back to you.  So if you don’t like that echo, then say ‘You are a king’ and it will come back telling you ‘You are a king’.  This is what the world is like.

There is no superior over you and there is no underhand below you. What is more, no one can interfere in your life either.  And yet the world has become so complicated.  Only your mistakes and your blunders are your superior. They keep you in bondage.  Blunder is to claim to be what you are not.  What is the blunder? It is to claim ‘I am John’, when in reality you are a pure Soul.  When you acquire Self-realization, that blunder will break, however you will still have to face the consequences of your past mistakes due to this blunder.  Therefore you have to deal with all situations with equanimity. 

What happens when you drink a cup of tea after eating sweets?  The tea will taste bland; you will not be able to taste the sweetness in the tea, even though there is sugar in it.  Similarly when you realize the bliss of your real Self, all worldly happiness will become bland.  When you understand the true nature of this worldly life, you will be able to deal with every situation with equanimity and you will taste and experience true happiness.