“Personality is the supreme realization of the innate idiosyncrasy of a living being. It is an act of high courage flung in the face of life, the absolute affirmation of all that constitutes the individual, the most successful adaptation to the universal conditions of existence coupled with the greatest possible freedom for self-determination.” —C.G. Jung
This quotation stresses the importance of individuation or self-realization and proclaims it to be the great adventure of life. And if we take the statement of the Bhagavad-gita that the atma is eternally an individual, the quest takes on tremendous significance. However, merely to realize the nature of one’s body/mind and find one’s niche in society is not perfection; the engagement of that vehicle in the service of the Godhead completes the entire process. This is described in the Bhagavad-gita as the perfection of renunciation and the most confidential knowledge derived from the practice of yoga:
mad-yaji mam namaskuru
mam evaisyasi satyam te
pratijane priyo’ si me
worship Me and offer your homage unto Me.
Thus you will come to Me without fail.
I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.” (18.65)
Krishna assures Arjuna that it is certainly possible to know Him in full, free from doubt (7.1). He also asserts that anyone who quits his body remembering Him at once attains His nature, “of this there is no doubt.” The Bhagavad-gita exists for this purpose, and the Bhagavat Purana or Srimad Bhagavatam is the post-graduate course for any serious student of spiritual science.
An excerpt from Bhagavata Shiksha Mala: A Garland of Sacred Teachings from the Bhagavata Purana, available on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3Ddgewm
