Seeing the Supreme in the Hearts of All

 In my madness, I consider this body to be me. My mind suggests: "I am beautiful. I am learned. I am very cool. And I know about spirituality. Thus, I am better than all these ugly, ignorant people and I can treat them with less respect and consider them less worthy since they have hardly any qualifications." But the truth is that I am hard-hearted and ugly due to conceit. I am not worthy of the mercy granted to me since I shove it away to the side and consider my own image more important. I accept the dictations of my mind and do not even pause for a moment to realize that this is not my life, not my body, not my wealth, nor my beauty. All this belongs to Krishna. He has very kindly given me facilities. And we both are together in this body. I don't even bother acknowledging that He is here living with me and has more right to this body and to control it than me. I see the deity in the temple and offer obeisances. But I do not see the same deity in everyone's heart. I am simply a neophyte. Even neophytes are more regulated and at least apply tilak consistently. I am simply fooling myself. Kali is having a good laugh. I'm easy to distract, tempt, and loot. Now what will become of me? Krishna, my Gurudeva, please protect me. Please keep me on the cloud of Your mercy. If You do not protect me what will happen? I will be nowhere. I will be ruined. Please protect me. Please give me a drop of devotion. Please make me free from slavery to my tongue. I simply accept the dictations of my mind and ego unquestioningly. Please help me question every dictation and check whether it is favorable for serving You.