Your authenticity and your destiny

A pink water lily with yellow stamens floats between the green lily leaves and clearly reflects in the still water below, capturing the essence of serene beauty.

In the beauty and diversity of all that life has to offer, you too may feel a longing to connect more clearly with the place that your specific human existence has in all of this. You are interested in your identity and the meaning of your life. You wonder what your special value is and where your life force is taking you, in other words, what your destiny is. Because of questions like these, you search for a deeper meaning to your existence and quickly end up in some form of personal, intuitive, or spiritual guidance.

Perhaps you have always hoped that if you could connect more deeply with yourself and feel your own power more clearly, you would find it easier to harmonize with others or to work and live together in a fruitful way. But suppose you are a flower, a beige Matthiola for example, and you learn to become more empowered. Then you feel that you are this beige stock flower in a more valuable and radiant way, and that you harmonize beautifully with some other flowers. If you had hoped that by releasing your full power, you would become some flower or take on a color that would go with everything, you will probably find this limitation disappointing.

However, your strength is not expressed as a color or shape that goes with everything, but as this beige Matthiola, with your specific shades, shapes, and strengths. Your strength is not a chameleon-like power, but a specific color, the radiance of your "being here," and that gives you your identity, your form. It is in you or through you that life crystallizes. Can you allow this to happen as freely as possible and enrich yourself and the world as deeply as possible?

A close-up of a light pink dahlia flower in full bloom against a blurry, soft-focus background. The petals are delicately layered and there is a hint of sunlight, creating a dreamy bokeh effect.

Here it is important that you can use this in the light of your consciousness so that whatever is released remains connected to the respectable value of your presence. The more you are aligned with where you are, in your crystallization, in your radiance or in your power, the more pronounced you are. And the more pronounced something is, the more limited it is, but this is a positive limitation, because from this limitation it can experience its fullness. This limitation shows what identity you have, but it is up to you how free, full and fulfilling your life can be.

There are certain identifiable forces connected to your life, to your being, that give you the freedom to be the crystal that is shaped by your living being. The freer you are when you are attuned to your inner forces, the more you will feel that you can no longer be everything in form that you thought you wanted to be. What belongs to you in an organic way is first and foremost what you are by nature.

If you think that by being more free you will also become more universal, this is not rooted in reality and certainly not in intention. The purpose of life is to allow us, through diversity, to see and experience the wondrous grandeur of existence.

A close-up of a vibrant red and orange chrysanthemum flower against a soft, hazy background. The petals are open and have intricate layering and a touch of purple in the center, which is a striking contrast to the muted green and blue background with a white, soft shining center.

Each of us, through our limited authenticity, can find access to the infinite essence in which we are all equal, because in Being nothing has crystallized yet and all life is still connected and filled with the fullness and wholeness of Existence.

In appearance, free or not, you are as you are crystallized in this moment and that is your identity. The only thing that can make a difference is the freedom with which you dare to surrender to the crystallization of all the forces you carry within. This freedom also determines how clearly your destiny can unfold and how clearly you can see it in your life.

Your destiny covers a certain sliver of the grandeur of life. If you had been a pop star, or a Chinese farm worker, or a professional cyclist, that would have been your destiny, but you are you, and there is no way to match that.

Why would the pink rose, in the context of personal or spiritual development, learn to transcend its boundary in order to eventually be yellow or white in its outer identity? Spiritual development, the development that connects you to your being, actually returns you to the freedom and joy of being who you are, and for a pink rose, that includes being pink and rose.

Close-up of a blooming pink rose with soft, layered petals against a dark, hazy background. Other roses are visible in the background, creating a dreamy and serene flower scene.

Spiritual development will support the rose to take on her "being pink" and "being rose" as fully as possible so that she has the freedom to experience the life that flows through her within her identity as openly, sensitively and freely as possible.

The less energy the rose puts into the urge to prove that it can also be yellow or white, the more space, sensitivity and openness it will have to know the life that is taking place through its limited aspect of creation, through its identity.

The more you feel who you essentially are, the less you feel the need to have an identity other than what is natural to you and therefore your destiny. The more you accept your destiny and your authenticity, even though it may change organically with time, the more specific and therefore smaller becomes the area, the field, the aspect that you are in relation to your form and the forces that you carry within. This aspect, the identity that belongs to you, then gives you the infinite space to be open to the essence of life and thus to yourself.

Close-up of a vibrant pink flower with a yellow and orange heart, surrounded by green and reddish leaves against a blurry yellow background. The petals are delicate, with visible stamens in the center.

The beechnut, if it had consciousness, could already feel its destiny within itself. It would be pointless and impossible to want to become an oak or a pine. Its identity, the forces it carries, are determined by its nature. The seed cannot become everything, cannot grow everywhere, and is therefore only a very limited aspect of the greatness of life.

The freedom the seed has is to crystallize as freely and completely as possible into the fullness of the powers it carries. Although its identity is constantly changing from germ to plant, to shrub, to tree, to an ever-changing crown, moving through seasons and weather conditions, its destiny, its power, and its identity is "to be a beech."

If a beechnut beckons to be a pine, it would disempower it, confuse it, and cost it immense dissipated energy. When the beechnut connects its consciousness with each phase of being a "beechnut," enjoys its distinct identity, allows its nature-given powers to radiate freely, and allows its destiny to crystallize experientially, it lives in peace and harmony with itself.

Close-up of a snowdrop with white petals and a green heart against a blurry background of yellow and pink tones. The flower hangs elegantly on its stem, indicating early spring.

From this peace and attunement, at every stage of its destiny, it has the ability to be open to the essential value of the space from which its identity, all its power, and its crystallizing destiny emerge.

For even though all appearances are constantly changing, the Source from which everything comes is always the same. When it experiences this, it experiences the foundation of existence, the source of being, and it feels, precisely through its own form, color, and identity, the essence from which all life is sustained, originated, and is rooted. Then it feels the essence of itself, for a beechnut is also life itself.

Thus, any limited authenticity and identity, precisely by embracing it fully and through its existence, gives you access to the essence from which everything arises and where all life is equal.

Identity and essence, precisely in their connection, are the miracle of life. They are both true and important, because the house and the door are important in order to meet the inhabitants of the house and to share with them the love of existence.

Close-up of a light pink poppy with delicate petals and an orange heart, against a blurry green background. Sunlight filters through the petals and emphasizes their texture. Buttons and leaves can be seen nearby.

So it is important not to reject your identity, but to acknowledge it, so that it can be the door through which you enter, to meet its occupant, yourself, and to share together the essence of "being here," of life, of love.

There is something strange about a rose wanting to be a lily. Only a comparing ego could think of such a thing. The rose is a rose, and all it wants is to be that to the greatest extent possible. It will not squabble about the color, the height, the bud, the thickness. No, it will try to be what it naturally is to the best of its ability, allowing all the life forces available to it.

As a result, it is loving to itself, empowering itself, and therefore will be at its most beautiful to those who see or experience it. In this potency and freedom, it gives the most space for the life it is to flow through it freely and fully, sharing its abundance. Through this willingness, it receives the fullness of life and understands more and more deeply what its source is, for it drinks directly from the source. By accepting its destiny, it makes the most potent contribution possible to the rest of the world.

When you too allow all these forces, you will have a completely different experience of yourself and you too will be able to drink from the benevolent well of creation. Then a completely different sense of respect for other people's lives and identities will arise. So I invite you to participate in life as it is meant for you and for the nature that you represent with your humanity.

* Translated from Dutch using DeepL (AI)

Book cover 'Bezieling door Inzicht - 200 levensthema's voor innerlijke groei' by Anandajay

Translation of the text: Bezieling door Inzicht - 200 levensthema's voor innerlijke groei, thema: 194. Identiteit, levenskracht en bestemming. (Only available in Dutch.)

Anandajay dressed in white, sitting on a reed braided chair with white pillow

Anandajay (which means “blessing from the heart”) has been dedicated to integrating the spiritual essence into daily life for over 50 years. He has developed twelve teachings (spiritual practices), 50 music albums (mantras, pujas and ragas) and twenty books (written in Dutch) to bring you closer to the natural basis of your existence, your spiritual authenticity, and its wholesome, joyful essence, so that it can also be your shining, spiritual guide in your life. He expresses the core value of his work as: The Light of Being.