LOSS OF EGO

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33-Loss of ego is only avoiding tamas and rajas

 

Tamas: Sloth, torpor, darkness, ignorance, the principle of inertia

Rajas: Activity, the principle of activity, excitability

 

Since there is no one who does not want to attain the supreme state,

it is the aim of the scriptures to involve everyone in the spiritual

path. However, when aspirants come across the scriptural injunction

that those entering the path to the supreme state must, in order to

attain that goal, be heroic enough to sacrifice not only their

possessions but also themselves, they are assailed by doubts and

misconceptions.

 

They think: "Though the state of deliverance is a divine state, it

appears to attain it we have to sacrifice our own selves. After all,

spiritual efforts are aimed at attaining immortality. However, if we

offer ourselves in the sacrificial fire of jnana (true knowledge;

realization of one's true nature), who then remains to enjoy the

bliss of liberation? Why should we lose ourselves for a state that

does not benefit us? This is like trying to fulfill the strange and

impossible requirement of losing the principal for the sake of the

interest! Is spiritual effort a suicidal one?

 

Such fears and apprehensions put many aspirants in a dilemma: they

are unable either to follow their spiritual path with their whole

heart or to give it up altogether. In keeping with the

statement "one who has been retarded cannot make any further

progress", such doubts bewilder the aspirants. They do not know what

to do. Before they can come out of this confusion through a thorough

and deep study of scriptures and through satsang (association with

the wise), many of the aspirants turn into atheists. Although such

doubts and misconceptions are the prime reasons for the majority of

people not having enough enthusiasm for the religious life, to those

who investigate the matter, all these doubts, as I shall explain

below, will appear to insubstantial and boneless.

 

The ego-soul has sattva (purity, harmony, the principle of purity

and goodness) as its nature. In reality, it is the unconditioned

Supreme Self. However, because it associates with the mind, which

has the nature of rajas and tamas, it gets into the habit of

identifying with the non-Self, the body, and becomes the jiva (the

individual self or soul). All bondage stems from this root cause,

the I-am-the-body idea. Therefore, loss of the ego-self is only the

cessation of this association, the abandonment of the unreal

involvement in the rajasic and tamasic modes. In other words, by

shedding one's jiva-nature, one attains one's true nature as Brahman

(the impersonal Absolute Reality; the Supreme Being; the Absolute).

Thus, in the state of liberation, one does not lose oneself

completely.

 

In outer life one who follows the path of righteousness loses his

bad qualities, such as desire and anger, but he does not lose

himself. Likewise, one who follows the scriptural path loses only

the rajasic and tamasic qualities of restlessness and impurity but

not himself.

 

A body afflicted by diseases lacks strength and vigor, but when it

is completely cured, it is restored to its former strength and

robustness. In the same way, the jiva that has lost awareness of its

true nature because of egoism, will experience its real nature when

it loses its egoism. It will then shine in its natural state of pure

sattva22.

 

22-"Sattva is the very nature of the mind whereas the other two

qualities, being mere adjuncts, can be banished from it. If one

holds steadily to one's own divinity, rajas and tamas are strangled

in such a way that the internal stresses and external multiplicity

disappear. When this happens, your mind shines forth untainted and

becomes motionless and subtle like the ether. Then it naturally

becomes one with Brahman, which it is already, and remains in

nirvikalpa samadhi (as defined in TALKS: the highest state of

concentration in which the soul loses all sense of being different

from the universal Self, but a temporary state from which there is a

return to ego-consciousness. BE AS YOU ARE: Merging in reality and

remaining unaware of the world). (Kaivalya Navaneeta)

 

NOTE: TAKEN FROM "SRI RAMANA DARSANAM", BY SADHU NATANANANDA, EDITED

BY DAVID GODMAN, PAGES 56 TO 58.