THE PRACTICE OF SELF-ENQUIRY-PART V

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THE PRACTICE OF SELF-ENQUIRY-THE RAMANA WAY

PART V

 

What is it that now prevents us from abiding without thought as the

Reality? The Reality or Self ever shines in the Heart, beyond

thought, as the pure adjunctless "I AM". But instead of abiding as

that "I AM", there rises an ego, a separate individual who feels "I

am this body", "I am so and so". This ego is the first root thought,

the "I"-thought; without it no other thought can exist, as we

already saw. Therefore, it is this individual "I" which assumes the

thought-forms as "body", "world", etc. that obstructs our natural

abidance as "I AM". Hence, if we want to abide without thought as

the Self and thereby realize the Reality as it is, we need only

remove this obstruction, the first thought or ego. That is why so

many of the verses of "Ulladu Narpadu" analyze and describe the

nature of the ego and its by-products – the body and the world –

for, only when we understand their nature will we know how to remove

them.

 

What is the nature of this ego, and how are we to prevent its

rising? The answer to this question is the uniqueness of Bhagavan's

teachings. In verse 24 of "Ulladu Narpadu", He tells us that the

insentient body cannot of its own accord say "I", that the real

Eternal "I" does not rise or set, but that between these two rises a

false "I" which is limited to the body; this is the ego, otherwise

known as the chit-jada-granthi – the knot between the sentient Self

and the insentient body – bondage, the individual soul, mind and so

on. In the next verse Sri Bhagavan tells us: "This formless and

ghostly ego comes into existence by grasping a form (a body);

grasping a form it endures; feeding upon forms which it grasps, it

waxes more; leaving one form, it grasps another form…" How then we

are to remove this sole obstruction that prevents us from peacefully

and happily abiding as the Self? The answer is given by Bhagavan in

the same verse (v25), "When sought for, it takes to flight"! This is

another unique clue revealed by Bhagavan. He illustrated it with a

story. A man posed himself as a friend of both the bride's and

bridegroom's party. So long as everyone believed him, he got on very

happily, bossing over both the parties and feasting sumptuously.

But, as soon as an enquiry was started about him, as soon as people

tried to find who he was, he took to flight and disappeared. Such is

the case with the ego which, likewise, poses both as Self and as the

body; it is endowed with consciousness and shines as "I", which are

the properties of the Self, and, at the same time, it is limited to

a form and it rises and sets, which are the properties of the body.

So long as we do not enquire who it is, this ego will boss over us

and will feast on the knowledge of objects gained through the five

senses. But, as soon as we start Self-enquiry, as soon as we try to

know who this ego is, it will take to flight and disappear.

 

NOTE: TAKEN FROM "BE THE SELF", BY V. GANESAN, PAGES 5 TO 17