Inquiries into the Absolute: Digest 67

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Digest 67, August 9th, 2003

Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja

*** You are welcome to send in your questions to HH Romapada Swami at

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Bhagavad-gita: Devotee as living offering to the Lord, Definition of Ego

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Q1)

I recently heard a lecture on the Bhagavad-Gita, Chapter 9 texts 26-34.

The verses speak about offerings to Krishna, how we should make our

offerings with genuine love and devotion.

 

In the Dharma book published by the BBT, Chapter 8 page 59 it says: "A

spiritually advanced Krishna conscious person sees all moving and non-

moving things, but he does not exactly see their forms. Rather, wherever

he looks he sees the manifestation of His worshipable Lord."

 

My question is: If a person like the one described above is able to

see Krishna in every moving and non-moving things, is this person a

living offering to the Lord?

 

 

Ans)

Yes, one could say that such person is a living offering to the Lord.

The advanced devotees dedicate all their life energy and their very

selves to Krishna.

 

Krishna's multifarious energies are broadly divided into three categories

- internal energy, external energy and marginal energy. The living

entities are described as superior to dull matter, and are marginal in

nature, i.e. in between material energy and the Lord's internal energy;

the Lord's marginal energy, jiva souls, are capable of choosing either

the spiritual energy or or the material energy to associate with and thus

identify with (see Bg 7.5). The self-realized souls understand that the

material energy belongs to Krishna and thus they try to engage whatever

they come in contact with in His service. Beyond that, they understand

that even their own body, mind, words, all their relationships, and even

their very soul do not belong to them but are Krishna's energy. Thus

they offer their very *selves* to Him. This is called atma-nivedana,

or total self surrender.

 

Q2)

Our BG discussion group has been rambling for lack of our ability to

grapple with the meaning of 'ego'. All of us generally agree that

spirituality is about surrendering the ego or getting rid of 'I

consciousness'. But understanding it conceptually itself seems a

challenge. We discussed 'I am not the body, I am the soul', and 'I am

the eternal servant of the lord' aspects. We also cited the example

of sage Valmiki - he must have lost consciousness of body altogether.

We would appreciate hearing from you about this topic.

 

Ans)

There is a distinction between `ego' and `false-ego' which I would like

to point out --- perhaps that would help understand the concept of ego

better. Ego is the conception that one has of oneself, a conscious

awareness of one's identity, or as you put it, "I-consciousness".

 

The soul cannot get rid of ego, or the conscious awareness of oneself,

even with one's greatest effort. The soul *IS* conscious, and being

conscious of one's spiritual identity is experienced in the liberated

state. However, by uncovering our real-ego, or the true and eternal

sense of self, we can discard the false-ego or the false identification

of the soul with external objects, such as the bodily coverings of the

soul, both gross and subtle, and things related to the body.

 

Getting rid of false-ego does not necessarily mean to `lose awareness

of the body or mind', as was the case of Valmiki during his deepest

meditation on Ram's name. Rather, ridding oneself of false-ego means

to change one's perception of one's self --- to see oneself not as the

enjoyer and controller of the material energy, but as a part and parcel

of Krishna and an instrument in Krishna's hands.

 

To repeat, a self-realized soul is not necessarily disconnected from

sensory perception of the external world; but a self-realized soul *is*

disconnected from any mis-identification with matter, as much as the

driver of a car is fully conscious of the movements of his vehicle but

doesn't identify himself to be the car. As one's real-ego or awareness

of one's eternal identity awakens, one becomes transcendental to the

pains and pleasures and changes of the body although fully connected to

the body, seeing it as a mere instrument.

 

Here is one final thought on this topic.

 

Real ego is the consciousness that one is the eternal servant of the

Lord, while false-ego is characterized by the mentality of being the

doer and mover of material energy (Bg 3.27). Very often, beginners in

spiritual life, trying to overcome false ego and the doer-ship mentality,

mistakenly suppose that abandonment of false ego means giving up action

or taking initiative. Karma-tyaga is their objective, not just karma-

phala tyaga. They think that surrendering or acting as an instrument of

God, moreover, is akin to becoming something like a mindless programmed

robot. This is not correct. Rather, giving up false ego is to give up

whimsical actions and the mentality that one can achieve something

independent of Krishna, replacing this false-ego with the consciousness

that one's actions are to be placed subordinate to and suject to God's

will.

 

I hope this sheds some light on this topic.

 

 

 

 

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----- Festivals over the next week ------

Aug 11 2003, Monday Appearance Lord Balarama (Fast)

Jhulana Yatra ends

(Fasting till noon)

Aug 12 2003, Tuesday Srila Prabhupada's departure for the USA

 

*** NOTE: All times are for Washington D.C, USA, EST ***

For festival information for your city please go to http://www.iskcondc.org and

click on 'Calendar'

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