Maha Yoga, by Who - The Soul #3

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The Soul

 

from Maha Yoga, by Who

 

 

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The Sage brings home to us the spurious nature of the ego— the individual soul — by means of a parable. On the occasion of a marriage an uninvited guest, an utter stranger to both the parties, came in pretending to be an intimate friend of the bridegroom. At first the hosts, namely the bride’s party, believed him and honoured him accordingly. But after a time suspicions arose and inquiries began to be made as to who he was and what right he had to come in. The two parties met and began to question each other. The impostor saw that he was sure to be exposed and treated as he deserved if he remained; so he quietly disappeared. Just like the impostor in this parable is the ego. It is neither the real Self, nor the body; so long as no inquiry is made, the ego persists and enjoys the status of the real Self; but when an inquiry is made — when the quest of the real Self is begun and persisted in — it will vanish, leaving no trace. This is exactly what we are told by the Sage in the following passage: “This ego, which is but a ghost without a form of its own, comes into being by taking hold of a form; keeping hold of the form and enjoying sense-objects, it waxes greatly in strength: if the truth of it be sought, it will run away.”

 

We need to study this teaching carefully. There is no ego in sleep, but only in waking and dreaming. In both these states the ego manifests by taking hold of a body, saying ‘I am this body.’ That is, there is a perception of the body, and at the same time there arises the thought

‘I am this body.’ That body is taken as the self, or as the abode of the self,

and the other bodies and objects that are seen at the same time are taken as

not-self. When again sleep comes on, both the body and the ego disappear,

and with them the world also vanishes. Thus the ego is simply the ignorance that limits the real Self to a single body out of a multitude of bodies, all of which are its own creation; this world which it creates is thus divided by the ego into two parts, as self and not-self, the former being a very small part, and the latter a very large one. From this arise the twin notions of ‘I’ and ‘mine’, which are the substance of bondage. Bondage is the outcome of the limitation of the notion of the self to a single body. Hence it is evident that but for the ego there can be no bondage. It thus becomes easy to accept the teaching of the Sages, that the real Self is ever free — never became bound or subject to ignorance — and does not need to be made free.

 

The Sage, having no notion of being other than the real Self in Its utter purity and perfection, is not aware of bondage; he is not even aware of having been bound

at any time, because time itself has been transcended by him. Bondage is just a thought like any other thought, though it needs to be said that the thought of bondage has its uses, in that it leads wise people to this inquiry, which leads, through the Quest of the Self, to the realisation that there is no bondage. But since bondage is inherent in the ego-sense itself, it will not cease so long as the ego itself survives. Thus we have the curious result that the ego is itself bondage, as well as the sufferer from it. It follows from this that the ego is for ever debarred from the enjoyment of deliverance. How can bondage ever become free? Besides, in that state, only what is utterly real can survive, and the ego is not real. Those that nourish the hope of winning Deliverance without losing individuality are doomed to disappointment.

 

In fact the blessed regions which they hope to win, and in which they are

to retain their individuality, are as unreal as this world.

What has been said about bondage applies also to ‘ignorance’, because this also is identical with the ego, and has no existence apart from the ego.

We need to realise in all its implications the fact that the ego itself is the source of all the evil that besets life. But to most inquirers the ego is dear as life itself, because they think it is themselves, and do not want to lose it.

They would rather suffer all the ills of life than be happy without it.

Questions are framed, assuming the immortality of this non-existent soul

and its survival in Deliverance. These will not arise if the teaching be understood.

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