|
by Jayaram V
The ego is known in Sanskrit as ahamkar. Ahamkar means "the form
of I am or
Self." Self has no form, but ego has. When the Self
builds a form around itself (usually the body), we recognize it as ego
or the form of the Self. The ego is a temporary construct, created by
Self as an extension or formation around itself, detachable with effort
but ordinarily mixed up with it objectively, due to the activity of
nature or Prakriti. The ego is perpetuated by the activity of the mind,
the senses and the aggregation of various tattvas or principles and
gunas or qualities of Prakriti. From our mental perspective, the ego is
but a reflection of the Self, mistakenly accepted by our discrimination
(buddhi) as Self itself. It is very much like a cloth or a drapery that
the soul wears around itself and masquerades itself as the cloth because
of the illusion or maya to which it is subject. Or imagine you are an
actor and in the process of acting, somewhere you forget who you are and
start believing as if you are the role.
The State of the Self
During the process of creation, something similar happens to the
individual soul. It suffers a temporary forgetfulness that induces this
peculiar situation in which it identifies itself with its own creation
and acts as if it is the latter. If you can imagine yourself without a
mind, without attachment, anticipation, expectation, memory, name,
thought, desire, impulse, feeling or emotion, you will probably get a
little idea of what a soul consciousness is really like. Or imagine your
mind has gone totally blank and only one realization has remained
everywhere, in every thing and in every situation without a second,
"I am." It is somewhat closer to the state of the Self. To be honest,
what I have tried to explain here is still a mental construct. In
reality the state of the self is indescribable. Some call it the witness
consciousness. But I believe it is more than that. It is an all pervading
awareness itself, without a center and without a boundary.
Going Forth - The Outward Journey
The following verse from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad gives us a clue
as to how the ego came into existence from the Self.
In the beginning Self alone existed in the shape of a
person (purusha). Looking around It saw nothing but Itself. The It said, 'I am
he.' Therefore It became he by name. So even now, if a man is
asked, he first says, 'I am,' and then pronounces any other name he
may have.
According to the verse, when I say " I am so and so", the
"I am" part, the subject, is the self and the "so and
so" part, the object, is the ego. In simple words, when "I
am" is attributed with qualities, it becomes the ego personality or
jiva. Thus aham or ego is the thinking that I am this and I am that or I
have it or I do not have it or I want it or do not want it or I like
this or I do not like this or I can do it or I cannot do it and so on.
It is subject to the pairs of opposites and the sense of duality. This
thinking and attitude drags the soul right into the whirlpool of life
and subjects it to the objective experience of duality and multiplicity,
pairs of opposites, binding relationships and mental afflictions such as
conflicting emotions, feelings, reactions, desires and expectations. All
this happens because the soul stretches itself outwardly, like an
expanding ripple in water, and gets mixed up with the objects of the
world, like a child lost in its own play. It enters into a state of
objectivity by identifying itself with various objects and remains there
stuck like person caught in a bind, unwilling to pull himself out
because he has begun to like it, however unpleasant the situation at
times turns out to be. As the Upanishad puts it, it does all this is
because it is stuck by the desire to be not alone or to be some thing or
to have something.
"But It felt no delight. Therefore a man who is lonely
feels no delight. It wished for a second. It was so large as man and wife
together. It then made Itself to fall in two (pat), and thence arose
husband (pati) and wife (patni). Therefore Yagnavalkya said: 'We two are thus
(each of us) like half a shell. ' Therefore the void which was there, is filled
by the wife. He embraced her, and men were born."
(The wife here means wife in the physical sense and also
Prakriti in the symbolic sense)
Withdrawal - The Inward Journey
The first step in the unwinding process is to recognize how deeply we
are involved with the things of the world and how our attachments are
holding us from returning to our original state. The second step is to
somehow manage to detach ourselves from the ego personality, by
observing it and becoming aware of it, and establish some control over
it. This is not easy, because in the process of stretching out and
becoming involved with the objective world, like a tree that penetrates
deep into the earth through its roots, the soul becomes entangled deeply
with nature in various planes. It expands into them, resulting in the
formation of the various sheaths or bodies or kosas that envelope it,
giving rise to a distinct personality, identifiable physically by a
definite form and shape, that goes by the name Jiva.
Hindu scriptures recognize four distinct sheaths surrounding the
soul, the physical
body (annamaya kosa), the breath body (pranamaya kosa),
the mental body (manomaya kosa) and the intelligence body (vignanamaya
kosa). The fifth body, known as the bliss body (anandamaya kosa) is the
original state of the soul. The first four bodies constitute the ego
personality or the Jiva. They belong to the domain of Prakriti (nature).
Together they serve as the field (kshetra) of activity and entanglement
for Siva or the Soul. This is why physical death does not lead to Self
realization. If the soul becomes involved with only the physical body,
logically it should become completely free upon the death of the
physical body. But since there are other bodies, a soul, which has left
the physical body, is still bound to some aspects of the remaining
bodies. When a person dies, only the physical body is immediately shed.
Parts of the other bodies stay with it for a definite period of time in
the form of seed memories, thoughts, emotions, feelings and some
energies, depending upon its karmic history. These remains of the jiva
that accompany the soul to the next world constitute the residual ego
component which stays with it for the duration of its afterlife and
returns along with it, in a more compressed and condensed form, back to
the earth for the continuation of its journey.
The Significance of Yoga Practices
So if we want to be successful in the unwinding process and regain
our original state of consciousness, we have to focus on various bodies
or sheaths of our personality and transform them. This is what our yoga
practices attempt to accomplish through the various techniques as
enumerated in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
- The five yamas (abstentions namely violence, lying, theft, sex and
possessions) and the asanas (yogic postures) are meant to transform
the physical body. We can add to these the rules prescribed for the
types of food that can be eaten by a spiritual aspirant.
- The five niyamas (observances, namely purity, contentment,
austerities, study and surrender to God), pratyahara or withdrawal
of the senses from the sense objects and dharana or concentration
are meant to purify and transform the mental body.
- Pranayama or control of the vital breath (prana) through
controlled breathing practices is meant to purify and transform the
breath body.
- Dhyana or meditation helps us in purifying our intelligence body
as meditation and contemplation lead to clarity of thought and
better discrimination.
When an aspirant practices these techniques sincerely and manages to
purify and transform his various bodies, he will finally experience the
state of Samadhi, which is but the natural state of the soul. It is
however important to note that transformation of one body or kosa brings
corresponding changes in the other bodies. So, overall, these different
techniques not only transform the respective bodies for which they are
meant, but together they also hasten the overall progress by creating a
multiplier effect.
The Importance of Guru and God In Liberation
The entanglement of the soul with the Prakriti and its objective
reality spans over a long duration of thousands of life times. Add to it
the fact that all the jivas are subject to the law of karma and that the
soul is not completely free unless the sanchita karma (the sum total of
the accumulated karma of previous lives) is completely exhausted and the
no further karma is created through current activities. By himself no
individual can really exhaust his or her karma, because as long as we
are alive and active upon earth, our intentional and unintentional
actions will continue to produce the karmic consequences. So technically
speaking, according to the law of karma, we all are caught in an
unending loop. The only way we can exhaust our karmas is with the help
of a guru or by the grace of God. Only these two, with their power, can
grant us freedom from our past and present karmas and help us achieve
the state of liberation. It is said that when a guru initiates his
disciples into spiritual life, he takes away all their past, present and
future karmas so that they can remain focused on the path, without
worrying about the consequences of their actions. There is a
misconception that gurus are meant only to give diksha (initiation).
This is not correct. A true guru takes over the karma of the initiate
once and for all and sets him free on the path of liberation. Therefore
in addition to the practice of the various techniques of yoga, we need
the help of a guru or the grace of God. The latter can be obtained only
through faith, surrender and devotion and our past merit.
Suggested Further Reading
|
* The author of Conversations
with God and other books.
|
|
|
