From a document (ramana maharshi/david godman) :) 22 The Ego-Knot 156 The reason for our mistake of seeing a world of objects in front of us is that we have risen as a separate ‘I’, the seer, due to our failure to attend to the vast perfection of Self-Consciousness, which is our Reality. Sadhu Om: When our unlimited Existence is mistakenly confined by identification with the limited body, our own Self appears as the world and God, which seem to be entities separate from ‘I’, the seer. However, these separate objects appear only in the view of the ego, and not in the view of Self. This same idea is also expressed in verse 158. 157 The false, deceitful and self-blinded ego-knot, believing the body to be real, lusts after various allurements which are all fancied like the blueness of the sky, and thus it tightens itself. 158 It is only the sight which is blind to the unlimited Self, having veiled itself as “I am the body”, that also appears as the world before it. 159 The life of the filthy ego, which mistakes a body both as ‘I’ and as ‘my place’, is merely a false imagination seen as a dream in the pure, real, Supreme Self. 160 This fictitious jiva, who lives as ‘I [am the body]’, is also one of the pictures on the screen. Michael James: Compare verse 1218. Sadhu Om: The jiva, our false being, is a mere projection upon the screen of our true Being, Self. In a cinema picture showing the scene of a royal court, the king is seen viewing his court; just as he appears to be a seer, though in fact he is one of the insentient pictures [i.e., the seen], so also the jiva appears to be a seer viewing the world, though in fact he is also one of the insentient pictures projected on the screen of Self. Refer to verse 871 and note. 23 The Might of the Ego 161 Only when the ego is destroyed does one become a Devotee; only when the ego is destroyed does one become a Jnani; only when the ego is destroyed does one become God; and only when the ego is destroyed does Grace blaze forth. 1 Sadhu Om: Since the rising of the ego is the root of all pride, it is the only obstruction to our being a truly humble slave and servant to God, and therefore its annihilation is the only true sign of a real Bhakta [Devotee] or Karma Yogi. Since the ego is itself the root and the primal form of ignorance, its annihilation alone is the Supreme Jnana. Since the ego [i.e., the feeling ‘I am the body’] is the cause of the feeling of separation from God, its annihilation alone is the true Yoga [i.e., union with God]. Since the ego is the root and the primal form of wretchedness, its annihilation is the only true manifestation of blessed Grace. It is thus shown that the aim of all the four Yogas is the annihilation of the ego. 162 He who has destroyed the ego is alone the true Sannyasin and the true Brahmin; but, hard indeed is the complete destruction of the heavy burden of the ego borne by those Sannyasins who feel “I belong to the highest ashrama” and by those brahmins who feel “I belong to the highest caste”. 164 The complete eradication of the ego is indeed very hard when even in the case of Kannappa, whose love for Lord Shiva was so great that he plucked out his own eyes and planted them on the Lord’s face, there remained [until that moment] a trace of body attachment [i.e. ego] in the form of his pride concerning his beautiful bright eyes. 165 The real glory of Shiva Bhakti is the salvation of the devotee from the damnation caused by the delusion “I am this filthy body”. This is the reason why Shiva accepted Kannappa’s eyes when he offered them. 171 Having its Self-Knowledge veiled by illusion, being bound by the fruits of sinful karmas, and suffering, having lost sight of the Supreme, the ego’s play is a mere mockery, like the sculpture of the Supreme which appears to carry the temple tower. 172 Would passengers, if wise, carry their luggage on their own heads, while travelling on a train which hauls, under steam-power, the heaviest loads like wisps of straw? 173 Similarly, since, by it’s very nature, the Supreme Power alone sustains all things, it is wise for men to leave the burdens [cares and anxiety] of their life on that Supreme Power, and thus to feel free. Michael James: Refer also to Who am I? for the above two sayings. The above three verses were summarised in the following verse by Bhagavan: B3 Look! While God is bearing the responsibility of the whole world, it is a mockery for the false jiva to think that it shoulders these responsibilities, like the sculpture which appears to carry the temple-tower. Whose fault is it if a passenger in a train, which is hauling a heavy load, suffers by keeping his luggage on his head instead of placing it on the rack? Michael James: This verse also appears as verse seventeen of Ulladu Narpadu Anubandham. Are there not among us some aspirants who, seeing the sufferings in this world, make efforts to reform it or even to heavenize it? But here Sri Bhagavan exposes the foolishness of such aspirants and advises them to surrender to God all their cares, both for themselves and for the world, and to remain quiet! 174 One’s fear and quaking of one’s body while one is entering samadhi is due to the slight ego-consciousness still remaining. But when this dies completely, without leaving even a trace, one abides as the vast space of mere consciousness where Bliss alone prevails, and the quaking stops. Sadhu Om: The annihilation of the ego is alone the realization of Self, so when an aspirant’s attachment to his body is being removed through enquiry, he [i.e. the ego] will feel that he is going to die, hence some aspirants experience during their sadhana a fear of death and sometimes even a physical shaking or great heat, and so in this verse Sri Bhagavan clears the aspirant’s doubts and explains these phenomena. 175 The only worthy occupation is to thoroughly absorb the ego by turning Selfward and, without allowing it to rise, to thus abide quietly, like a waveless ocean, in Self-Knowledge, having annihilated the delusive mind-ghost, which had been wandering about unobstructed. 176 The truly powerful tapas is that state in which, having lost the sense of doership, and knowing well that all is His Will, one is relieved from the delusion of the foolish ego. Thus should you know. Michael James: The last sentence may also mean, ‘Therefore, acquire such tapas’. 25 Treason Against Self 177 To be deluded and without Self-knowledge, and to thus see all the worlds and the jivas therein as different from oneself, is truly doing treason against Self, that vast Space of Consciousness in whose view nothing is other than Itself, and which absorbs everything into Itself. 4 Sadhu Om: The rising of an individual ‘I’ [ego or jiva] is the reason why Self is seen as many things. Therefore, since it seems to spoil the true Oneness of Self, the ego’s rising is considered to be treason against Self.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 18:03:20 +0000
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