THIS POST IS CONTINUED FROM PAT 17, BELOW--
SOMEBODY
CALLED ME UP AND CRIED
CAPTAIN
THE
ENTIRE WEST IS SUPPORTING TAMILIAN DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER LEENA MANIMEKALAI
WHERE SHE DEPICTED SHIVA’S WIFE GODDESS KALI AS A TRANSVESTITE SMOKING AND
HOLDING A LGBTQ FLAG.
KALI
IS A COSMIC ALLEGORY , A BLACK HOLE , WHICH DEVOURS ENTIRE GALAXIES IN SECONDS..
KALI
NEEDS NO CIGARETTES OR MEAT .. BRAAAYYYYY
..
SEVERAL
INDIANS CAME ON TV TO SAY THAT KALI LOVED IT WHEN ANIMALS ARE SACRIFICED AND
THE MEAT IS OFFERED TO HER IN A FIRE YAJNA.
MY
LEFT BALL, SAYS VADAKAYIL
THE
FIRE YAGNA DESIGNED IN THE VEDAS – DOWNLOADED BY KERALA MAHARISHIS 400
CENTURIES AGO WAS TO SACRIFICE YOUR EGO INTO SACRED AGNI (FIRE ) , THE GREATEST
SOUL OF YOUR SOUL.
THE
ONLY SACRIFICE ALLOWED IS HUMPED COW GHEE.
WIKIPEDIA
LIES IN THEIR POST ABOUT “YAJNA “ -- IT
MAY BE AN ANIMAL (PAŚU) FOR THE PURPOSE
OF A SACRIFICE. SORRY, ONLY GHEE OF HUMPED CW IS OFFERED.
YAJNA
( CAN BE PRONOUNCED ONLY IN 54 ALPHABET SANSKRIT AND MALAYALAM ) REFERS IN
HINDUISM TO ANY RITUAL DONE IN FRONT OF A SACRED FIRE, WITH SANSKRIT MANTRAS.
I
WILL EXPOUND “SOUL- EGO” CONNECTION IS PART 18, OF MY BLOG SERIES ON “SOUL
MATTERS”..
EGO
IS THE GREATEST ENEMY OF THE SOUL
WATCH
THIS SPACE.
ALSO
READ – ABOUT THE ANGRY LION—TEE HEEEE—YAAZHI..
Capt ajit vadakayil
..
Yajna, sacrifice, is an
act by which we surrender our ego .
SANATANA DHARMA URGES YOU
TO SHED YOUR EGO AND LEAD A SIMPLE LIFE WHILE ON EARTH.
YOUR EGO IS YOUR ( SOULs
) GREATEST ENEMY.
https://captajitvadakayil.in/2022/03/01/ego-fountainhead-of-unhappiness-capt-ajit-vadakayil/
WHAT
IS SACRIFICED IN AGNI/ FIRE PHYSICALLY
IS GHEE..THIS WHITE INVADER CONVERTED THIS TO ANIMAL SACRIFICE USING HIS 1000
FAKE MUTTS
ONLY
A MARRIED MAN WITH WIFE ALIVE CAN DO A YAGNA.. SO MUCH FOR BRAHMINICAL
PATRIARCHY.
the yajnas are only the
means to enable the mind-intellect
equipment to adjust itself better for meditation. meditation is the only path through which
the ego withdraws from false evaluation
of itself for achieving spiritual growth.
there are many types of
yajna. daivayajna, the most well-known yajna is performed in the fire of yoga
with the intention of attaining oneself. another yajna performed with a fire
ritual is brahmayajna,
as you can see, all of
these yajnas may be performed by anyone, but you will not achieve anything
unless you do yajna with the right intentions. you must complete yajna without
your ego.
this sounds easy, but in
reality is extremely hard. yajna with your ego would not be a sacrifice. many of these yajnas sound like you don’t
sacrifice much, but in reality all of these yajnas are sacrifices of your ego,
which is why any of them will work.
these yajnas serve one
purpose more than all else - the cleansing of all levels of consciousness
(chittha-shuddhi), for they involve renunciation, invocation of divinity and
ascetic practices
the yajnas or the sacrifices
mentioned in the bhagavad gita are, gradational attempts on the part of the
seeker to overcome selfishness and increase their dimension of one's self by
attuning one's soul to the larger self, which
is nothing but the establishment of an en rapport with a wider area of our
relationship than the one to which we are limited at the present moment, due to
our sensory outlook
coming to the point of
yajna, sacrifice, self-control, we seem to conclude that every sacrifice which
is true to its spirit involves a metaphysical injection that we give to the
psychological process of the mind, a spiritual adventure more than any other
kind of human activity or a religious routine.
we ascend into a
supernormal degree of comprehension in our adventure of vairagya and abhyasa –
withdrawal and union.
the word yagna is derived
from the sanskrit root yaj, meaning to give (dãn), to unify (sangatikaran) and
to perform devapuja. a yagna is one of the oldest rituals in sanãtan dharma, to
propitiate the deities. yagna encompasses the attributes of welcoming (satkar),
altruism (upkar) and unity (sangathan). its foremost meaning is “to give.”
ritual
yagna as a rite is
defined as offering oblations in the name of devas – devatoddeshena havistyãgah
– while specific mantras are being chanted. the jaiminiya sutra (4.2.27)
explains that it is an act of giving up of articles to please the devas. the
important rite in a yagna is offering oblations into the fire.
yagna eradicates all sins
and purifies the performer of the yagna. it bestows strength and vigour in him
by sanctifying the food he eats and the water he drinks (yajur veda 1, 20). it
induces health and happiness and increases wealth. the presiding deva –
yagnasya devam – of the yagna is agni as cited in rg veda’s first mantra. agni readily
secures the welfare of all – puro-hitam.
the platform for
performing the yagna fire is known as vedi. the pit into which the oblations
are offered is known as kund. the wood that is used as faggots (samidh) is
obtained from specified trees only, from: ashvattha (ficus religiosa), palãsh
(butea frondosa) khadira (acacia catechu), nyagrodha (ficus indica) and shami
(prosopis specigera).
the shami tree is
spiritually significant, regarded as agni-garbha – ‘mother of fire’. the ladle
to pour ghee into the fire is known as agnihotra havani, made of vaikankata
wood (flacourtia sapida).
the person who sponsors
the yagna is known as yajamãn. the chief brahmin pandit conducting the rites is
known as hotru or adhvaryu. he may be helped by another pundit who chants
stotras. he is known as prati-prasthãtru or udgãtru.
yagnas are also commonly
performed during hindu marriage rites, with the agni deity acting as a witness
to the marriage vows
while performing the
yagna ritual itself, the officiating pundit requests the devotee offering ahuti
– pujã materials to the deity, to utter idam na mama, meaning this is not mine
(it is your’s).
here then lies the
significant import of yagna. when the possessive mama meaning mine is eradicated, ahamkar – ego too
is destroyed. therefore sanatana dharma’s lofty yagna bhãvnã exhorts that man
should forsake his self-centredness, by offering himself in the service of
others.
yajna ( can be pronounced
only in 54 alphabet sanskrit and malayalam ) refers in hinduism to any ritual
done in front of a sacred fire, with
mantras.
yajna has been a vedic
tradition, described in a layer of vedic literature called brahmanas, as well
as yajurveda. the tradition has evolved from offering oblations and libations
into sacred fire to symbolic offerings in the presence of sacred fire (agni).
krishna tells arjuna
about selfless actions undertaken in a spirit of yagna. when a worker renounces his egocentric sense of
agency and desire for the fruits of his actions he immediately becomes an
integrated personality and experiences
peace.
it is emphasized in
bhagavad gita, that action offered as a
sacrifice to the supreme (action performed with the yagna spirit) does
not bind. yagna spirit means all actions
performed without ego and without the
motivation of egocentric desires in a spirit of service.
wherever such a noble
work is undertaken in a spirit of co-operation
(yagna) there is god, the highest. those who have reached the highest
state of eternal contentment need not
pursue this path because they have nothing to gain by actions as the individuality in them
created by ego has already ended and they
do not depend upon anyone for anything.
`yagna' does not mean
only the rituals performed in an
attitude of dedication to god for achieving freedom from the cycle of
mortal existence ; it means all actions performed without ego and without the motivation
of egocentric desires in a spirit of
service.
self-control of the sense
organs is the only way to tame them for
experiencing inner peace. this is the path of
self control which is also an act of yagna. every form of self control,
where we surrender the egocentric
enjoyment for the higher delight, where we give up lower impulses, is said to be a sacrifice.
the bhagavad gita
proposes that true enlightenment comes from going beyond identification with the temporal ego, the
‘false self’, the ephemeral world, so
that one identifies with the truth of the immortal self, the absolute
soul or atman.
bhagavad gita proposes
that true enlightenment comes from going beyond identification with the
temporal ego, the ‘false self’, the ephemeral world, so that one identifies
with the truth of the immortal self, the absolute soul or atman.
the best of western
philosophers have not been able to explain ego.. bhagavad gita tells us ..
the entire existence with respect to an
individual is divided into two categories:
1. ‘i’ or aham and 2. ‘this’ or idam. atman is ‘i’ and the rest is ‘this’ idam.
due to the ignorance of my real nature, i am always
identified with my body, mind and
intellect and thus developed a false notion about myself. this false
notion is ego.
when the ego has ended a sage’s actions do not leave any impressions on his
mind and intellect and hence they are
not capable of bringing about any consequences. such a jivan mukt’s activities do not bind him
since he is not the performer of actions
but the actions merely flow through him. he is not a doer of actions but
only an instrument for brahman’s will to
express itself. the human soul becomes the
pure channel of divine power.
religion is a dialectic
soaked in rigid ethos. spirituality of
sanatana dharma is truth and
logic.. religion feeds the ego.
spirituality burns ego – it makes you transcend..
muslim pilgrims who go
for hjj stone the three pillars.. they are full of ego.. no woman dared to go
as they get groped.
on the other hand come
and see calicut varakkal beach where hindus comes to do karkidaka vavy bali and
shraddh for dead ancestors , .. lakhs of people are devoid of ego.. there is no
groping.
https://captajitvadakayil.in/2022/02/16/karkidaka-vavu-bali-2021-capt-ajit-vadakayil/
only seers can tell us if
we are suffering due to distress caused by ancestors’ souls or if we might face
such distress in the future.
signs are –
endless ego clashes between the family members, unemployment despite
being qualified , unable to save any money,
serious illness creating depression,
unable to get married in spite of all favorable conditions, unable to cope up with the partner after
marriage, unable to conceive, abortion,
giving birth to a physically or mentally handicapped baby and developing
phobias , vices and addictions.
earth, water, fire, air
and ether; their counterparts smell, taste, sight, touch and sound; the senses
of perception and organs of action; mind, intelligence, consciousness and ego
are all parts of nature.
ego, consciousness and
intelligence are sensitive and elusive. they pile up experiences of objects
perceived through the senses of perception, organs of action and mind. these
experiences differ according to their relation to circumstances.
in this way,
consciousness is throttled by the qualities of nature. it is also linked with
time, because it fluctuates with thoughts of past, present and future. by
disciplined study and effort, experiences are observed to move qualitatively
towards the best..
in vedantic parlance,
there are four dimensions or categories to mind (thought) in its function.
these dimensions of mind are known as ego (ahamkaara), reasoning and
determining faculty, buddhi (self-consciousness, higher mind, working mind or
impersonal mind), lower mind or intellect (manas) and memory (chittha or
chittham). when the soul identifies itself with the modes of nature, it forgets
its own reality and uses the mind, life and body for the egoistic satisfaction.
karma is not some
mysterious metaphysical, or supernatural, force or power that somehow comes
back to haunt you. the weight of karmic
baggage is simply what we do in a conscious manner . if you do something wrong
inadvertently it does not count as karma..
this is why small
children without ego are not cremated .. –they are buried.. their souls go back
to the same astral layer they came from.. their karmic baggage is unchanged as
their ego has not caused them to do deliberate mistakes.
due to the ego, the soul
identifies itself as the doer and the enjoyer of the body. the body, mind, and
intellect perform all the activities, but the soul is held responsible for
them. just as when a bus has an accident, the wheels and the steering are not
blamed for it; the driver is answerable for any mishap to the bus.
similarly, the senses,
mind, and intellect are energized by the soul and they work under its dominion.
hence, the soul accumulates the karmas for all activities performed by the
body. this stockpile of karmas, accumulated from innumerable past lives, causes
its repeated birth in superior and inferior wombs.
fundamentally, the bhagavad gita proposes that true
enlightenment comes from going beyond
identification with the temporal ego, the 'false self', the ephemeral world,
so that one identifies with the truth of
the immortal self, the absolute soul or
atman.
through detachment from the material sense of ego,
the yogi, or follower of a particular
path of yoga, is able to transcend his/her illusory mortality and attachment
to the material world and enters the
realm of the supreme.
in bhagavad gita arjuna
uses the word ‘svajana’ four times .
arjuna’s lament and depression are rooted in this feeling of svajanatva
- one’s own-ness. arjuna’s ego that strongly felt this attachment engendered
by possessiveness - own ness or
svajanatva- plunged him into the abyss of sorrow and delusion (shoka and moha)..
egoism consists in
thinking that one is the agent of some work and therefore the enjoyer of its reward.
arjuna syndrome analyzed
could be reduced to the following flow-chart. ignorance --> confused
understanding --> feeling of i and mine (ahamkara and mamakara) -->
sorrow and delusion (shoka and moha) --> overpowering of discriminative
faculty --> abandoning one’s own duty (svadharma) and adopting alien duty (para dharma), even in
own duty craving for reward and egoism
-->accumulation of merit and demerit ( dharma and adharma) --> endless
cycle of birth and death, samsara, consisting
of getting the experiences of
the desirable and the undesirable,
pleasure and pain.
krishna classifies all
actions into two viz. reaction and response; the former is guided by one’s ego, motivated by one’s
desires and the latter is guided by
one’s intellect motivated by one’s duty. the former focuses on result
while the latter focuses on action.
krishna proves that by responding rather than by reacting, by maintaining equanimity and not
getting provoked by worldly stimuli, it
is possible to satisfy the demands of worldliness, fulfill one’s obligation to the society, repay one’s debts
to ancestors and still attain moksha,
liberation.
what is the yardstick
that makes one war noble and the other ignoble?
it is the motivation behind it - is it the ego or the common welfare
based on justice that distinguishes the
two.
krishna says that “your
real fight has to be against ‘i' and
'my’ rather than the fight outside”. it is in this context of how to come out of our ego i.e. ‘ i ‘ and the result
of the ego ‘my' that all the other
seventeen chapters have been strung into one garland..
in teaching arjuna,
krishna employs two sets of values, the
relative and the absolute. he begins by dealing with arjuna’s feelings of revulsion, on general grounds. arjuna shrinks
from the act of killing. krishna reminds
him that, in the absolute sense, there is no such act called killing. the atman, the indwelling godhead (soul) is
the only reality. this body is simply an
appearance; its existence, its destruction, is likewise, illusory.
the cause for arjuna’s
suffering and distress is because when
he looked at his relatives, friends and teachers lined up on the opposite side, the feeling of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ became
very strong in him, the central point
being the sense of ‘i.’ a man is grieved
when he categorizes some objects or persons as his own and some others as not his own. this sense of mine and
not-mine - attachment for things
considered as one’s own and indifference for things considered as not
one’s own - is called ego which is the
source of all grief, worry, fear and confusion.
rediscovering oneself to be really higher than one’s ego is the end of
all sorrows arising out of false
identification or relationship.
at the moment of death, there is no extinction
of the individual. the embodied ego of
the dead body (the subtle and causal bodies) leaves its previous structure and according to vasanas or mental
impressions gained during its embodiment it
gets itself identified with another physical body where it can express
itself completely and seek its perfect
fulfillment.
objects are perceived not by the sense organs viz.
skin, ear, eye, nose and tongue but
through them. the sense organs
are the channels through which the
perceiving-ego gathers the knowledge of the objects such as touch, sound, form, smell and taste.
if this process of perceiver contacting
the objects through sense organs does not take place the objects as such can not bring any response or reaction
in any individual.
the soul is a non-doer
and as it is immutable; it is neither the agent nor the object of the act of slaying. he who
thinks `i slay' or `i am slain' really does not comprehend the true
nature of the self. the soul is
indestructible. it exists in all
periods of time - past, present and
future. it is the existence itself i.e.`sat'. the physical body undergoes inevitable
changes every moment but the self is not
affected in the least by such changes. when the body is destroyed, the soul is
not. both of them who think that they have been slain when their bodies have been slain and those who feel that they
are the slayers of the bodies of others
do not know the real nature of the self.
the agent of slaying is the ego (aham) and the
object of slaying is the body. therefore
the self which is different both from the ego and the body is neither the slayer nor the slain. but by identifying
with the body it assumes itself as the
doer of actions performed by the body. if the man does not identify
himself with the body he is not at all
doer of any activity. one who holds the soul as
slain is also ignorant because the soul remains unaffected and
unchanged. only that which is perishable
and changeable can be slain. how could the imperishable and unchangeable be
slain?
the sorrows of the pairs
of the opposites, the temptation to be
impure and the desire for acquiring and preserving all belong to the ego-centre arising out
of the self identifying with not-self
i.e. body, mind and intellect.
to keep ourselves detached from these
ego-centric ideas through constant awareness of our pure divine nature is the path shown by
krishna to establish oneself in the soul
when the individual ego finds itself free from all anxieties of the world. necessarily then one will be beyond
the three gunas free from the pairs of
opposites remaining always in the sattwic quality. this attitude implies that one should be balanced and not swayed by
either extreme. sattva enables an
aspiring soul to go beyond the gunas and attain freedom.
clinging to the fruits of actions creates vasanas to
exhaust which one has to get into the
cycle of births and deaths. if actions are performed as a dedication to the
god in fulfillment of his purpose,
without desire for the fruits, one is released from the bonds of birth
and death and attains bliss. birth and
death is called bondage because it is the
result of action in a previous life.
the wise i.e those who know the art of true
living undertake all work with evenness
of mind (renouncement of ego) and abandoning the anxiety for the fruits
of their actions (renouncement of
ego-motivated desires). thereby, they have no
occasion to enter into the cycle of birth and death as there are no
vasanas left in them for fulfillment.
delusion is the non-discrimination between the self
and the non-self or ego and it turns the
mind towards the sense objects. this is the state which favors egoism in this body and attachment for the body,
family, kinsmen and objects. when the
man gets entangled in this slough of delusion, he is perplexed and
therefore cannot think properly.
krishna says all
longings created even at the mental level because of ego will be
made ineffective when the seeker
transcends ego and comes to experience the self - attains wisdom. but the reverse i.e. with the
disappearance of the taste a striver
attains steadfast wisdom is not true.
affinity for the world exists only because of desires.
if desires are given up, no affinity for
the world remains. such a person’s intellect is without any sense of `i'-ness or `my'-ness i.e. without any ego
which is the cause for the sense of
attachment.
all the sufferings in the world are caused by our
egocentric misconception and consequent
eruption of endless wants. he is
a genuine sanyasin who leads a life of
constant inspiration gained through an
intelligent renunciation of his egocentric misconceptions.
the well-known upanishadic saying is “the human
mind is of two kinds, pure and impure.
that which is intent on securing the desires is impure; that which is free from attachment to desires is pure”.
where ego ends and the individuality is completely
wiped out, a state of selfhood, the
state of brahman - existence, knowledge, bliss absolute - sat chit
ananda - dawns.
working without attachment and desires, egoism and
vanity, always equanimous with pairs of
opposites is to control the ego and experience the self. this technique of
karma yoga is not different from the
technique of meditation or knowledge or shraddha..
the entire existence with respect to an
individual is divided into two categories:
1. ‘i’ or aham and 2. ‘this’ or idam. atman is ‘i’ and the rest is ‘this’ idam. but due to the ignorance of my real nature, i am always identified
with my body, mind and intellect and
thus developed a false notion about myself. this false notion is ego.
equanimity in all challenging situations ensures success
in life and enables the purging of
ego-sense and egocentric desires. this removal is blocked when the
individual starts getting disturbed by
all sorts of pairs of opposites when the ego sense overtakes him. to be equanimous is to act
detached from ego. this kind of right
living results in mental purification or vasana elimination or
correction of mental tendencies.
thinking is an act.
living is an act. these acts cause many
effects. to be free from desire, from
the illusion of personal interest, is
the true renunciation and not the physical abstention from activity.
when it is said that work ceases for a man who is
liberated, all that it means is that he
has no further personal necessity for work which however does not mean
that he goes into masterly inactivity.
he works, but without egoism or any binding
necessity. even in performing work he is not involved. when his egoism
is removed, his actions are governed by
the supreme self seated in his heart. free
from desire and attachment, one with all beings, he is released from
the bondage of actions. such actions do
not bear fruit in the same way as a roasted
or boiled seed loses its potency to sprout.
a man of self-realization
works in the world with the same enthusiasm and
sincerity as an average man of the society with the difference that the
actions of the ignorant are motivated by
attachments and anxieties for the fruits of
actions while the man of perfection will work without attachment and for
the purpose of the welfare of the world
at large.
attachment becomes an obstruction only when it is
ego-centric. but to the extent the
attachment envelopes the welfare of a larger section of the community it gathers ethical value. hence the advice to
arjuna is that he must fight as a
warrior who is called upon to protect the higher values of living
unattached to his ego-centric conception
of himself and his people.
all actions are being performed by the gunas of
prakriti. but he, whose mind is deluded
by egoism, thinks ‘i am the doer’.
gunas modify themselves
into the outside world, the body and the senses
which are called the modes of prakriti. they are classified into twenty
three categories viz. intellect, ego,
mind, the five subtle elements of ether etc.,
the ten organs of perception and action, and the five objects of senses
viz. sound, touch, sight, taste and
smell. these are the performers of all action.
the word ‘action’ includes all the functions of
the organs of perception and action (jnana indriyas and karma indriyas). the
soul looks on without participating in
any way in the action done by the body and the senses. whatever actions take place in this world are nothing
but the operations of the aforesaid
modes of prakriti and the absolute and formless atma or the self has really nothing to do with them.
an ignorant man, however, identifies the soul
with the aggregate of the body and the
senses and calls it as ‘i ‘and thinks that the soul is the doer.
actions performed with egocentric
and selfish motives become a bondage.
actions performed without attachment and desires are not actions at all in as much as they are
not capable of producing any painful
reactions.
krishna advises action
without longing, ego and mental perturbance.
longing is an expectation of a happening at a future point of time. ego
is one's own self-estimation based on
his past. to act without ego and
longing thus means acting without the memories of the past or the anxieties about the future
but to live in the present. even in the
present there is a chance for the man of
action to waste his time and energy in unnecessarily worrying about his activities through his inborn nature. this
anxiety and worry is what is called here
as mental fever or perturbance.
karma yoga is a way of life and one has to live it
if one wants to receive his grace. the
path of work is a process of elimination of desires in us. when egoism and egocentric desires are eliminated the work
done through such pure mind is a divine
action which will have enduring achievement
if we overcome these
impulses from our egocentric ideas and act from a sense of duty, we cannot be the victims of the play of
prakriti. thus in the process of
controlling the mind - stopping it from running after the objects of
attachment and aversion - lies the personal exertion for the seeker. that is his
purushartha
the upanishadic method of
meditation for the withdrawal of ego
from the outer world of sense objects to the inner world of the self for the purposes of curbing
desire oriented tendencies and thereby
achieving self-discovery
controlling of the lower
self i.e. the mind with the knowledge of
the higher self is termed as ‘restraining the self by the self’.
the technique of meditation is a conscious
withdrawal of all our identifications
with our body, mind and intellect and thereby turning our awareness
or desire-faculty towards our diviner
existence where the ego is under the perfect
control of the soul with no desires to agitate the mind any more.
ignorance of the nature of the soul creates desires,
desires generate thoughts, and thoughts
produce actions. due to ignorance and ego we think that we perform, we succeed etc. while actually the actions are
performed by the organs of action in us.
because of the imperfect understanding we consider we are the doers and hence we get attached to the anxiety for
enjoying the fruits of our actions. but
in the case of a wise man, who identifies himself with thesoul and has gone beyond his ego sense, there is no
attachment for the fruits of actions
because he knows that he, the soul, is not the performer of actions and
that it is only the sense organs which
do the work.
the mind is the storehouse of vasanas. by
giving up selfish actions and attachment to their rewards, the vasanas
do not get multiplied and the ego, the
sense of `i', ceases to exist.
the spiritually immature
are unwilling to recognize other gods
than their own. their attachment to their creed makes them blind to the larger unity of godhead. this is the
result of egotism in the religious
ideas. the gita on the other
hand affirms though beliefs and
practices may be many and varied,
spiritual realization to which these are the means is one
taint and desire can come only to an ego which is
the self functioning through a given
state of mind and intellect. the one who has renounced his identification with his limited ego and rediscovered himself
as none other than the soul is no more
affected by his actions in the outer world.
knowing that the soul can have no desire for the
fruits of actions and cannot be tainted
or soiled by them and knowing that no one can be tainted if he works without egoism, attachment and expectation of
fruits, arjuna is called upon to do his
duty
an ordinary man lives entirely depending on the
fruits of his actions and derives joy
out of such fruits. in the case of
a sage, he expects no fruits of his
activities and his very actions are by
themselves a reward for him.
hence he depends on nothing (niraashraya).
the weaknesses of anxiety for the fruits of
action, a sense of discontentment and a
feeling of dependency on things and beings of the world, belong to the
ego. when the seeker ends his ego and
realized his identity with the soul, he though
seemingly engaged in activity does not do anything. he is an emancipated
soul who sees inaction in action and
action in inaction.
when an individual
1. completely renounces desire
2. brings his body and mind under perfect control and
3. relinquishes all possessions, his ego ends.
when the ego has ended his actions do not leave
any impressions on his mind and intellect
and hence they are not capable of bringing about any consequences.
such a saint's activities do not bind him since he
is not the performer of actions but the
actions merely flow through him. he is not a doer of actions but only an instrument for the lord's will to express
itself. the human soul becomes the pure
channel of divine power.
an individual who has gone beyond ego cannot
perform any desire-prompted and
result-motivated activity. so he will be happy with whatever gain
spontaneously accrues to him out of his
actions. this is called ‘without any effort’.
the state of egolessness indicates perfect
victory over mind and intellect and so
the pairs of opposites - heat and cold, success and failure, good and
bad, joy and sorrow, gain and loss etc.,
cannot affect him because they are only the
interpretation of the world of objects by the mind.
such an individual who
has conquered his egocentric
misconceptions about himself, though acting is not bound by the consequences of the actions
performed (karma-phalam) because he
realizes that the gunas act upon the gunas and is ever steady in the
true knowledge of the self. from the
standpoint of the world such a man may appear
to be working or engaged in action, but from his own point of view he is
not the agent of any action. the
egoistic motive of action has been consumed, in
his case, in the fire of knowledge.
bondages created around
the personality of a man are his own
creation due to his attachments with things. his ego feels fulfilled only through the material world of objects
and it develops a sense of clinging to
these objects. thus his body gets itself attached to the world of sense-objects,
his mind gets itself enslaved in the
world of emotions and his intellect gets entangled in its own ideas and he feels bound and fettered. it is only when one
goes beyond these attachments and
hand-cuffs he becomes liberated.
control of the ego by
better understanding of the divine
behind it is called atma-samyama-yoga i.e.
the yoga of self-restraint. all the activities of sense organs and the
organs of action as well as the objects
of the senses together with the functions of
the prana are offered into the knowledge-kindled fire of right understanding i.e. meditation which is
one-pointed discriminative wisdom. the
idea conveyed here is that by stopping all activities, the masters
concentrate the mind on the soul.
krishna says, do your duty free from attachment for the
sake of sacrifice only. so we have an individual ego, in a particular
situation, with its own samskaras and self-interest, and yet we are encouraged
to act without self-interest.
attachment is a feeling
we create in the mind. a person gets married and gets attached to the other
person. when they get divorced, the mind creates a feeling of separation.
people remain the same; only the feeling changes. selfless action without
self-interest. the self-interest is not for obtaining any fruit for oneself,
but the self-interest is only for the duty. the ego exists like the nirodha
samskara exists, but that samskara burns itself.
for the vedas invite us
to realise that everything - living and non-living-,-every quality and
characteristic of everything, is only an aspect of the one atma, the source and
substance of all.
the aham or the ego is an appearance on the
atma as the foam on the edge of the wave, which is but the ocean itself. the
atma can well be devoid of ego, but the ego cannot exist without the atma as
the reality underneath.
however, man validates
the ego (aham), giving it a form (akaram) full of attributes and so, it gets
polluted as egoism (aham-karam). when the ego is free from the status of 'ism,'
it is a facet or factor of the atma. attributes, modes, gunas drag it into the
tangle of dualities and so, it gets malefic and sheds its positive, purifying
role.
the oblation that is done
here in the sacred fire is symbolic of the evil adhering to the ego, the animal
urges that still animate it. the 'ism' or mould in which the ego has hardened
tantalises man and blinds him to the truth.
shankaracharya has
described the harm it inflicts and prescribes the recitation of the name of god
to defuse the consequence. the pure ego will then merge and lose its identity
in the atma, which has no birth and no death.
one has to get rid of
envy, of the love for parading oneself. when these have been renounced, hearth
and home cannot harm us. the vedas desire man to give up the animalist ego, and
its complement, anger. the evils of envy, pride and spite belong to the same
brood. these are all 'bestial' though human in appearance. they declare that
love, tolerance, compassion, non-attachment, and adherence to truth are the
genuine human traits
we have various types of
selfishness – attachment to one's own body is the grossest form of it, and it
has subtler forms of egoism, such as psychological self-assertiveness.
attachment to anything
that is connected to one's soul also comes under the purview and the gamut of
selfishness. anything that would not accept the basic organic relations of
one's self with what is external to one's self, should be considered as a form
of selfishness, whatever be the height it has reached; it may be a national
egoism, or even an international one, but it is nothing short of it. one cannot
easily escape this predicament because of the perception of the world by the
senses.
joys and sorrows are
nothing but thought processes, which is another way of saying the whirling of consciousness
in a particular manner. our individualised consciousness, for the purpose of
easy understanding – we may identify it with our mind in a more generalised
sense – this individualised consciousness is the principle of the affirmation
of individuality. the ego, the intellect, the reason, and what we think we are
at the present moment – all these are inseparable from this type of activity of
consciousness. thus, self-control would mean a bringing back of the surging
individual consciousness in the direction of external things, and enabling it
to settle in its own self.
this is the whole yoga of
patanjali, for instance, which summarises in two sutras – yogaś citta vṛtti
nirodhaḥ and tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe avasthānam (y.s. 1.2-3). : "the
restraint of the mind is yoga, and then there is establishment of self in its
own self." here is the whole of yoga in two sentences.
sin is an act of ego
forgetting its own divine nature. it is
an act indulged in by man in his delusion catering to his baser instincts with the hope of
achieving bliss. to rediscover that our
ego is nothing other than the soul in us and to live thereafter as the
soul of all is called true wisdom -
jnana. having thus realized one's own
true nature, the material objects do not
have any attraction to such an individual.
the one who is unbalanced
or unharmonised, who is motivated by
desire and attachment to the fruits of actions and who is full of egoism and
sense of agency gets himself bound and tortured by the reactions of his own
actions.
it is only egoistic activities, motivated by egocentric desires
that leave gross impressions in the
inner personalities of men and bind them to reap their reactions. when an individual learns to renounce
his attachments to the fruits of his
actions, righteous or unrighteous, through
yoga and yet works on in perfect detachment and when all his doubts
about the goal of life have been removed
through self-knowledge, the ego comes to realize that it is none other than atman, the
soul. when such a person works, his
actions do not bind him. the mutual
relationship of true work, wisdom and self-discipline is brought out
here.
action means activities performed by body, mind,
intellect and the senses. inaction means
renouncing all activities of the body. if action is performed according to rule and one's own order in the society
without expecting result, without
attachment, without the feeling of possession and egoism, then it is
considered as inaction in action.
it is only egoistic
activities, motivated by egocentric
desires that leave gross impressions in the inner personalities of men and bind them to reap
their reactions.
when an individual learns
to renounce his attachments to the
fruits of his actions through yoga and works in perfect detachment and when all his doubts about the
goal of life have been removed through
self-knowledge, the ego comes to realize that it is none other than atman, the self. when such a person works, his actions do not bind him. every
form of self-control, where we surrender
the egoistic enjoyment for the higher delight, where we give up lower impulses, is said to be a sacrifice.
man is essentially prone
to be inert and inactive. he prefers to
get the maximum benefit from the outside
world with the minimum exertion. from this stage of utter inactivity he
goes to the first stage where he works
because of the promptings of his desires; the
second stage of his evolution is from the desire motivated activities
to dedicated activities in the service
of others with the least ego.
in this stage when the ego is subordinated his vasanas get
exhausted and mind becomes pure. with
the purity of mind he reaches the third stage where he meditates for realizing the ultimate goal of joy and peace.
the karma yogi, a true
worker, is known as a nitya sanyasi or a
true renouncer, for he does his work in a
detached spirit without being influenced by the pairs of opposites. a
man does not become a sanyasi merely by
giving up actions for whatever reason. one need
not take sanyasa formally; if he has the mental frame of renunciation of
egoism and desires he is a true sanyasi.
mere physical renunciation of objects is no
renunciation at all.
when an individual
after achieving the inner change comes
to realize the infinite divinity and performs
actions in the world, his actions cannot have any reactions on him
because no sense of ego is left in
him. it is the desire motivated egocentric activities alone that create
vasanas in the intellect which block the
discriminative power to experience one's own essential nature of eternal divinity.
a man of wisdom will not have any egoism even in the
common, natural and unavoidable
activities of the world, where he happens to live, like eating,
sleeping, breathing, speaking, closing
and opening of eyes etc.
he remains as a witness
to all the activities of the senses,
endowed with the knowledge of the actionless
soul, with an `i do nothing at all' feeling. he identifies himself with
the soul and sees inaction in action for he realizes that in all works the
senses occupy themselves with their
objects and the soul remains inactive. he may be said to have renounced action, for he sees no
action as performed by himself.
the karma yogis are those
who are devoted to the path of action,
free from egoism and selfishness, who work for
the purification of their hearts without any attachment to the results
of their actions and who dedicate all
their actions to the lord as their offering.
one who has brought all
his sense cravings under perfect control
and renounced all his egocentric and desire
prompted actions comes to live in peace, joy and contentment
when the soul functions
through the equipments - physical, mental and causal bodies - it becomes a conditioned self and
gathers to itself all the egocentric
attitudes of agency, action and fruits etc.
thus the beneficiary of the fruits and the
performer of actions in us is the ego and
not the atman or the self. the
soul becomes an actor performing all
actions only when it gets conditioned by `swabhava'- nature or the divine maya made up of the
three gunas.
the soul comes under
the control of maya and regards itself
as acting and enjoying the fruits of action.
as long as the soul remains identified with maya it is bound. but when it detaches itself from maya it becomes free.
thus such ideas as those of duty, work
and the result belong to the relative world. they have no relevance from the standpoint of the supreme lord. it is the
prakriti or nature that does everything.
through ignorance man
separates himself from the lord and
comes under the spell of ego. thus he thinks of himself as the agent of various works, good or evil
and experiences pleasure and pain
accordingly. the law of karma applies only to the embodied beings in
the relative world. when the aspirant
becomes free from ignorance and realizes his
identity with the lord, he goes beyond virtue and vice and is not
affected by the results of his actions.
ignorance creates the
egocentric concept which thrives in the body,
mind and intellect and is the root cause of all sufferings. when this
ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of
the soul, the ego ends and the soul becomes
manifest just as the sun illuminates and reveals all the objects of
the physical universe when the clouds surrounding
it move away.
knowledge is the very faculty of knowing. so when the
ego re-discovers the soul it becomes the
self. therefore, the soul is awareness, consciousness or the atman.
krishna asserts that the
relative existence of bondage can be
ended and the imperfect individual can be made to live in the consciousness of god and can come out of
one's ego sense in this life itself, in
this very body and among the very same worldly objects.
the method of achieving this goal is stated in
the verse as the one whose mind rests in
evenness and gains the divine tranquility.
where the thought flow is arrested there the mind ends.
where the mind ends,
which is the instrument through which
life expresses itself as ego, the sense of
separate existence also ends and the egocentric slavery of samsar
ceases. the ego, devoid of samsaric
sorrows, rediscovers itself to be none other than the self itself
total detachment is impossible for the human mind.
the practical way of achieving
detachment is to disassociate the mind from the false and attach it to
the real. surrender the sense of agency
and do the actions without egoism and
attachment to their fruits, considering all actions as offerings to
the lord.
the more the thoughts on
the lord the less will be the attention
on one's own ego. once this is realized, the
actions of the body, mind and intellect will not leave any impression on
the soul such a yogi has no attachment even for liberation and he lives in the world of objects detaching himself from his
own perceptions of the world, likes and
dislikes etc.like the lotus leaf existing in the water without getting itself moistened.
self discovery of the
mind is nothing other than the process
by which ego's identification with body, mind and intellect is replaced by the principle of
divine consciousness.
krishna describes the
benefits of yoga. during meditation when
the mind is withdrawn from the world of objects and is concentrated on the
soul, it acquires quietitude and the thought flow ceases. where there is no thought flow there is
no mind. where the mind has ended, there
the seeker experiences the infinite
nature of the soul and the meditator reaches to the supreme bliss by
ending all his mental agitations.
the ego discovers that it is none other than the
self and hence there is no dualism at
this stage. such a man of self-realization himself becomes brahman. the meditator (upasaka) becomes one with the
object of meditation (upasya).
a meditator step by step grows out of his own
ignorance and imperfection represented
by his ego and merges with the supreme.
he loses contact with the objects of the
senses and comes into contact with the soul within – brahman
words `i' and `me"
mean the self. on rediscovering the self the ego becomes the self and there is no distinction
between the ego and the self just as the
dreamer becomes the waker and the waker is not separate from the dreamer. when we are one with the divine in
us, we become one with the whole stream
of life.
when there is no thought, there is no mind and
where there is no mind there is no ego
which is termed as `reaching the highest goal' or self-rediscovery. little by little acquiring, through many births, the
knowledge of reality, he ultimately
attains perfection. the gita gives us hopeful belief in the redemption of all.
the lower prakriti is made up of the five elements,
mind, ego and intellect. the higher
prakriti is the life-element which upholds the universe, activates it
and causes its appearance and final
dissolution.
from the total satvic
content of the five elements are born the anthahkarana or inner instrument.
antahkarana consists of four aspects, manas, mind (doubting nature), buddhi, intellect
(deciding nature), ahankar, ego ("i
am the doer" nature) and chitta, memory (thinking faculty).
hindu philosophers have
divided matter into five elements. it is
to be noted that mind or manas (the inner organ that creates doubt), intellect or buddhi (the inner organ that decides)
and i-consciousness or ego belong to the
realm of prakriti or matter. people wo understand scalar energy flow and
advanced quantum physics don’t have a problem understanding these amazing
concepts
the spirit identifying
with matter or apara prakriti is called
ego. this is also called super imposition on the truth through ignorance.
it is apara prakriti which is the cause of the world and
by which the ego or jiva gets bound. it
is the ego that rediscovers itself to be nothing other than the spirit or para prakriti that presides over
the matter. in order to make it clear
krishna tells that the matter-aspect is
distinct from the spirit-aspect in each individual.
the five elements are represented by the
sense-organs by which the individual lives
and gathers experiences in the world of sense objects as we have seen
above. the sense organs are the channels
through which the world of stimuli reaches the
mind. the impulses received in the mind are classified and systematized as knowledge by the intellect. during all
these assimilation the ego falsely identifies the body with the spirit
and the sense of `i' or `my' is
produced.
ordinary mortals are not
able to understand at least the presence
of the great truth about the spirit and
matter. the answer in short is that deluded by the modifications of the three
gunas the living beings become blind to
the divine possibilities in themselves. so long as a ghost is seen in the
post, the vision of the post will not be
available to the perceiver. thus deluded,
the ego does not realize the supreme as different from it.
maya or illusion is divine because it is a part of
the lord’s nature and inscrutable to
human reason as we have seen earlier. it is hard to overcome by self-effort if unaided by divine grace. although krishna
himself admits that it is not easy for
any egocentric individual to transcend this illusion which is caused by his maya, the lord says that those who
devote themselves to him alone can overcome
this obstacle which creates sorrows and imperfections in the objective
world.
the evil doers cannot attain to the supreme, for
their mind and will are not instruments
of the spirit but of the ego. they do not seek to master their crude impulses but are a prey to the rajas
and tamas in them. if they control their
crude tendencies by the sattva in them, their action becomes orderly and enlightened and ceases to be the outcome of
passion and ignorance.
as long as the agitations of the mind veil the
intellect from its awareness of the soul, the limited ego will continue to
wander about among the sensual desires
and cannot experience pure consciousness even for a moment. hence
krishna says `the deluded world knows me not as they are
steeped in the illusion born out of
threefold gunas' just as the waves shield the ocean from the
visionary perception.
the supreme brahman alone exists in every individual body
as the pratyagatman, the ego, the inmost
self and is known as the adhyatma. at the culmination of the spiritual discipline, the inmost self is
realized as one with brahman. though the
self is formless and subtle and therefore all pervading, its power is felt by every living embodiment. the self
expressing through a given embodiment, as
though conditioned by it, is called the adhyatma.
wherever and whenever egocentric actions are performed
with selfish desires, they leave behind
their impressions either pleasant or unpleasant.
however, in the case of
the self which is eternal there is
neither attraction nor aversion in these actions i.e. in the creation and dissolution of the universe. it
is unmindful of what type of world is
projected or what kind of activities take place therein.
the soul is neutral or
indifferent to everything. it does nothing nor does it cause anything to be done. the soul has no
attachment to the fruits of its actions
nor has it any egocentric feeling of agency or doership just as an
umpire is not interested in the results
of the game he is umpiring. therefore, the
actions involved in creation and dissolution do not bind the lord.
the absence of egocentric feelings of doership
and attachment to fruits of actions is
the cause for freedom from dharma and adharma or virtue and vice. the ignorant man who works with egoism and with a
desire for the rewards of his actions is
bound by his own actions.
when actions are undertaken by an individual without ego,
their reactions, good or bad, cannot bind
him because the vasanas in him were already eliminated due to egoless
actions and absence of egocentric
desires and the mind already got purified.
the next stage is to live
a life of sanyasa and yoga. the word
sanyasa does not mean physical rejection of the
world. it is a renunciation of all egocentric activities and all
cravings for fruits of actions. the
offering of all works to the lord constitutes the yoga of renunciation.
that the eternal
self does not choose any individual for
bestowing its grace but the individuals
themselves create such environment in themselves that they rediscover
the self in themselves. a mind
pre-occupied with egocentric attachments with the non-self cannot realize the bliss while the
same mind if it is made to detach itself
from all the extrovert diversions it realizes its identity with the soul...
the way to rise out of
our ego-centered consciousness to the
divine plane is through the focusing of all our energies, intellectual, emotional and volitional, on
god. then our whole being is transformed
and lifted up into the unity and universality of spirit. knowledge, love and power get fused in a supreme
unification.
arjuna describes the exact form in which he wants
krishna to appear before him. the four
hands of god represent the four facets of the inner instruments in man viz. mind, intellect, chitta and the
ego-sense.
the influences which
govern the human minds are called gunas
or qualities. they are sattwa (unactivity), rajas (activity) and tamas (inactivity). a live
mind alone can experience these
influences. but life is the illuminator of these influences. thus
consciousness conditioned by the mind is
jiva, the ego and that is the experiencer of the gunas. unconditioned by the mind, consciousness in
itself is `its own nature', `it is the
absolute'.
whenever the lower
egocentric personality is not available
for guidance by the higher wisdom the lower becomes the enemy for the higher in us. such an ignorant man destroys
the self by identifying himself with the
body and the modifications of the mind and by not seeing the immortal self in all beings.
the individual soul gets identified with the body and the three
qualities and thereby it feels the
changes in the body as its own changes.
it becomes subject to sorrows and joys of the body till it realizes
its identity with the supreme self. this
delusion is on account of the influence of
the gunas. when the soul identifies itself with the modes of nature, it
forgets its own reality and uses the
mind, life and body for the egoistic satisfaction.
gunas are not merely
qualities but they are the primary
constituents of nature. they are the base for all substances. they are the three different influences under which
every human mind expresses itself in a
variety of ways at different moments of changing environments.
. ego and egocentric
desires are motivating forces behind all
enterprises. the man of tranquility is not affected by ego and
egocentric desires. there are no ego
motivated activities for him and hence he is said to give up all initiative of action. these three
verses lay down a rule of conduct for
the seekers of moksha.
to contemplate steadily upon the infinite nature
of the self is to become the self and
thus end our mortal egoism. such a steady contemplation cannot be maintained always effectively. we are not
capable of maintaining our mind in
meditation all the time. therefore krishna advises a practical method of maintaining a thought for a longer period of
time through a process of dedicated
service. if all the work is undertaken in a spirit of dedication and service, then work becomes worship.
a sannyasi is free from
ego and identification with the body. he
renounces all actions because it is brought about by ignorance of the true nature of the soul.
therefore the threefold fruit of action
– desirable, undesirable and mixed – does not affect him. it is only the unenlightened man that is affected by it.
rajasic activities are
those that are propelled by desires
waiting for their fulfillment that are performed in a self-centered vainglorious attitude of `i'ness and which
are undertaken with great strain and
labor on the part of the doer. they are undertaken by men of rajasic
knowledge.
rajasic action is
undertaken to satisfy one's desire in a spirit of arrogance, egoism and vanity. such actions involve considerable
effort and strain. the understanding
that erroneously judges both the right
and the wrong that makes faulty conclusions about what should be done and what should not be done due to inaccurate
egoistic pre-conceived notions is
considered rajasic buddhi.
within the power of our nature, we must live up
fully to our duty. by thus working in
the field ordered by one's own vasanas, renouncing ego and its desires
and with a spirit of dedication and
total surrender to the infinite, mind's evolution starts.
the gita is not tired of repeating that restraint
and freedom from desire are essential to
spiritual perfection. attachments to objects, a sense of ego, are the characteristics of our lower nature. if
we are to rise to knowledge of our true
self, we must conquer our lower nature with its ignorance and inertia, its love of worldly possessions, etc.
the state of actionlessness or transcending all
work does not mean complete withdrawal
from all work. such a question is not possible so long as we live in the
body. the gita insists on inner
renunciation. as the ego and nature are akin, the liberated soul becoming brahman, the pure
self, described as silent, calm, and
inactive, acts in the world of prakriti, knowing what the latter is.
when our intellect becomes free from its
attachments and thus controls our mind and
body, then alone we are fit for renunciation of the lower ego-sense and
reach for the infinite self which is the
process of meditation.
बुद्ध्या विशुद्धया युक्तो धृत्यात्मानं नियम्य च
|
शब्दादीन्विषयांस्त्यक्त्वा रागद्वेषौ व्युदस्य च
|| 51||
विविक्तसेवी लघ्वाशी यतवाक्कायमानस:
|
ध्यानयोगपरो नित्यं वैराग्यं समुपाश्रित:
|| 52||
अहङ्कारं बलं दर्पं कामं क्रोधं परिग्रहम्
|
विमुच्य निर्मम:
शान्तो ब्रह्मभूयाय कल्पते
|| 53||
buddhya vishuddhaya yukto
dhrityatmanam niyamya cha
shabdadin vishayans
tyaktva raga-dveshau vyudasya cha
vivikta-sevi laghv-ashi
yata-vak-kaya-manasah
dhyana-yoga-paro nityam
vairagyam samupashritah
ahankaram balam darpam
kamam krodham parigraham
vimuchya nirmamah shanto
brahma-bhuyaya kalpate
translation
bg 18.51-53: one becomes
fit to attain brahman when he or she possesses a purified intellect and firmly
restrains the senses, abandoning sound and other objects of the senses, casting
aside attraction and aversion. such a person relishes solitude, eats lightly,
controls body, mind, and speech, is ever engaged in meditation, and practices
dispassion. free from egotism, violence, arrogance, desire, possessiveness of
property, and selfishness, such a person, situated in tranquility, is fit for
union with brahman (i.e., realization of the absolute truth as brahman).
elimination of egocentric
attitude in all our thinking, action and relationship with others.
krishna lists out these
qualities, they are in fact basically only one
which is the sense of `i-ness'. when this sense of doership
develops, egocentric vanity takes over
the individual claiming a false sense of power,
pride and arrogance. for an individual working under the influence of
power and arrogance, lust and anger are
natural while he tries by any means to acquire
more and more wealth and protects what has already been acquired.
the lord advises to abandon the following six
qualities and thus become egoless and
tranquil.
•egoism
•strength
•arrogance
•desire
•danger
•covetousness
I love this post Capt.
ReplyDeleteThe below statement applies to my family...
EGO IS THE GREATEST ENEMY OF THE SOUL
Regards,
S