June 15, 2017 archive

Sacrificing ego is a tool for attaining Yoga. It is the means to attain Yoga siddhi (enlightenment). How is this possible?

Once, Vishnu called Sudarshana chakra and told him that it is only because of him that he is able to win over the demons. It is a wonderful story which is being told to you subtly. By listening to the words of Vishnu, we may feel that he is saying so jovially. But, Sudarshana did not feel so. He instead felt very happy listening to Vishnu. He felt greatly rewarded. He felt happy internally because of his ego. The result of that is that he was curse-stricken and had to be born on Earth. The moment Sudrashana thought he was great, he got the curse.

We get a doubt here. How come Sudarshana did not have the intelligence that we have? Why did he become so? If he did not possess that intelligence, how could he serve Vishnu in Vaikuntha? In fact, Sudarshana was very great. He is superior to everyone else in both muscle power and brain power. He is such a great saint. He is utmost devoted to Sree Hari. He is one of the greatest devotees of Sree Hari. But at that moment, succumbing to ego, he made a mistake.

Sometimes, ego comes to us unknowingly. Why should we get such ego only at that moment? We get such doubt. To understand that, we must know how ego is born. In this world, it seems as if many works are done because of you. When all such great deeds go on successfully, your belief that you are the reason behind it will become stronger. It might happen sometimes too. But, you are becoming egoistic.

In fact, all the works happen automatically as part of God’s divine and magnificent plan. You are just a tool in his hands for getting the works done. This is God’s miracle and not your greatness. Even though we study about these things from the scriptures, we forget at the moment and get the feeling of ‘I’ ness which is nothing but ego. As a result, you are attaching the unnecessary doership which you do not need. Hence, the good and bad associated with such works bind you. Your journey will go downwards.

Hence, it is said that egoism will accrue sin and it will ruin you. This ego will envelop you which will block your ability to think. That is why; the mistakes that others can identify clearly cannot be identified by you even slightly. The mind is covered with the fog called ego. Your bad traits do not appear to you even though they are like a big heap.

To come out of this danger, there is one and only one solution. You must come out of the feeling that all the works are done because of you. You must practice this and stabilize this feeling. Once it is attained, ego will never ever come to your mind at any moment. Let us remember this.

There are two predominant teachings in the spiritual path. One says that the entire world is an illusion. So, you must leave attachment. You must not have desire for attachment. You must leave the attachment for the body. The other is to love all and see God in everyone. Serving humanity is serving God. We are confused to adopt either ways. All these are wonderful but which way to adopt is the doubt of many. All these ways appear different but their goal is one.

Shankara bhagavadpada said that the world is an illusion. The hatred, relationships, fights are the creations of the mind – this is what he said. All the sacrifices seem to be great but if we observe carefully, we understand that they are meant for selfish motives. You must leave the affection on relatives and your own body too. You must forget yourself by contemplating on God. This is the way to attain liberation. This is good. We can discuss about leaving the attachment later in detail. This way is called the path of vairagya (dispassion).

Coming to the other way, if we observe the holy books like Bhagavatham, we understand that we are all the children of God. We are all different parts/organs of the Vishwaroopa of God. There is no happiness for the being when there is any trouble for any of the parts of the body. Similarly, if we are suffering, then God will not be happy. Everyone must try to help the fellow beings in any possible manner. We have already told that the entire universe is a part of God. If you cannot help someone directly, then you can at least wish good for all the beings. When we observe externally, we do not see any close relationship between these two ways. They are in fact the same. The key for the spiritual practice is to think that everybody in the world belong to us. Just like we said that the entire world is a part of Paramatma, we must think that everyone in the world belong to us. This is one way. Thinking that one’s body also does not belong to oneself is another way. Though these two ways appear contradictorily, they are in fact not so. If we can remove the layers of attachments from our mind, then the feelings like ‘they belong to me’, ‘they do not belong to me’, vanish. We then only see paramatma everywhere. This is what is told by Shankaracharya. This is called vairagya.

Every individual always wants his relatives to be benefitted. It is needless to teach this to anyone. If such feelings are not limited to the individual and instead become universal, then they will not lead to attachments. God will then manifest himself subtly in the form of every being. This is way of Bhagavatham.

In one way, by shunning the feelings of affection and hatred, one becomes sanctified. In another way, by spreading one’s affection universally, one gets purified. One way is a journey to the center of the inner self whereas another is a journey to the center of the universal self (vishwatma). When the journey ends, we understand that both of the centers are one and the same. Good devotees must not waste the time by commenting that ‘this way is great’, ‘that way is great’ or ‘my way is superior’, ‘their way is inferior’ and so on. By following any way, they will surely reach the goal.