Dual stages of Ego - Part 10 of 10

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It is true that even in the beginning, everything happens by God’s Grace. But during those times the JivAtmA was engaged in self-purification and for that to happen well God’s Grace helped.

But now the purification task has reasonably progressed. Now the purified antaH-karaNa (inner organ) has to reach step by step the state of experience.

‘Reach’ is really not the right thing; unusually instead of ‘reaching’, now it is ‘giving’.

As Manickavachagar said, it is a smart trading. One gives up the JIva-bhAva and receives the ‘shiva-sthiti’ (the state of being the Absolute).

But even this is only true in a poetic sense or in the sense of bhakti.

In reality, there is no JIva who receives the ‘Shiva’. JIva is gone but Shiva remains!

Bhakti has been prescribed for reaching this maturity of the vanishing of the ego.

The Acharya says, as it were, “I have prescribed SAdhanA so that you may acquire the wealth of the sextad (ShamAdi sampat) starting with Shama, the wealth of Dispassion, the wealth of Discrimination, etc. You have acquired them all. Hereafter you must learn to empty yourself. That is why Bhakti has been prescribed.”

Dual stages of Ego - Part 9 of 10

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Hereafter whatever is achieved is not to be ‘earned’ as the result of effort by the SAdhanA of the JIva, but they are the solvents of the self awarded by the Grace of God.

That is why the SAdhanA-set-of-four ends with ‘mumukShutvaM’ according to the Acharya.

So what happens thereafter is not by the sAdhaka’s effort; He has nothing to earn.

They are what he has to do to sacrifice himself. They are shravaNa (listening), manana (thinking) and nidhidhyAsana (contemplation).

When we manufacture a cracker we pack tightly a lot of explosive material inside, wrap it up by decorative paper, and make it attractive from outside.

All this is done for the final purpose of lighting up the wick and explode it so that nothing remains of that cracker.

Here also the ego inside has to be exploded so that nothing remains.

In Tamil one word for cracker is ‘vANam’. The vANaM’ (that is the ego) is elaborately prepared through a SAdhanA for the final purpose of exploding it and making it ‘NirvANa!

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Dual stages of Ego - Part 8 of 10

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The very fact of SAdhanA is for the egoistic individual self.

It is not for the Atman.

Does the Atman have to do SAdhanA to realise itself?

The Atman is actionless and it remains as it is always as Atman.

Therefore it is the individual JIva, that has to do the SAdhanA basing its actions on the ego which is the cause for its individuality.

However, after one obtains a certain success in controlling one’s senses, mind and intellect, having discarded much of those that need to be discarded, having obtained the formal teaching about the Atman to be realised, one reaches the stage of readiness for being in the only thought of

That and that is the stage when the ego joins the set of those that are to be discarded.

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Dual stages of Ego - Part 7 of 10

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All the time the efforts as well as the results are all based on the individual self.

This is an ego-based feeling, no doubt, but it is necessary to enthuse ourselves in these earlier stages.

Nothing wrong.

Not only for encouraging ourselves in the progress but also for a proper regret and due correction at times of slipping down.

Only when the individual feeling of ‘I’ is there, the thought will arise: “Oh, I have slipped down. I should correct myself and practise more carefully”.

On the other hand if we rationalize it by an incorrect use of Vedanta by saying “After all everything is false; there is no individual jIva. So where is the slip? Where is the correction?” then there will be no upward progress of spirituality.

The apex attitude of “There is no individual ‘I’ at all” is not to be imagined on the way.

If in that imagination one ignores the necessary self-effort, then there is nothing to hold you back and all the SAdhanA will go waste.

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Dual stages of Ego - Part 6 of 10

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Only when all old vAsanAs are extinguished it will go.

The extinction has to be done by means of the JIva-hood itself.

The SAdhanA-set- of- four is for that very purpose.

First the effort goes with the thought “I shall try to cultivate Discrimination”;

after some time one gets the satisfaction “I have got some Discrimination now” and then the effort continues with the thought “Now I shall try to cultivate Dispassion” and this, afterwards becomes “I have cultivated some Dispassion now”.

This goes on.

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Dual stages of Ego - Part 5 of 10

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Desirous of being totally consumed and dissolved by it, one sacrifices himself to it.

That is what is termed here as ‘higher-grade’ bhakti.

When one begins SAdhanA we keep on using the word ‘I’ in our thoughts: “I should get Release. I should reach Brahman. I should become Brahman”.

It is impossible to sacrifice that ‘I’ at that stage itself.

Even the thought of it might be scaring.

Many westerners who are strong in their intellect and courage are fearful of the thought of sacrificing the JIvahood – the feeling of an individual self – and they say: “What? Am I to sacrifice my individuality?”.

Even when one is not afraid from the very beginning itself, the JIva-hood does not disappear then and there.

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Dual stages of Ego - Part 4 of 10

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Only when the ‘I’-hood ends there is Realisation (*sAkShAt-kAraM*).

Even the word ‘Realisation’ is only a formality (*aupachArikaM*).

It is actually wrong to say ‘One realises Brahman’.

No one can do anything to Brahman.

There is no ‘sAkShAt’, no ‘karaNaM’.

Nothing can be done with Brahman.

Really what happens is, in that final state this very person (sAdhaka) vanishes.

Whoever did the SAdhanA he himself is not there at the end of the SAdhanA; only the goal remains!

It is this very phenomenon that the great Ramakrishna described as “the story of the doll of salt examining the depth of the ocean”.

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