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.
बुद्ध्याविशुद्धयायुक्तोधृत्यात्मानंनियम्यच|
शब्दादीन्विषयांस्त्यक्त्वारागद्वेषौव्युदस्यच|| 51||
विविक्तसेवीलघ्वाशीयतवाक्कायमानस: |
ध्यानयोगपरोनित्यंवैराग्यंसमुपाश्रित: || 52||
अहङ्कारंबलंदर्पंकामंक्रोधंपरिग्रहम्|
विमुच्यनिर्मम: शान्तोब्रह्मभूयायकल्पते|| 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