The Sacrifice of the Ego to Realize the
Absolute
From Divine
Life Society Publication “The Realisation
of the Absolute” by Swami Krishnananda
(A Treatise on the Vedanta Philosophy and Its
Methodology)
The whole
theme of the Upanishads is centred in two fundamental conceptions of
Reality—Brahman and Atman. Both words are often used to mean the same thing.
“This Atman is Brahman” (Mand. Up., 2.). The philosophy of the main
declarations of the Upanishads, consists essentially of the eight conclusions.
This is the Ultimate Truth, transcending empiricality, extending beyond the
egoism of human nature.
The whole
process of the realisation of Truth is, therefore, a sacrifice of the ego, and
is a great pain. Suffering in the process of the experiencing of Infinitude
cannot be abolished for the individual so long as the individual itself is
inconsistent with the Infinite. Hence, the attempt towards the attainment of
the perfectly Real is generally looked upon with a sense of fear, disgust and
even hatred.
The human
being is always attached to the immediate concerns of life. He has no eye to
look to the beyond. He is grieved about the past, doubtful about the future and
worried about the present. He is ever diseased in his spirit due to his
violation of the eternal law. He is caught in the whirl of ignorance, passion
and sin, and is constantly dashed by the huge waves of uncontrollable sorrow. He
ceaselessly dies to himself in time. His whole life is a flux of states—now
destroyed, now renewed. He has no idea of anything besides himself, anything
that is vaster and truer. He is imprisoned within his fragile body, within his
whimsical mind, within his childish intellect, within his conceited
individuality. A shower of superphysical knowledge upon him seems to be music
played before the deaf. He thinks too highly about himself.
The
Upanishads are not unaware of the futile attempts of man to grasp the Limitless
Being, and they warn him that it is not to be comprehended through logic, but
to be heard from the wise one (Katha Up., II. 8, 9). Reason is meant to
strengthen belief in what is heard from reliable sources, and not to walk
unaided. It is an empty pride to think that one can depend totally on oneself
and reach the Eternal. Reason and faith should go hand in hand if the desired
fruit is to be reaped. That which is agreeable at present does not remain so
the next moment, nor does the disagreeable appear so forever. The immutable
Reality is unperceived and unfelt, and the apparition seems to give us life,
light and joy.
The sole
purpose of the Upanishad teaching is to disentangle man from the chain of samsara, to show him the way to
the Glorious Light that shines within himself. Man is not a sinful mortal
creature in truth; the Upanishad calls him “son of the Immortal”— amritasya putra (Svet. Up., II.
5). But he can know himself only through sacrificing himself. The highest
sacrifice is the offering of the self to the Absolute. The greatest yoga is the
sinking of the self into unity with the Absolute, by denying the separate, and
asserting the One.
Such an act compels
the relative self-interest to dissolve itself in the Absolute-Interest, which
soars high above the limitations of Space and Time, and establishes itself in
the perfect satisfaction and uncontradicted experience of completeness and
utter Reality. The awareness of the state of the Pure Self unimpeded by
phenomenal laws or separative restrictions, and the infinite rejoicing in the
free flow of the law of the Spirit, is the life of the exalted Self-realised
one. He exists as the Divine Being, which is the supreme condition of the
fullest freedom of Eternity.
The mocking
expectations and hopes that confront the human being in his struggle for
existence, give him opportunities to discriminate the Eternal, and direct him
on the way that leads to the realisation of the Absolute.
Continue to read:
“The Realisation
of the Absolute” by Swami Krishnananda
“Shun the Ego” by
Swami Krishnananda
“Life as a
Yajna or Sacrifice” by Swami Krishnananda
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