Thursday, April 4, 2013

(Apr 4, 2013) Spiritual Message of the Day: The Sacrifice of the Ego to Realize the Absolute


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

No comments:

Post a Comment