The Exorcist-Burying The Ego-Part I

Ramana Maharshi

-Staff

By Staff

Wednesday, June 4, 2008, 13:54

M: Ego is not an entity independent of the Self… It functions as an instrument of the Self and periodically ceases to function. That is to say it appears and disappears. This might be considered to be its birth and death.

The uprooting of the ego is the object of all spiritual effort. For it is only thereafter that the truth shines forth. It is a condition precedent to being Self-aware. But this ego is so elusive, so fleeting, that one has often to throw up one's hands in despair.

We have the case of Major Chadwick a long time inmate of Sri Ramanasramam. So deep was his disgust at his failure to tackle this problem that he solemnly dug a grave for his ego and entombed it. Not that he was not aware that any effort to bury the ego would be as futile as the effort to bury one's shadow. It is bound to show up at the top after all the effort. His act was therefore purely symbolic of our deep rooted desire to get rid of the ego and of our growing frustration at our inability to do so.

Presently our whole world resolves round the feeling of individuality, our being this or that. Our well being and confidence depend on our ego. True, it may take various forms. Maybe it is the growing bank balance, rise in official ladder, increase in the size of political following, or the academic brilliance of the children which is the spur depending on the individual temperament.

It is a purely psychological feeling that this is 'mine'. From a rational viewpoint it may be that crores in the bank account, living in a palace surrounded by servants, the children for whom we live, should not matter. For our happiness does not depend on them. But we are not rational at all when it comes to the pride of ownership, the thought of possession. We shudder at the prospect of losing our most valued possession the feeling of 'I' and 'mine' for we have convinced ourselves that life would be empty and pointless if one does not have this.

What is asked of us is to do a complete volte-face, a wholesale turn about from our cherished values. True, it is repeatedly dinned into us that a state of bliss awaits us if we succeed in becoming totally dispossessed, devoid even of the mind and body. But this state being wholly outside the field of our present experience we are afraid that we might lose on both the fronts. Both spiritual gains and worldly joys would not be ours is the unsaid fear.

It is this fear which is the silent killer of all effort to get rid of the ego. On top of it there is also the danger of the dreaded void. If the ego is snuffed out, if it is erased, would not blankness be the result? Won't we become mindless idiots? This is a fear which is very real for we find many seekers questioning Ramana about it and hanging on to the doubts even after assurances given by him that intuition would take the place of reason and that action would be perfect.