Spiritual Growth: Gain The Self, Lose The I  

By RAJIV DESAI  

Spiritual Growth: Gain The Self, Lose The I  

Each soul is potentially divine. "We are not human beings learning to be spiritual; we are spiritual beings learning to be human," said Jacqelyn Small. If this be so, why this forgetfulness about our divine potential?

What causes this amnesia? Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin has summed up the ultimate aim of Satan as: "The worst thing that the evil one can achieve is to make man forget that he is the son of a king."

A child prince brought up by hunters does not know that he is of royal lineage; he will remain ignorant about his ancestry till somebody identifies him as a prince. "The sheer ignorance of our own divinity makes us weak, cruel, unfriendly and prone to every kind of sin. Nothing can make us so as long as we are conscious of the Divine within us," said Swami Vivekananda, while emphasising that the self in each person is not different from the Godhead.

The absolute is within oneself, declares the Chandogya Upanishad, Tat tvam asi or "Thou art That". The Divine dwells within each one of us through his microcosmic representative, the individual self or jiva . In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna describes the jiva as 'My own eternal portion'.

In his teachings, Swami Vivekananda exhorts us to, "Put out the self, lose it, forget it; Get rid of the little 'I' and let only the great 'I' live." The little 'I' is the petty empirical ego that makes a person feel that he himself is the doer of all actions. Conquering the ego involves keeping our mental 'eyes' turned towards the great 'I'.

The best tip for a soldier in the battlefield of life is: " Mam anusmara, yudhya ca "(remember me at all times and fight). It entails dedication of the faculties of attention and intellect to God while performing one's duty. Such a dedication cannot be achieved by mere thinking or at the conscious level of the mind. It should be done through sustained meditation and by withdrawing the mind completely from all conscious contact with ideas or notions other than God.

A high frequency of thought centred upon God finds expression in the way of life of such a person and his journey to establish his kinship with the great 'I' gains momentum. Such a man retains his identity but is devoid of 'I'-ness - his Self is emptied of the self. To establish contact with the great 'I' the Bhagavad Gita advocates the path of detachment. Simply put, it is: "Attachment gone, deliverance won." But this is easier said than done.

The Gita states that the practical way to alleviate mental clinging is by changing the elevation of attachment. With the mind attached to God, there will emerge a non-attachment with reference to things other than God.

Izaak Walton narrates the following anecdote in his essay titled, 'Contentment': "Diogenes once went with his friend to see a country fair, where he saw ribbons, looking glasses, nutcrackers, fiddles, hobby horses and many other things. Having observed them, he said to his friend: 'Lord, how many things are there in this world of which Diogenes hath no need'!"

In the Shantiparva of the Mahabharata, King Janaka's total devotion to God is revealed in the following words: 'Infinite indeed is my wealth of which nothing is mine. If Mithila is burnt, nothing that is mine is burnt.'

"When purity of intention is developed, passions directed towards mundane objects die, producing tranquillity of mind which in turn gives rise to the inward silence in which the soul begins to establish contact with the Eternal from which it is sundered and experience the presence of the In-dwelling God," said S Radhakrishnan, effectively summing up the essence of this inward journey.

.

.

More from same author see: RAJIV DESAI  

See also: Spiritual Growth, Faith and Belief, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)