Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy And Yoga - Some Aspects

Ego And The Divine Self

The concept of Ego is not unknown to the educated intelligentsia of the world ; one may have a clear mental idea of the ego, but yet know it not just as one may have known all that is said and written of God and yet know Him not at all. Ego is the identification of the Self or Soul with its constantly changing and perishable instruments;, body, mind and life. It is so pre-occupied with itself, so involved and identified with its own workings that it has no time or inclination to detach itself even mentally to know its real nature. Sri Aurobindo has defined ego as a falsification of our true individuality by a limiting self-identification of it with this life, this mind and this body. It separates us from God and all His creation and ties us up to a small, narrow and ignorant ego-centric individuality. it is th e ego-consciousness that suffers from all the dualities of life like love a n d hatred, joy and sorrow, heat and cold etc. and is the ca use of all the strife s and discords of life . T he ego has, .how ever , an important role to play in the ear ly stages of its development from the indistinguishable mass substance of the sub-cans-cient and the inconscient in us. One must develop Ian egoistic personality and know himself a s the mental
a n d vital ego before he can realise himself as the Self or Spirit. E go is the ignorant a n d separative principle in our lives. In spiritual seeking , it must eliminate its elf order to rise to the Unitarian consciousness of the
Spirit. where the ego sees things in division, district

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tion and separation, the spiritual consciousness sees all as the One Self. This oneness is at the core of the creation and multiplicity and diversity of names and forms are only on the surface. Therefore the Yogi or the spiritual man is always equal-visioned and sees all as the One Self. He makes no distinction between a learned Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog and the pariah.

This One Self or Soul is pervasive of the whole universe of its own creation, both animate and inanimate, is near and far but is imperceptible to human intelligence because of its extreme subtlety. The Self in us which is a spark of the Divine has to be uncovered from its sheaths of body, mind and life by persistent and sleepless endeavour. At last when the ego-comrplex is completely dissolved, it manifests itself to the seeker. Then we are one with the Divine and enjoy not only divine peace, bliss and harmony but also share with Him his omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence.

This Divine can be realised in one or two or all the three aspects of its presence, the individual or immanent divine, the cosmic or universal divine and the transcendental or supracosmic divine.

Faith, sincerity, humility, devotion and surrender are absolutely indispensable for the spiritual seeker to realise the Divine. This faith must not be an egoistic faith in one's own strength and capacity but in the Divine Grace and omniscience which knows better than ourselves what is or is not good for us. There must be a constant and unfailing reliance on the divine grace. Sincerity, is to say the least, our only safe-guard in the path and will invoke divine's grace which will infallibly

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protect us from all dangers and pitfalls of the way. Our devotion must not only be true and sincere but must well out from the depths of our being. Though this is not easy at the beginning, the more we become recipients of the grace the more it becomes spontaneous and sincere till at last it culminates in a whole-hearted surrender to the Divine. Humility is also an essential and indispensable element in the seeking of the Divine. The attitude of the seeker should be :

"Je ne sais rien,

Je ne suis rien,

Je ne puis rien,

Je suis dans L' obscurite de

I' insconscience."

"I do not know anything,

I am nothing, I can do nothing,

I am in the obscurity of the inconscience."

(From the Mother's Prayers &: Meditations)

The Mother has, in a few illuminating sentences clearly brought out the distinction between the Ego and the Self. She observes : The Ego is always thinking of what it wants and has not ; that is its constant preoccupation. The Self is intimately aware of what it is given and continues in endless gratitude.

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