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Upadesa Sara

Sloka 20

Destruction of Ego

 Each individual wants to attain something or the other in life. Some want to be beautiful, some good, some wise. Someone wants to be rich and some other, a minister. On attaining the goal, they can say, ‘I am slim’, ‘I am nice’, ‘I am wise’, ‘I am rich’ and ‘I am a minister’ respectively. This notion according to the explanation in verse nineteen is the ahankara or the ego. It is said that through Self-enquiry this is destroyed. We, therefore, are afraid of Vedanta as we feel that our very existence is destroyed! This fear arises because of our not understanding of the true import of the term, ‘destruction of the ego’. Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi in an attempt to remove this baseless fear says:

ahami nasa-bhajyahamahamtaya,
sphurati hrt-svayam parama-purna-sat.

ahami nasa – when the ego (ahankara) is destroyed; bhajyahamahamtaya – shines forth; hrt – the heart (which is); svayam – of its own; parama-purna-sat – Supreme- Infinite-Existence.

When the ego is destroyed, the Self which is the Supreme­ Infinite-Existence shines forth of its own (independently) as ‘I’.

The Self is called the Atman. According to Vedanta, we are ignorant of our true Self. Due to this ignorance, we identify with the body, mind, and intellect and take ourselves to be these limited conditionings that we identify with. This is the birth of the ego. When this ignorance-born ego is destroyed, the pure Self manifests on its own. When the clouds of ignorance are swept away by the breeze of knowledge, the self-shining sun is experienced. The destruction of the ego does not mean the destruction of the body, mind, and intellect but the destruction of the false notion that ‘I am the body’. The ego alone is the cause of all our misery and hence its destruction is desirable. An actor does not fear changing from his stage costume to his normal dress. He does not mind giving up his role to be himself.

When the ego is destroyed, the pure Self shines forth. That does not mean that the Self is not present now and comes into being only when the ego is destroyed. The sun shines even when our vision of it is obstructed by the clouds. The Self is of the nature of Existence. It is presently mistaken to be the ego. The actor does not lose his true identity when he is in the garb of a beggar or a king. To avoid the misunderstanding that the Self is finite, the words – ‘Supreme’ and ‘Infinite Existence’ are used. It means that the Self, unlike the ego, is not limited by time, space and objects. It exists in all three periods of time and is all-pervading. Now, why should one fear the destruction of the finite to gain the Infinite?

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Upadesa Sara

Sloka 19

Self-enquiry

 What happens when we dive deeper into this analysis?

aham-ayam kuto bhavati cinvatah,
ayi patatyaham nija-vicaranam.

aham – ‘I’ -thought; ayam – this; kuto bhavati – from where; cinvatah – is born (arises); ayi – for one who enquires thus; pataty – falls; aham – ‘I’-thought; nija-vicaranam – Self-enquiry

‘From where does this ‘I’-thought arise?’ For one who enquires thus, the ‘I’-thought (ahankara) falls. This is Self-enquiry.

When we enquire into the nature of the mind as indicated in verse seventeen, the mind begins to vanish. Innumerable thoughts in the mind get reduced to merely two thoughts – ‘I’-thought and ‘this’-thought. These two thoughts again get reduced to a single thought, the ‘I’-thought. This one thought too disappears when we shift our attention to the source of this ‘I’ -thought. When the substratum or support is enquired into, the superimposition gets destroyed and the support alone remains. The pure ‘I’ or Self alone remains and the ‘I’-thought disappears.

Here the word ‘aham’ is used for ahankara or ‘I’ – notion. Ahankara, in most Indian languages, means pride. In Vedanta, however, ahankara is the notion of doership and enjoyership which we assume when we identify with the body, mind, and intellect. The notion ‘I am the body’, ‘I am the doer’, ‘I am the enjoyer of results’ and so on is called ahankara. Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi urges us to enquire, ‘From where does the ahankara arise?’ As a result of such an enquiry the ahankara which is produced due to ignorance of the Self is destroyed and the pure Self is known. This is called Self-enquiry. By the interjection ‘ayi’ Bhagavan again indicates the simplicity of this path, which is generally thought to be very difficult. The destruction of the ahankara is the same as the destruction of the mind that was discussed in verse thirteen.

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