Illusion of the ‘ego’

May 23, 2015 03:51 am | Updated 03:51 am IST

The real essence of the Infinite Brahman remains beyond the grasp of human thought and word, say the scriptures. Many are the versions and descriptions of the Lord. Some say He is formless and attributeless and that He is Nirguna. Some others hold that He is Saguna, that is He has many forms and auspicious qualities. Sri Ramakrishna, drawing on his own mystic experiences, dissolved all such opposing views and differences on matters relating to the nature of God, pointed out Swami Gautamananda in a lecture. If a chameleon can assume different colours easily, why cannot the Brahman appear in different forms? How infinite is the ocean? It does not seem to have a beginning or end. Does not the formless water appear as having forms? In some portions where intense cold prevails, as in the Polar Regions, the ocean waters are frozen into sheets of ice.

The entire creation is a part of the eternal Brahman who is of the essence of Sad-chit-ananda, eternity, consciousness and bliss. The body and the world of Prakriti comprising ether, air, fire, water and the earth endowed with the three gunas or properties are a part of the eternal Brahman. Brahman is the limitless ocean and the individual aspects of creation — including the jivas with their distinct physical entities — functions and consciousness are like the waves that appear in it.

The study of scriptures becomes meaningful only when one relates it to one’s daily life. This means one has to cultivate discrimination or Viveka and dispassion or Vairagya. Viveka makes it clear that the physical body is like a screen that hides the Brahman from our vision. Realisation is the awareness of His omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience and the revelation of the identity of the jiva as the ‘I’ consciousness that causes the body to function, and not the body mind complex. We have come from this Brahman and we live in this Brahman. When we shed our mortal body we go back to Brahman. This leads to Vairagya or non-attachment to sense attractions.

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