THE EGO HAS NO GROSSER SUBSTANCE EXCEPT THOUGHT
We could never control our egos. If you believe in that, your ego is the sum of all the experiences you have gained in life or even previous lifetimes. That constitutes your ego. The ego has no grosser substance except thought, and thought, too, is matter. Because all the various experiences you have gained might never be reconciled completely, it will create a conflict. So, the ego or that thought formation finds conflict within itself, and it is this very conflict that is within the ego that is troubling you, and therefore, you want to control
The ego is not harming you, but the conflict is creating turbulence. Whenever there is a conflict, you can never control it because by controlling that conflict, you are taking two opposing forces and using them against each other to create more significant conflict. So, it would snowball. We cannot control the ego; the ego is forever producing conflicts, and those conflicts have a habit of multiplying because they are unresolved.
The best way and the only way to deal with the samskaras or impressions of which the ego is made is to refine the ego, to bring the ego from its opaqueness through to transparency, so that when it is transparent, the very spiritual force that is within you could shine through, bringing you joy. The nature of conflicts is Tamas, which is inertia or darkness. There is a heaviness about it. So, when one clarifies the ego and allows that spiritual light within you to shine through, you automatically and spontaneously banish the conflicts, which is how you can cleanse the ego.
Therefore, meditation and spiritual practices are so important. From your conscious mind, you go right through the subconscious layers of the mind, and yet, further on, you find the superconscious mind, which is closest to the Absolute. Because the superconscious mind is clear, the light of the Absolute shines through to banish the darkness in the subconscious mind.
KARMA IS PART AND PARCEL OF THE EGO-SELF
Thought is the forerunner of your actions. Every action we perform is because of the thinking ability of the conscious mind, and when thought is the forerunner of your actions, it has to have something to enforce it. The conscious mind is enforced by the subconscious, wherein all the conflicts are stored. So, to recap, there is no annihilation and no resolution, but clarity can be brought about in the subconscious layers of the mind so that all those impressions there could be banished. When you banish these impressions, they go back to the sources. By this, we mean that specific negative thoughts would be attracted to like-minded, negative people in the atmosphere. Positive thoughts would be dispersed, and they would return to like-minded people. For example, if you are cheerful, you will attract cheerful people to you. If you are non-cheerful, those are the people you attract. So, it is not only the circumstances or the environment you are put in that mixes up the ego. It is a combination of the internal self, the samskaras mixed with the environment which enforces the impressions, and it works in a vicious circle, one is strengthening the other.
Therefore, the ego-self is also subjected to the laws of Karma. According to the relative laws of life, Karma is that whatever you sow, you will reap. But that does not function in the superconscious level of oneself, it only functions on lower levels such as the subconscious mind which in turn influences the conscious mind.
So, Karma or the results of your actions is not your sum totality, for you can disperse or banish Karma. I have said in many talks that if you have harmed ten people, it does not mean that you will be harmed ten times in the same way. Just do eleven good deeds and wipe off the ten non-good deeds. I never use the word bad deeds; there is no such thing. So, that is how, through spiritual practices and modulating our behaviour and actions in life with the help of the spiritual practices, we get rid of the Karma that is there.
Karma could have its basis in many past lives, perhaps, and is manifesting in your present life. Therefore, you cannot explain why such a thing must happen to you. You look around you, and you see some people who are so happy and born in favourable circumstances. Then you look around and you find some people in unhappy circumstances. Some people are born sickly while others are born in good health; why? Divinity has nothing to do with it. Divinity is a neutral force. It does not judge. You judge yourself. So, we are placed in adverse circumstances because of Karma, and Karma is part and parcel of the ego-self.
HELPED BY OUR MEDITATIONS, YOU CAN CHANGE THE ENTIRE COURSE OF YOUR LIFE
So, we do not start with Karma; we begin with those existing impressions and instincts. In Sanskrit, there is a beautiful word called “Sanchita karma,” which means that an expression is already required, and everything in life you can observe is forever found to have expression. Otherwise, without expression, nothing can survive. These flowers will die if they do not give off fragrance or the beauty that is expression. Likewise, a human has to express himself, and because of the conflicts in this so-called ego-self, you express things negatively or positively. If you positively express yourself, your life becomes more and more joyful. So, it depends upon you, and it does not take long to change your life’s entire course. Firstly, you are a self-realised divine being, the children of divinity. You are nothing else than that. It is just a realisation to assimilate this understanding, and with our meditations, you can change the entire course of your life within six months. It does not mean that it will fall on your lap if you indulge in wishful thinking and wish for a million pounds. No. But you will have a different attitude to those million pounds. Do I need it, or do I not? Do I need it, or do I want it? There Is a significant difference. You will not get what you want; you will get what you need. And that, again, is because of the conditioning and patterning you have brought upon yourselves. So, we unpattern the patterning, and we uncondition the conditioning.
EVERYONE CAN RISE ABOVE THE CONFLICTS OF HIS EGO-SELF
So, the question of control falls away because it is beyond. With what are you going to control it? With your conscious mind, with the thinking level of your mind. By using the thinking level of the mind, you will only create inhibitions and repressions within yourself because everything has to express itself. It is the nature of everything to express itself. So, we forget the idea of control but instead think of the idea of clarification, to remove the opaqueness and bring a transparentness through which Divine Light could flow and your life changes. Any person who does his spiritual practices as prescribed to him, with proper sincerity and regularity, can change any circumstance in which he is placed in six months, for man is a master of his destiny. But which Man? Ah! Here is where the mistake lies.
Man is master of his destiny but not from the thinking level. Man is a master of his fate if he uses the thinking level of the mind and draws upon that which is higher than himself. Then, life must change. If you put sugar in your tea, it will naturally become sweet. So, what is that sugar in life? It is that Divinity within you that could so quickly be drawn upon. It is easy because that is your true nature, and the ego self falsifies your nature, covering it with veils of unawareness and ignorance, so your true self is forgotten, and you say, “I am a creature of circumstance.” No such thing. You are a divine creature that is beyond all circumstances, for every man can rise above the conflicts of his ego-self and the conflicts of his little, conscious mind. He can rise above it and view it so that he is not affected. Like my favourite saying, “Two men behind prison bars; one saw mud, the other saw stars.” It is a very favourite saying of mine; I think I have repeated it a million times.
WE HAVE THE TOOLS TO LEAD US TO FIND THAT PEACE AND JOY
So, what happens to man’s mind when he draws upon his Divine Self? That mind, the conscious and the subconscious mind, which has been troubling you up to now, will assume the quality of the superconscious level, which is the closest to the Absolute and which is Divine. It is like having a clear crystal; if you put a yellow flower behind it, that crystal will look yellow. If you put a red flower behind it, it will look red. But meanwhile, it is a colourless crystal. So, once we remove all those colourings of the ego-self, we start realising that there are no colours at all. We only see colours because they are refracted through a prism. There is only one colour, white. But because it is refracted through the prism, you will find all those blues, greens, yellows, and what have you. So, man is systematically led, step by step, from the conscious level of his mind through the various layers of the subconscious. He reaches that layer of his superconscious mind where there is nothing else but an equilibrium, a silence, a quietness. As the Bible would say, “Be still and know that I am God.”
It is only by reaching that level that you will recognise your real self. But to repeat, because of the conditioning, we regard ourselves as ordinary human beings with so many faults and frailties, and all kinds of things. However, by drawing upon this energy, those faults and weaknesses that create conflicts could be used as tools. With a spade, you can dig a grave; with the same spade, you can dig the foundation of a magnificent cathedral—same spade. But the art lies in using it. Life is not a mechanical thing; life is an art. Not to live artfully, but to recognise that life is an art, and if you appreciate that Divinity, every breath you take, every word you say, contains a force and a power that will alter your circumstances. That is why, for example, we say, “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” What are you going to gain from it? Your neighbours are going to love you in turn. So, to become loveable, you become loving. Everything has to rebound upon yourself, negativity or positivity. So, you have the choice. That little conscious mind that plays us so many tricks can be used to choose what will bring you peace.
We have the tools that could lead us to find peace and joy, and away from the turbulence of the surface waves, we can go to the ocean’s calm and depths, just below the surface waves. You cannot destroy the surface waves, but you realise that the surface waves are made of the same water. You see how the attitude changes, a total change of attitude, and then you accept the surface waves. That power is part and parcel of relative existence, while the Absolute existence of which you are is there, and you live in both spheres simultaneously. Here you will start appreciating the ocean waves, they can be high, but ah, those high ocean waves are beautiful, to a surfer they seem so beautiful. And what creates those ocean waves? The calmness of the ocean creates those ocean waves, and the turbulence of the waves creates the calmness of the ocean.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang UK 1983 – 15
