THE PHYSICAL BODY CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT THE SUBTLE BODY
You do not need to recognise the ego to go beyond it, because that would become a mental process, and the mind itself is ego, so the ego is trying to find the ego. It is like saying that you will see your own eyes. You cannot. You cannot see your own eyes; you need a mirror. So, to recognise the ego, one has to go beyond it to observe it.
The ego is a bundle of experiences. It is not necessary to annihilate the ego, because it is impossible to annihilate the ego. When we talk of ego, in the sense we use it, we talk of ego as self-centred, so ego again qualifies egotism, a self-centred ego. In other words, it turns inward to itself and not beyond itself, and is caught up in the work of doing. It is like the silkworm spinning and spinning and spinning and gets caught up in the end, in its own silk and it cannot escape
So, what is the solution? All these impressions gained in what is termed the ego are binding; they bind one to a certain pattern of action, because the mind is ego and the mind is patterned. We have to unpattern the mind, or unpattern the ego, without destroying the ego. If the ego is annihilated, as many Eastern philosophies propose, then you cannot exist. You would not be able to be part and parcel of the evolutionary process.
Everything has an ego – everything does not have an ego, it is an ego. I am sitting here; you are sitting there. We are nothing but little egos. We are definitely all a bundle of impressions, created over so, so many lifetimes, and now we want to get rid of ourselves. That is what annihilation means; annihilation of the ego is committing suicide. Because once you get rid of all those impressions that you are made of, your entire body will disintegrate, because the body cannot exist without the mind, and the mind is a receptacle, the container of the impressions called the ego. So, by annihilating the ego, you are annihilating the subtle body, that is within yourself and the physical manifestation, the physical body, cannot exist without the subtle body.
EXPANDING THE EGO TO BECOME ONE WITH THE UNIVERSAL SELF
So, what has to be done within this ego self so that it could become conducive to our evolution? That is the question. What can be done? These impressions are there; they cannot be annihilated; they are eternal; they have to exist. I have said many times that every thought that is thought is eternal; it cannot be destroyed. The vibration set up by that thought goes on and on and on, through eternity. So, what one does is expand the ego.
Our actions are contracting the ego; we are taking all those experiences of millions of years and compacting them, so that by the very act of compacting them, we are combining one impression with another, and a great number of permutations take place, where new impressions are created. That is how the ego assumes greater and greater importance, and we become more and more self-centred with all those skeletons in the cupboard, multiplying like rabbits. So the idea here will not be the annihilation of the ego, but its expansion, like stretching opaque rubber so it becomes transparent. That is the way to deal with the ego. When the ego is stretched and it becomes transparent, the inner light, the spiritual light, shines through.
I have used this analogy many times: if the window is clean and a bright light comes through, you do not notice the glass, even though it still exists. The glass becomes one with the light. The glass, the barrier, is not perceived, because who is the perceiver, except the ego itself. The ego perceives; the ego experiences life’s varied experiences. But if that is expanded to such an extent that the pure light is shining through, all the shades and the shadows on that glass automatically disappear. All the skeletons disappear.
One does not need to work through all those impressions gained through lifetimes. One does not need to shake hands with all those skeletons. They are automatically refined. Those very skeletons that have a grosser form become so subtle that they become totally transparent, and that is the way to handle the ego. It is easy to say, let us make the ego transparent, so the light shines through. To make that possible, we have to practice meditation and other spiritual practices, recognise our shortcomings, and address them constructively.
Here, desire is valid, desire for betterment, although it has some binding effect, but that desire is of such a nature as choosing between the lesser evil and the larger evil. When we desire to better ourselves, we make or create the conditions within ourselves to draw upon that which is called Grace. And with the help of Grace, meditation, and wanting to better ourselves in positive action, that ego-self expands, it stretches to such an extent that it loses its individuality and assumes universality. This means that the extent of the expansion of the ego is as vast as the universe, so that, while maintaining the little ego self, one is also in atonement with the Universal Self. And when all those impressions are spread across the entire universe, what effect can they have? For having been extended to that vastness, where else could they be placed to put in more impressions, because you have covered the whole field with your little ego? So, the ego in its expansion knows the whole universe. The individual becomes universal.
EXPANSION OF THE EGO IS EXPANSION OF AWARENESS
When he becomes universal, that is the recognition of the personal God, that we spoke about, for the personal God, too, is a refined ego. So, we must not worry so much about ego. Worry about ego-centeredness. Of course, worry is the wrong word; we are concerned to a certain extent and use discernment for its expansion. People talk of ego, ego, ego; it is nothing to worry about. If we do our actions, as they should be performed, if we perform our dharma, our duties within the confines of the structure of our lives, the structure of our society, within the confines of the duties allotted to us, as children or parents, wives or husbands, that ego automatically starts expanding.
When the ego starts expanding, then you know for sure that awareness expands. So, what is awareness? Ego. It is the expansion of the ego, which is the expansion of awareness. It is the expansion of the ego, which is, or takes one, to an altered state of consciousness. In other words, it means that the ego becomes less self-centred. It puts out its tentacles far and wide.
Man cannot live without the ego. This universe cannot exist without an ego, for this universe itself is an ego, and the further you go, that ego becomes just an idea, a thought form in its finest state. And when one transcends that thought form, one realises in the impersonal state, that “Oh dear me, it was only a thought”, and all disappears. Then, for you, the individual who has merged into the impersonal, there is no ego left, for in the first place, the ego was only a thought. It was only a dream, but we who are in the relative have to battle with the ego, and we cannot deny it; we accept it. And it is the very acceptance of the ego that could lead us further along in the ego’s expansion.
Expansion of the ego to repeat is expansion of awareness, until the awareness expands to the totality of the universe in various dimensions. By expansion, we do not take into account space and time only, that is, our third dimension. But there are other dimensions, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, and there too ego is involved, for if ego did not exist, those dimensions cannot exist either. For all dimensions are inter-twined, inter-penetrating all the time, all the time.
IF YOU DESTROY ILLUSION, REALITY IS DESTROYED AS WELL
So, the long journey ahead to proceed from this individualised self-centred little ego, I, me and mine, my chair, my this, my that. It is all Maya, which is all illusion. When we reach the state of the absolute, then all becomes an illusion. But as long as we are not yet there, Maya is real. It has to be real, otherwise Maya cannot exist, for Maya too is an existence in the form of Maya, and illusion exists as an illusion, for an illusion too is reality. That sounds paradoxical, I know.
Illusion too is reality, because to know what illusion is, you have to find its opposite, for illusion cannot be there without its opposite. Shade cannot be there without light. Rain cannot be there without sun, sunshine. Therefore, it assumes a reality. You light an oil lamp, and on the side, a shadow is created. That shadow is real. We put out the light, and the shadow disappears. But then remember, to destroy the shadow, you have destroyed the light as well. So, if you destroy illusion, relative illusion, you destroy the reality with which it is compared as well. For illusion is the opposite of reality. Unreality is the opposite of reality. Without reality, unreality cannot exist, for in relative terms, everything has to be compared with something.
Everything has to be compared with something. My mini motor car goes fifty miles an hour, and I compare it with a Jaguar, which goes a hundred and twenty miles an hour. Everything is a comparison: she is more beautiful than I am, I am more handsome than she is. Comparison, comparison, comparison, and it is this very comparison that makes one self-centred, or ego-centred. And when one becomes ego-centred to a greater degree, then one becomes ego-centric. Ah, a different subject.
THE EGO CANNOT BE ANNIHILATED, BUT IT CAN EXPAND TO THE UNIVERSAL SELF
So, the solution is difficult yet simple. The end is far, and yet so near. Still, the gist of it is that the ego cannot be annihilated; illusion cannot be annihilated without annihilating reality, but an expansion can take place because, ego or illusion, idea or thought, is but a superimposition upon that which is real. And an outside agency does not create the superimposition; it is the reality itself that creates unreality. It is the Manifestor Himself that creates manifestation. So both co-exist. And with the expansion of our little selves to the Universal Self, we get the idea of what life is really, really all about. And when we have the idea of what life is really all about, then we really start living. Then it is a lively life, liveliness, alertness to reality, and yet partaking of all the unrealities in the world and enjoying even the unrealities. See the secret? That is the secret, not annihilation but expansion. This is a very, very interesting subject.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang UK 1979 – 05
