Ego keeps you ‘I-ced’ out of Cosmic Continuity!
By Vivek Sharma
Have you ever cared to know what ego is and how it keeps you intellectually and emotionally cut off from Cosmic Continuity? No. Because, you have an office to work in and a boss to take care of! He is nothing but ego for you and so are you for those working under you! Isn’t it wonderful—what you see in others don’t really find in yourself! Ha-ha-ha you are quick to justify your ego-led actions as a-must-do in a given situation. Well, this is called hypocrisy—mithyachaar, to be precise, in Sanskrit. This is the mother of all corruptions in personal and social life. It is the block of ego that disallows you to see the reality. The block, I will explain later as we go on, can be understood as the matrix of our own creation (swakarma jaal), the web of our own doing, the net we weave to sustain ourselves but end up getting caught in it. Karma returns, Buddha says. You reap what you sow, says Christ. It is like we are setting something in motion and then are unable to control it as we can’t a mighty ball. This mighty ball, or block is called Ahankaar in Sanskrit and ego in English—it will always roll down along the line of gravity instead of Cosmic Continuity.
What is Ahankaar?
In the Cosmic layout, Ahankaar is misplaced loyalty, like that of a Bheeshma to the chair no matter who occupies it— Duryodhan or Dhritarashtra. It calls itself the owner of the individual’s memory, the experiential energy, which accounts for all one’s actions, reactions, emotional responses, etc. What made Bheeshma pledge his support for the throne and not for the righteous heirs to it? It was his own response generated by his past experiential storehouse, called memory. Well, where does ego do wrong? It does wrong when it opposes the Cosmic Continuity. Bheeshma died a painful death. Ego dies a painful death too.
What is hankaar?
But, there is a word called hankaar, which scientifically means the cosmic continuity. It is the opposite of ahankaar, though it may appear like one. Hankaar is well placed loyalty, as Narad’s to Vishnu, Nandi’s to Mahadeva, Ganesha’s to Parvati, Hanuman’s to Ram, the Pandavas’ to Krishna and Vivekananda’s to Ramkrishna. It simply is the harmonic continuity of cosmic energy vibrating throughout as hummmmmm…ahankaar is a vain effort to oppose it. This effort looks like a block of ice considering itself as a controller of the ceaseless stream underneath, from which it has been created. It gets stuck to other blocks and tries to change the course of the stream, but all the blocks melt away one by one under the unstoppable harmonic continuity hummmmmm…. That is the reason the cosmic history and the current events only reveal one fact— all frozen forms finally dissolve into the unseen continuity. The sun, the moon and the stars are like frozen entities popping out of this continuity, appearing different but only manifesting the unbroken harmonic continuity hummmm. The only difference between the cosmic entities and men is that the former manifest hankaar and the latter seek to oppose the continuity, becoming the manifestation of ahankaar. Wait for sometime and it will get dissolved into the matter it came out from— The unseen cosmic current of Intelligent Energy . Man! Know it that you can't be separate from this despite getting I-ced out of the stream! Instead of considering yourself a block, try to know your constitutional reality in the harmonic stream! Krishna tells it all in Discourse 11 of the Bhagwad Gita to Arjuna. Arjuna himself sees it all— how everything is coming out and getting dissolved in the harmonic stream of Intelligent Energy. Krishna identifies Himself as the Sun and says ज्योतिषां रविरंशुमान्, the moon नक्षस्त्राणामहं शशि. He even says न तदस्ति विना यत्स्यान्मया भूतं चराचरम्—there is none in the animate and inanimate creations without Me. So, all these shapes and sizes still are the expression of Cosmic Continuity of Intelligent Energy—hummmmmm.
Everything gets dissolved in the Cosmic Continuity, but those tuned to the hummmm manifest it instead of getting dissolved in it.
अनादिमध्यान्तमनन्त वीर्यमनन्तबाहुं शशिसूर्यनेत्रम्। पश्यामि त्वां दीप्तहुताशवक्त्रं स्वतेजसा विश्वमिदं तपन्तम्।।
यथा नदीनां बहवो अम्बुवेगाः,
समुद्रमेवाभिमुखा द्रवन्ति।तथा तवामी नरलोकवीरा विशन्ति वक्त्राण्यभिविज्वलन्ति।।
It only means—I see You as the Endless Continuity with Infinite Energy, vibrating in various directions, churning and guiding motions around centres like the sun and the moon,, energising everything with Your Energy….Like all the flow of water in the rivers rush towards the sea, the same way all the individualised energies (egos, नरलोकवीरा:, the word veer simply means those who have energy, individualised energy, means individual ego), rush into the openings of your fiery energy.
Unless you let go your ego, you cannot realise your full potential. Develop hankaar instead of ahankaar!