Latest / Sri Aurobindo Studies / "Ego Was the Helper, Ego Is the Bar"

Transcript

"Ego Was the Helper, Ego Is the Bar" · Sri Aurobindo Studies

• 0:01
  Sri Robinda's famous aphorism Ego was the helper.
• 0:05
  Ego is the bar cited in the headline above, describes the
• 0:10
  issue that spiritual aspirants have to resolve as they take up
• 0:14
  the practice of yoga. Human individuality was
• 0:18
  developed to create an apparently independent Nexus of
• 0:22
  observation and action, thus providing a platform for
• 0:26
  development and progress through the individual that eventually
• 0:31
  communicates itself to humanity as a whole.
• 0:35
  Once this individual standpoint has been developed and fleshed
• 0:38
  out, however, it reaches a point where it starts to become an
• 0:43
  obstacle to further progress as it forms a wall or enclosure, so
• 0:48
  to speak, that limits the action of the greater force that is
• 0:51
  waiting to manifest at the stage beyond our mental being.
• 0:58
  Past practices of yoga have generally focused on the ego
• 1:01
  personality by setting forth specific practices, goals, and
• 1:06
  objectives primarily for the individual to escape the
• 1:11
  illusory existence of the external life and achieve some
• 1:15
  kind of individual Nirvana or experience of samadhi and become
• 1:19
  liberated. In this viewpoint, the ego
• 1:23
  personality can help drive the process forward until the seeker
• 1:28
  reaches a point where it simply falls away as the entire
• 1:32
  external life dissolves into the experience of the Supreme.
• 1:37
  There is no focus here on tackling the limitations of the
• 1:40
  external body, life and mind, or actually bringing about an
• 1:46
  uplifting and transformation of either for oneself or as part of
• 1:52
  the collective evolution of humanity, the Integral Yoga.
• 1:57
  However, while it starts from the individual ego personality,
• 2:02
  it cannot end there. Part of the transformation
• 2:06
  process, indeed the central aspect of it, is the systematic
• 2:11
  widening and transformation of the individual ego consciousness
• 2:16
  into a pure Nexus for the reception and transmission of
• 2:20
  the higher spiritual force that is in the process of evolving,
• 2:25
  taking humanity eventually beyond the limits of body, life,
• 2:30
  mind, and bringing forth a new power of consciousness that can
• 2:35
  resolve the limits, obstacles and resistances of the external
• 2:40
  nature. The individual cannot possibly
• 2:44
  either fully comprehend nor carry out the intensity or the
• 2:50
  complexity of this task by his own unaided effort.
• 2:55
  Even those who have long practice and experience in
• 2:58
  spiritual pursuits eventually find that the greatest strength
• 3:03
  and intelligence of a human individual are a mere fraction
• 3:07
  of the energy and insight required to accomplish the
• 3:10
  complete task of the transformation of consciousness.
• 3:16
  In the Titiria Upanishad there is a striking chapter frequently
• 3:20
  called the Calculus of Bliss. It starts from the measure of
• 3:25
  bliss of one human individual blessed with all powers of
• 3:30
  intelligence, accomplishment, and all the benefits that human
• 3:34
  life can provide. The Upanishad takes us through
• 3:38
  some ten additional higher stages of bliss that represent
• 3:42
  the bliss of beings with accomplishments far beyond to a
• 3:46
  measure of 100 and 100 fold of the prior level.
• 3:52
  This chapter reminds us of the limits of the human
• 3:55
  accomplishment and can be applied equally well to the
• 3:59
  limits of potential yogic achievement by one fully
• 4:03
  accomplished human being. Srioro Bindu observes quote.
• 4:10
  However hard the fight, the only thing is to fight it out now and
• 4:14
  here to the end. The trouble is that you have
• 4:18
  never fully faced and conquered the real obstacle.
• 4:22
  There is in a very fundamental part of your nature, a strong
• 4:25
  formation of ego individuality which is mixed in your spiritual
• 4:30
  aspiration, A clinging element of pride and spiritual ambition.
• 4:36
  This formation has never consented to be broken up in
• 4:39
  order to give place to something more true and divine.
• 4:44
  Therefore, when the Mother has put Her force upon you, or when
• 4:49
  you yourself have pulled the force upon you, this in you has
• 4:53
  always prevented it from doing its work in its own way.
• 4:57
  It has begun itself building according to the ideas of the
• 5:02
  mind or some demand of the ego, trying to make its own creation
• 5:07
  in its own way, by its own strength, its own sadhna, its
• 5:12
  own tapasya. There has never been here any
• 5:15
  real surrender, any giving up of yourself freely and simply into
• 5:20
  the hands of the Divine Mother. And yet that is the only way to
• 5:25
  succeed in the Super mental yoga.
• 5:28
  To be a Yogi, A sanyasi, a tapasthi, is not the object
• 5:34
  here. The object is transformation.
• 5:37
  And the transformation can only be done by a force infinitely
• 5:42
  greater than your own. It can only be done by being
• 5:45
  truly like a child in the hands of the Divine Mother.
• 5:51
  End Quote reference Sri Aurobindo, Basis of Yoga,
• 5:56
  Chapter 3 in difficulty, pages 5051.