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Detect false ego

CHENNAI: The works of enlightened souls and great preceptors continue to inspire and influence because in them one finds a record of their direct experience of God. Their utterances carry the stamp of absolute truth because of the perfect alignment that exists between their thought, word and deed. If Sri Ramakrishna's immediate disciples felt the electric presence of the divine in this great teacher during his lifetime, his teachings reflect the spiritual experience with utmost clarity for posterity, said Swami Gautamananda in a lecture.

Vedanta explains accurately the workings of the individual's consciousness that is called Antakarana (the inner sense organ) that has four sections — the mind, intellect, memory and ego. The actions of an individual are prompted by the mind where thoughts are generated in an indecisive stage. To reach a decision on a certain issue, the mind consults memory, the archives in the mind where all actions and thoughts are stored and the intellect ultimately decides. The ego (the sense of I in each individual that is known as Ahamkara) is in reality a function of the inner sense organ to merely reflect the consciousness in the manner of a polished mirror. But it becomes the cause of delusion in individuals when forgetting its role it considers itself to be the consciousness that it reflects. Comprehending the inner workings of the mind can set right this erroneous perception.

The assumption that an individual thinks, speaks or acts on his own endeavour is as mistaken as the belief of vegetables that they are jostling and jumping in the boiling water when being cooked, failing to understand the heat below the vessel that causes their movement. Failure to perceive this truth does not in any way alter its veracity.

Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita that He is the indwelling factor and the driving force in all beings and by the power of His Maya directs the actions of all entities as if they were mounted on a machine. Like the horse, camel or elephant in the merry-go-round that revolves because of the machine, it is God's power that causes the whole universe to revolve.

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