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Awareness of truth

CHENNAI: The consciousness of realised souls is filled with God’s presence and this accounts for their intense Bhakti Bhava. This bhava divests them of any sense of ego even as a yogi in a Samadhi state sees only God in all beings and has no ego. Just as when salt is dissolved in water it merges with it and is untraceable, when the ego merges with the Supreme Being, there is no duality. When one is divested of ego, life and the objects of the world assume a different significance.

From his interactions with his close disciples, it is evident that Sri Ramakrishna believed that it was due to God’s grace that he had come down to earth even after reaching the state of God realisation, said Swami Gautamananda in a lecture. Such people are representatives of God and are known as Avatara Purushas. To create Bhakti, awareness and Jnana, God enters the personality of great people.

Their awareness spans the past, the present and the future and never for a moment loses sight of the truth that the universe and the life belong to Him. Hence there is a difference between the ego in them and in us. Ordinary individuals perceive themselves as distinct entities and perceive differences. The ego governing their lives blinds them to the truth of the oneness of creation. When one realises that one is different, one is bound by the theory of duality. The sense of I and Mine in ordinary people makes them ignorant of philosophical truths. Unless one begins to investigate in earnest whether the self is aligned with the body or the soul, one cannot overcome this ignorance.

Sri Ramakrishna was able to bless and guide many disciples because God Himself was in him and he worked for this purpose alone unlike most of us who work for name, money or fame, driven by desires that fuel our ego.

Lord Krishna states in the Bhagavad Gita that though He is not bound by any sort of duty, He continues to work. “There is nothing in the three worlds that I do not already possess; nothing I have yet to acquire. If I did not continue to work untiringly as I do, mankind would still follow me, no matter where I led them. Suppose I were to stop, they would all be lost. The result would be universal destruction.”

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