Inherent human traits and 'Aham'

It is not the purpose of this article to make the reader impervious to emotions, though it would be welcome if through this Sadhana one could develop a capability for getting rid of one's depraving and downgrading traits. However, for the objective under consideration, the seeker is advised to ignore all traits - whether good or bad, leave them as they are and realize that Aham is beyond these and is an overarching independent entity. Let the seeker now resolutely and clearly make a demarcation between the traits and virtues of three modes of nature (Gunas) discussed earlier and Aham. There is no need to worry that a particular trait has become so strong that it cannot be discarded. Before this trait was established, your Aham was already in existence. It this Aham is capable of clearly discerning these traits objectively and independently, it will become easy to discard them in no time. Remember! Through this exercise, the seeker is experiencing and developing a conviction that the "I" who is using the intellect and its powers, the "I" which considers the mind and its powers as its implements, is the master of the mind.

 In the previous article, we have done an in-depth study of the Prabuddha Manas and its creations and found that Aham is capable of discerning these as separate from it. In the same way, the creations of the highest faculty of mind the Adhyatm Manas can be discerned by "Aham" as separate from itself. The seeker may doubt that, since the divine spiritual inspirations are not related to physical body, and these cannot be utilized like emotions arising in the lower faculties of mind, perhaps these are inseparably related to the Aham. At this stage, let us not enter into a deep discussion on this subject, as the seeker still has very rudimentary and fleeting experience of the Adhyatm Manas, which unlike the lower, less evolved faculties of the mind is like a workshop for activation of divine forces in human mind. Seers, who have had the paranormal vision of the "light" (Jyoti) of Aham at the highest level of their spiritual evolution, tell that Aham exists beyond the Adhyatm Manas but it illuminated the latter with its light and that reflection of Aham in the Adhyatm Manas is like the image of the sun seen in water. The enlightened sages say that the brilliance of Adhyatm Manas is only a faint reflection of the inherent and dazzling effulgence of Aham, although first experience of Adhyatm Manas crated an illusion as if this itself were Aham, which in reality it is not. Aham is like an incessantly glittering jewel wrapped under several coverings of cloth (the coverings of the illusory world created by the magical mind). As the coverings are removed one by one, the filtered light becomes brighter and bright. The inherent brilliance of the jewel remains undiminished irrespective of the number of coverings or no covering at all.

The sole purpose of going to this level of consciousness is to create the highest level of awareness of Aham, so that the seeker becomes convinced of the competence of the soul for utilizing its instruments effectively. This understanding empowers him to take off the old, sullied, tattered clothes (regressive traits and illusions) and put on new, resplendent garments (noble, virtuous traits) and with their help carry out the assigned duties and responsibilities of life effectively - thus becoming a role model for others to follow.

After attaining this level of perception through persistent practice, the seeker may be eager to know what remains to be experienced which is beyond Aham. Transcending Aham is the pure, ultimate, immutable Super Soul (Vishuddha Atma) - the almighty God of which the individual soul is a spark. The conviction of this Transcendental Being comes through personal realization. By separating the Aham from the body, the mind and everything else related to these, successively discarding ever subtler layer of ego-bound consciousness, the seeker is ultimately left with the immortal, immutable soul, beyond which, nothing remains to be discerned. The logic is simple. The thinker, the analyst, and the object being deliberated upon, or being analyzed, can never be one and the same. The sun can never illuminate its own self. In the same manner, the soul cannot be something to be deliberated upon, nor can it be a subject of analysis. At each moment of life your consciousness tells you that your Real-Self - "I" is the thinker, the seer and the doer. This "I", as we have already discussed, is neither your body nor your mind in its conscious, subconscious or unconscious states. It has to be some other independent entity, which remains ever vigilant, alert and awake irrespective of the state of the body or the mind. This is what we call Atma or soul in spiritual parlance.