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In the last Issue 208,
we discussed some points regarding the reasons for development of
ego in spiritual life namely, ego due to intellect and ego about
being knowledgeable. In this Issue we will continue our discussion.
Ego about spiritual practice
1. A 60-year-old disciple had undertaken the spiritual practice
of ritualistic worship and meditation as advised by his Guru, for
forty long years. In 1992, during the Hindu festival of Divali,
the festival of lights, he visited H.
H. Ramanand Maharaj along
with six other seekers.
At that time he, asked all the other seekers if they meditated.
They replied that they only repeat (chant*) The Lord’s Name
as taught by their Guru. He then said, “I will teach you
to do so.” Then he asked everyone to sit erect and said, “I
will now meditate and you, too, follow suit. Let us meditate only
for 10 minutes as you all are not habituated to it.” So all
of us sat for meditation. When we opened our eyes after 10 minutes,
he was still in meditation. Even after twenty-five minutes, he
would not open his eyes. The other seekers began to get restless
as their Guru, H.H. Bhaktaraj Maharaj, was awaiting their return.
Just then, the 60-year-old disciple opened his eyes and with his
hands folded in obeisance said, “Although I had said that
we would meditate for only 10 minutes, because of you all, I was
able to meditate for such a long time. I have never ever been able
to do so before.” He then prostrated before all of us in
obeisance. Initially, he had such an immense ego about his spiritual
practice that when others spoke about Spirituality, he would smirk
sarcastically. After obtaining this spiritual
experience, his attitude
underwent a change and he stopped smirking.
One of the six seekers narrated the above
incident to their Guru,
H. H. Bhaktaraj
Maharaj, as a joke and remarked, “The 60-year-old seeker
went into a meditative state due to H.H. Ramanand Maharaj and actually
prostrated before Him in obeisance.” On
hearing this, another one among the six seekers who were present there said, “Actually
the 60-year-old disciple said that he went to a meditative state due to all
six of us present there and not only due to H.H. Ramanand Maharaj.” Here
the seeker’s ego was reflected as he wished to suggest that he was one
of the six and that the 60-year-old disciple went into meditation due to him,
too!
2. After attaining a thoughtless state by undertaking spiritual
practice for a few years, a seeker would consciously try to bring
bad thoughts
into his mind such as those about sexual pleasure or that ‘I
am committing a murder’. However these thoughts would not last
even for a moment. After doing this for about two months, he developed
the ego that ‘Now I have succeeded’. That very moment,
bad thoughts entered his mind, which could be eliminated only after
making efforts for five more years. In short, five years of that
seeker were wasted! |
