OBSTACLES IN THE JOURNEY HOME Dr. Raghavendra S. Prasad, MD 7/15/2013 Journey home is journey to OM through OM. Journey home is the realization that all of creation is one. Oneness and unity is the underlying truth of diversity. Diversity is the manifestation of Unity. Unity to diversity and diversity to unity is the eternal cycle of creation. The world of diversity is in its eternal journey to Unity, which is the home of diversity. There are some obstacles in the path of reaching home (Unity). Those are 1. Karmic baggage 2, Arishadvargas 3. Particularly the ego . How do we overcome, get rid of these problems in the path is the following discussion. 1. KARMIC BAGGAGE (samskaras or tendencies). This is burnt through nishkama karma and jnana. As we burn past baggage with new knowledge and nishkama karma, we should avoid creating new baggage. Pending desire is the karmic baggage and these create vasanas or samskaras. There are two ways to burn the karmic baggage. A. EXHAUSTING: One with exhausting the current desires by experiencing them and in the process, not creating new desires. This is called the process of exhaustion. B. CEILING ON DESIRES: The second is ceiling on desires and surrendering all desires at the feet of Divinity. 2. ARISHADVARGAS: The problems with arishad vargas (kama- desire, krodha-anger, lobha-miserliness, moha-delusion, mada-ego, matsarya-joulosy) could be decreased by one of the three processes. A. AWARENESS: By bringing in awareness of these impurities. In the presence of awareness, the arishadvargas dissipate. They only survive in unawareness. When any of the six enemies start appearing in our psyche, if we bring awareness of their presence, they dissipate. This awareness is Atmic vision. Kama cannot survive when Rama is there and vice versa. B. POSITIVES: Flushing with Positive values like Sathya , Dharma, Shanthi, Prema, Ahimsa and Thyaga shall purge negatives of arishad vargas like flushing the toilet with good water. When good comes in the bad cannot stay in. 3. EGO (AHANKARA): This is the final frontier in self realization. While ego is part of arishdvargas, it is mentioned again separately because of its enduring quality. We need to understand the purpose of creation of ego by Divinity. Nothing is created without any purpose. When the world of duality is created from Unity, the one has to appear as many. Hence a boundary is created around each human to create a Ghatakasa (Bounded consciousness- contained Atman) from Chidakasa (unbound consciousness- Paramatman). PURPOSE OF EGO: The purpose is that each of these humans identify its uniqueness and perform the Divinity’s leela (Stage show as an actor). This platform is given to work out our own salvation through self realization as humans were given some of the creative powers and free will of the creator. With this creativity and limited free will they were given the choice to follow Dharma and further evolve and merge into their source Divinity (Satchidananda Sagara) or move away through Adharma and go through repeated cycles of birth and death (Re-incarnation). Certain amount of ego is necessary for functioning in human form. When it exceeds certain limits it deludes us and becomes an obstacle. When we use the word ego in spiritual language, it only means excessive ego that is disruptive of spiritual progress. Here are some ways to sublimating our egos. A. AWARENWSS: Ego grows in unawareness and dissipates in awareness as mentioned above. Bringing constant integrated awareness (CIA) of our true nature, the ATMAN, the ego and other arishadvargas disappear. B. SURRENDER: By attributing the body, mind complex to Divinity itself as surrender, the ego of separateness vanishes. C. FLUSH WITH ONENESS: When we flush our mind with attitude of Unity and oneness the separateness of ego dissipates. Positivity of oneness removes the negativity of separateness. Ego is the final hurdle in full expansion of self towards self realization. It is the final frontier. In removing this ego, several events and people in our lives are helpful. Rather than being angry towards them for the insults or otherwise hurled at us, we should be thankful for them for helping our spiritual advancement by curtailing our ego. Those that praise us enhance our ego and it is only the ones that criticize us and belittle us that will limit our ego. Be thankful to those, who has the freedom to tell you the way it is or the children, particularly teenagers who do not mince words, your adversaries, all adverse events and enemies all contribute for your spiritual growth. Be thankful for them. Ultimately Guru and prarbda contribute for ego breaking. Sani Graham (Saturn) that everybody fears is the best helper in ego breaking. Welcome it as friend and thank him for your spiritual expansion. When we read the biographies of sages and saints, we find they all invariably have to go through this ego breaking process to become Paramhamsas. Thus adversity and adversaries contribute more to our spiritual maturity than favorable events and our well wishers and be thankful for them. Thus all of them become our friends. We become friend of all. This develop ekatma bhava in us. This is our destination and goal.