Page 10 - NAMAH-Jul-2019

Namah Vol. 27, Issue 2, 15th July 2019

thought-centralisation in the perceiving and is the fact that the mental ego cannot
discriminating mind, a vital form of the have any access to the deeper and higher
centralisation of feeling and sensation in our ranges of consciousness. It cannot access
parts of life, a form of physical conscious reception our soul-space in the depths holding the
centralising substance and function of substance Spirit-essence (the psychic being). It cannot
in our bodies (3).” fathom the cosmic consciousness necessary
for the universalisation of experience. Our
There are certain features of the ego that ego-bound surface personality is a result of
necessitate its surpassing at an optimal point a transaction between the unborn Self and
in personal growth: Nature and thus cannot directly access
the Spirit.
a. As the ego itself is a temporary variable,
that aspect of the being which is coordinated The implications of the ego
by the ego and studied as “personality” in
psychology must also be “a temporary It is the ego which serves to build the desire-
constructed personality”, “a construction of soul with which we ordinarily travel the
Nature and so dominated, driven, determined journey of life. The problem with the ego
by her that it cannot be free (4).” This aspect is not that it is to be considered to trespass
of the being which is so painstakingly morality. The problem is that it is skewed in
analysed in academic psychology is considered its action and biased towards one or other
in yoga psychology as a surface personality parts of the being; it cannot harmonise with
or outer being or “partial and superficial a sense of proportion. It was originally meant
being (5)” that cannot dissociate itself from to balance our mental, emotional and physical
the play of cosmic forces. It is “a smaller planes but it fails to do that, exaggerating
temporary and unreal self” that has to give one or other part. If it is biased towards the
way at a certain point of inner growth to mind, it can support dogmas and overvalued
“our true self’s eternal largeness (6).” ideas and in psychotic subjects, can become
dissociated to produce delusional thinking.
b. The self-experience coordinated by the If it is biased towards the vital or emotional
ego for conscious utilisation of life is not repertoire, it can support dynamism and
representative of the entire repertoire valour or unnecessary loss of self-esteem and
of consciousness, a reason why the ego- these characteristics could get dissociated
bound personality is considered to be a in mood disorders and affect the vital mind
“restricted partial and ignorant being (7).” (the mind that modulates our life-energy) to
The mental ego can relate to a small part produce grandiosity or depression. If the ego
of our waking individual consciousness is biased towards the physical consciousness,
(8) as it cannot have access not only to the it could lead to aggrandisement of physical
subconscious (the Freudian unconscious) prowess or inertia and could get dissociated
in the psychological sense but also to the to produce chronic somatisation disorder
subconscious that underlies our physiological or hypochondriasis. If the ego is too biased
functioning or biological mechanisms. What towards the physical mind (the poise of the
is more important from the yogic perspective mind enmeshed in our sensory schemata), it

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