Page 11 - NAMAH-Jul-2019

Namah Editorial

could produce obsessive compulsive neurosis. with the Superconscient vastness, the aspirant
It is the ego which is the nodal point of all has to live an exclusively spiritual life cut
our suffering and illnesses. off from the vicissitudes of life. It is a great
spiritual solution to the problem of the ego
The substratum ego but leaves no psychological space for a life
that can be pursued in reality in a poise of
Indian spirituality tries to deal with the situation Truth. Sri Aurobindo preferred a different
by transcending the ego and merging with the approach. He brought in the concept of an ego-
vastness of the Superconscious. But that did transcending principle, the Psychic Being,
not mean that the aspirant who transcended projected by the Self, Jiva or Etman, which
the ego became free from the possibility of could replace the desire-soul propped up
illnesses and suffering where the ego was the by the ego. The Psychic Being is a being of
key component. This is because even if the ego truth, harmony, beauty, unalloyed joy, peace
is transcended, there still remains a residual and light and could dispense with the ego
impression of the ego as “a general sense of and bring a higher discipline in the lower
the separate I(9).” Sri Aurobindo explains that members of our being. As it is projected by the
this “indefinable but fundamental ego-sense Higher Self in the Transcendence, it does not
(10)” is the substratum ego.“This substratum evolve from the Inconscience as the rest of
ego is something vague, indefinable, elusive; it our being and is thus free from any negative
does not or need not attach itself to anything influence. It is the classical Beyond-Ego
in particular as the self; it does not identify principle which can transform ordinary life.
itself with anything collective; it is a sort of True well-being ensues when one is poised
fundamental form or power of the mind which in the consciousness of the Psychic Being
compels the mental being to feel himself as a that has replaced the ego. It is not affected by
perhaps indefinable but still a limited being suffering, disease or adversity. The psychic
which is not mind, life or body but under which being is the torchbearer of Truth, Light, Peace
their activities proceed in Nature(11).” It is only and Joy and the true harbinger of integral
the rare yogi who can really transcend the health and living (13). One thus does not need
ego completely. to escape from the world by transcending the
ego but substitute the ego with a Beyond-ego
Sri Aurobindo also explains that the substratum principle to enjoy life in a new and novel
ego gives the impression of a ‘self’ or ‘being’ denouement.
behind the ego and separate from the ego,
hence it is often mistaken for a spiritual essence, References
the ‘true self’ or ‘soul-essence’ or ‘true Purusha’
or ‘true Person within’ (12). Thus the aspirant 1. Swami Venkatesananda. The Supreme Yoga
who opts for transcendence of the ego may be — Yoga Vasistha. Delhi, Motilal Banarasidass;
unwillingly led to a great deception. 2010, pp. 118-9.

The Psychic Being 2. Sri Aurobindo. Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo,
Volumes 21-2. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo
If the ego is transcended so that one can merge Ashram Trust; 2006, pp. 574-5.

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