er, and that matter cannot give us anything more than material happiness. Being temporal in nature, worldly pleasures can never give us the satiation (tripti), that is our true seeking.

Ego is the finest form of matter. Says Krishna in the Gita: “The five elements (conditions of material being), mind (with its various senses and organs), intellect, ego, this is my eightfold divided nature”

Dorothy Clarke Wilson has written a book wherein she tells the story of how the baby Moses was abandoned by his mother, a Hebrew slave, and found by the Pharaoh’s daughter who brought him up as a prince until he discovered his real identity and made it his life’s mission to lead his countrymen out of bondage and into the Promised Land.

In the like manner, we too have forgotten our real identity that the source from where we come is God Himself, and the reason why we are in bondage is because we are slaves to our ego, and thus unable to reach our ‘Promised Land’. If we look deep down into our selves, we shall find that what we intensely desire, and is our seeking, is ānanda, joy. Remember that this Joy was ours at one time, but as of now we have no memory of it at all. We only seek that which we have lost, and in this case, seek instinctively. The search for Joy is verily the search for God. You cannot find one single person on earth that does not seek joy. A thief goes about his job in the hope that one day, having amassed enough, he will give up thievery.

Ego, being the obstacle, the moment it undergoes dissolution through total surrender, we get our memory (smriti) back. It does not take even a second. Ego keeps us bound to the earth, but at the same time it is of utmost necessity as an instrument for our day-to-day functioning and in our gaining of experience from life. But the sad fact is that we go on repeating the same mistakes again and again, hardy ever seeming to learn from experience. What we do not learn is that the world is, after all, matter, and that matter cannot give us anything more than material happiness. Being temporal in nature, worldly pleasures can never give us the satiation (tripti), that is our true seeking.

Ego is the finest form of matter. Says Krishna in the Gita: “The five elements (conditions of material being), mind (with its various senses and organs), intellect, ego, this is my eightfold divided nature”.

ntity that the source from where we come is God Himself, and the reason why we are in bondage is because we are slaves to our ego, and thus unable to reach our ‘Promised Land’. If we look deep down into our selves, we shall find that what we intensely desire, and is our seeking, is ānanda, joy. Remember that this Joy was ours at one time, but as of now we have no memory of it at all. We only seek that which we have lost, and in this case, seek instinctively. The search for Joy is verily the search for God. You cannot find one single person on earth that does not seek joy. A thief goes about his job in the hope that one day, having amassed enough, he will give up thievery.

Ego, being the obstacle, the moment it undergoes dissolution through total surrender, we get our memory (smriti) back. It does not take even a second. Ego keeps us bound to the earth, but at the same time it is of utmost necessity as an instrument for our day-to-day functioning and in our gaining of experience from life. But the sad fact is that we go on repeating the same mistakes again and again, hardy ever seeming to learn from experience. What we do not learn is that the world is, after all, matter, and that matter cannot give us anything more than material happiness. Being temporal in nature, worldly pleasures can never give us the satiation (tripti), that is our true seeking.

Ego is the finest form of matter. Says Krishna in the Gita: “The five elements (conditions of material being), mind (with its various senses and organs), intellect, ego, this is my eightfold divided nature”

seek that which we have lost, and in this case, seek instinctively. The search for Joy is verily the search for God. You cannot find one single person on earth that does not seek joy. A thief goes about his job in the hope that one day, having amassed enough, he will give up thievery.

Ego, being the obstacle, the moment it undergoes dissolution through total surrender, we get our memory (smriti) back. It does not take even a second. Ego keeps us bound to the earth, but at the same time it is of utmost necessity as an instrument for our day-to-day functioning and in our gaining of experience from life. But the sad fact is that we go on repeating the same mistakes again and again, hardy ever seeming to learn from experience. What we do not learn is that the world is, after all, matter, and that matter cannot give us anything more than material happiness. Being temporal in nature, worldly pleasures can never give us the satiation (tripti), that is our true seeking.

Ego is the finest form of matter. Says Krishna in the Gita: “The five elements (conditions of material being), mind (with its various senses and organs), intellect, ego, this is my eightfold divided nature”

mriti) back. It does not take even a second. Ego keeps us bound to the earth, but at the same time it is of utmost necessity as an instrument for our day-to-day functioning and in our gaining of experience from life. But the sad fact is that we go on repeating the same mistakes again and again, hardy ever seeming to learn from experience. What we do not learn is that the world is, after all, matter, and that matter cannot give us anything more than material happiness. Being temporal in nature, worldly pleasures can never give us the satiation (tripti), that is our true seeking.

Ego is the finest form of matter. Says Krishna in the Gita: “The five elements (conditions of material being), mind (with its various senses and organs), intellect, ego, this is my eightfold divided nature”

er, and that matter cannot give us anything more than material happiness. Being temporal in nature, worldly pleasures can never give us the satiation (tripti), that is our true seeking.

Ego is the finest form of matter. Says Krishna in the Gita: “The five elements (conditions of material being), mind (with its various senses and organs), intellect, ego, this is my eightfold divided nature”. (Ch 7, verse IV). But the truth of the matter is that we are something else too. And unless we get thatsomething else, satiation will be found to be wanting. Upon realizing that however fine, ego is, after all, matter, we come to learn for the first time that it not only keeps us linked with the universe, but also delinked from God.

But how will you let go of the ego? Because, if it is your doing then too, as doer, you will again stand behind the act of giving up. The ‘I’ as doer will keep standing as it is. That is why, it is almost impossible to renounce the ego.

There is only one way to do so. Excepting for mahatmas, like Mahaveera and Buddha who were able, for others, unless shraddhā, faith, becomes so deeply pregnant that it gives birth to bhakti or devotion, ego is impossible to renounce. Love is the first link in this series. There are three different forms of love: Love which flows from you towards your youngers is called sneha, affection; towards your equals, is called pyār, love; towards your elders, shraddhā, reverence. Love for God, bhakti or devotion, the fourth, is objectless obeisance in wonderment, and can therefore not be categorized. True devotion, without any expectation of reward, is of the spirit, and thus non-material. All other forms of love are material, but devotion, the highest, is spiritual.

The ultimate point in Devotion is when the lover too has disappeared and only pure love remains, the devotee being merged in Devotion to become Love incarnate. Then, in this surrendering there is a total annihilation of t