Eat Your Mango and Enjoy It Too

Apr 28, 2004, 12.00am IST
Pravin Shankar Mehta.

The first and foremost of all thoughts in the human mind is the primeval thought "I". Only after this thought, other thoughts arise. Ramana Maharishi says that if you could mentally follow this "I" thread until it leads to its source, you would discover that the first thought to appear, is also the last to disappear. It is the ego-sense which gives birth to the thought "I". The ultimate reality, the self, is obscured by the illusory appearance of this ego-sense, the root cause of all misery and discontent. In following the question "Who am I?" a state would be achieved in the end where all doubts and questions which assail the human mind, strictly limited by sense perceptions, would just fall away like a tree’s dry leaves after a strong wind.
The Mundaka Upanishad states: "When the supreme being is known then the knot is cut, all doubts are dispelled and all the effects of actions stand cancelled". The ego is the parent of all doubts; when it finally disappears, all thought processes which give rise to doubts also disappear like "the unsubstantial pageant, leaving not a trace behind". Superficially it appears that this egoless state is a state of nothingness. Not so. This state is existence, consciousness, bliss, sat-chit-ananda, where all illusory appearances disappear; only the self shines in all its glory.
The sense of "I" pertains to the body and ego-ridden mind, which ceases to exist in the ego-less state. To the Buddha, this is nirvana; Christ calls it the kingdom of heaven and Vedanta terms it moksha or deliverance. So a person does not lose himself; rather, he finds himself. This echoes what Jesus said: "Whoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it". Shankara says in Vivekachudamani: "The light of self is blurred by the illusory medium of the mind. The self shines only in the egoless state, the only reality. The rest is simply illusion". "Such stuff as dreams are made of", wrote Shakespeare. The moment primeval thought disappears, no doubts remain as the ego-sense no longer exists to raise them. To Osho this is self-awakening. So arise and awaken yourself, he said. Once a monk Maulikyaputta asked the Buddha several metaphysical questions — the nature of creation, the existence of God, and the post-nirvana state. The Buddha declined to give answers just then but promised to do so after one year.