18 Dec 2014
Shri Phani asked “when we say that the ‘I’ should be crossed, the meaning of ‘I’ is only basic ‘I’. In such case, ‘I’ means ego only”.
Swami replied: It is said that one should cross the ‘I’ and this is the meaning of cross on which Jesus was crucified. Here, the ‘I’ means the ‘I’, which is infected by ego. The suppression of ego can be done in two ways. The first way is praising the Lord. When you say that God is great, it indirectly means that you are not great. This is indirect self-blame. Such treatment is like using antibiotic of normal power to kill the ego-virus in the initial stage. If the virus is not destroyed by this initial dose of antibiotic, the second way is to use more powerful antibiotic, which is the direct self-blame like the statement “I am sinner. I do sinful actions. My soul is sinful. I am born with sin” (Paapoham…). When more powerful antibiotic is used, you should be careful about weakening of the basic ‘I’ itself. In such case, you have to use the B-complex, which is self-praise, resulting in strengthening the self-confidence. Since all these are ideas only, you are detecting these feelings as soon as they appear in the mind. Thus, self-diagnosis is possible. In the case of infection of your body by external virus, you do not know about the specific virus and hence, external diagnosis supervised by external doctor is essential. In the psychological field, you can do the diagnosis by yourself and detect the virus. In the external diagnosis, you can also detect the weakness with the help of external doctor. Similarly, in the internal diagnosis, you yourself can detect the weakness of ‘I’ and the subsequent lowering of self-confidence. After the external diagnosis, the medicines are given by the external doctor. In the internal diagnosis, you yourself have to give the medicines. Just like the doctor balances the dose of antibiotic and B-complex medicines or injections, you have to balance the use of prayer to God, self-blame and self-praise.
Some people are always habituated to use the strong antibiotics without using the B-complex. They feel that by such constant use of antibiotics, they are killing the ego-virus forever. They feel that the use of self-praise (B-complex) will lead to the self-ego. This is not the correct way. The ego should be decreased by the use of prayer and self-blame but once you noticed that the basic ‘I’ is sinking down, you must use the self-praise also to boost up the self-confidence. Before doing a work, self-confidence is necessary. When Hanuman is asked about His capacity to cross the sea, He replied that He cannot jump even an inch. Other monkeys declared their potentialities in terms of the distances of the sea they can jump. The essence of the saying of Hanuman is that one cannot jump even an inch without God’s grace. When He is ready to jump over the sea, He declared “I will go to Lanka like the arrow of Rama. If I do not find Sita there, I will comeback along with plucked Lanka with Ravana in My hand” (Yathaa Raghava nirmuktah…). This self-praise is essential before doing any work. Here, you must note that Hanuman compared Himself with the arrow of Rama. The speed of the arrow is always given by the hand of shooter. Hence, the energy of Hanuman is from Rama. This point cuts the raise of ego in the self-praise at the outset itself. After killing the demons in Lanka, Hanuman says “Victory to Rama, Lakshmana and Sugriva. I am servant of Rama” (Jayatyatibalo Ramo…). This is the prayer and lowering the self to destroy ego, if any. Then Hanuman says “I am Hanuman. I will kill all the enemies. Even thousand Ravanas are not equal to Me. I will beat with stones and trees. I will destroy Lanka” (Hanuman Shatrusainyanam…). These lines are towards self-praise again. Then Hanuman says “I will bow to sita” (Abhvadyacha…). This is again lowering of self. Then He says “I will kill all the demons and go back after finishing the work” (Samruddhaatho…). This is again raising the self-confidence. Thus, you see the alternative administration of the antibiotic and B-complex as per the context of necessity. By such planned treatment, you can destroy the ego and at the same time, maintain the self-confidence that is necessary for the work in the divine service. Using only the antibiotic continuously, it finally ends in lowering the self-confidence to such a minimum level so that sometimes the person even commits suicide!
Hanuman declared that He will return along with sita. But, Hanuman failed even to find out Sita after intensive search. Now, Hanuman has to return even without the news about Sita since Hanuman could not even see Sita. A large gap is created between the expectation announced by Hanuman and the basic utter failure. Hanuman went into extreme depression and thought of even committing the suicide. When this danger attacks even the most courageous Hanuman, what to think of normal human beings in depression? The self-blame continuously done kills even the basic ‘I’ and in course of time, such a fellow may like suicide to destroy the own body represented by ‘I’. In the scriptures, prayers to God (mild antibiotics), self-blaming statements to suppress ego and self-praising statements to boost up the self-confidence are available like the various medicines in the medical shop. You have to get the medicines prescribed by the doctor from the shop as per the context and use it in the treatment. The external diagnosis should be done under the supervision of external doctor followed by external treatments also. The internal diagnosis should be done by yourself followed by internal treatment to be done by yourself only. In the internal diagnosis and internal treatment, you may take the help of your Guru (Preacher) also if necessary. Hence, the Guru is called as the doctor in psychological deceases (Bhavarogavaidya). The self-blame should not be continuous leading to depression, irritation, finding no work to do etc., which are the serious psychological problems faced by several human beings in the society. The self-blame is very dangerous antibiotic and should be used only in rare emergent occasions only. Hanuman used such antibiotic very rarely like in the statement “I am the weakest among all the monkeys present in the service of Sugriva”. Such strong antibiotic should be used only in rare occasions whenever excessive ego shoots up to climax. This step is almost like the surgery.
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