ego
Shri Mataji
It is a very unique thing that has happened, that your Sahasraras were opened out. There were very few people in this whole world. There were some Sufis, there were some saints, some other people also in China, I know, but very few. Very few got their Sahasrara opened out. So whatever they said or wrote was never understood by the people. They actually tortured them. They crucified them and did all kinds of horrible things because they couldn’t bear somebody getting this realisation…
So nowadays the world is full of turmoil, as you see, full of nonsensical people coming up, full of quarrelsome people. Dominating people are overpowering. At this time, if you just see this in the witness state, this will disappear because you are very powerful. But you must know, first of all, that you must have the equipment to use the power. If you have the equipment within you, you can do it. But with your ego you cannot.
Ego is the greatest hurdle for your ascent. You can see that ego is at a place where you have to just cross to go to the Sahsrara. And to break the Sahasrara is very easy otherwise. But if there is ego, you are already lost in that ego. So against all this, one has to understand to “watch yourself”. Is it egoistical? What does it think about itself? Ego is very limited. It makes you limited and you do not see the purpose of your life. Why have you become a realised soul? You do not understand. You just are involved in your own affairs, in your family, in your children, in your something like that – very low. But if you have, if you have a ego-less temperament, then you are very effective; the whole power works. What I have seen, the power of Sahasrara is so great. In some people it has worked wonders…
Now, as it is, I am here to tell you about it. In those days when these saints came in, nobody was there to guide them, to tell them anything. On the contrary, they were so much destroyed by the surroundings, and people never understood why they did not have any ego, why they were so humble; so they were misused. But now you have powers. You must know how to use your powers. But that should not give you, by any chance, any ego that you have powers. On the contrary, you should be humble. You have the power to be humble and you can be humble…
Shri Mataji, Cabella, Italy, 5 May 2002
Jesus Christ
“I forgive.” This is the greatest weapon Christ has given us. You just say, “I forgive, I forgive,” and you can overcome your ego. This is the mantra for this chakra…. You’ll find your Agnya chakra will open out and you’ll find your ego will go away.
Forgiveness is one of the biggest weapons human beings have got. But they are so stupid. If I tell them to forgive – now what is there not to forgive? – they’ll say, “It’s very difficult to forgive.”
I say, “What is so difficult? What are you doing? Are you doing something when you say, ‘I am forgiving’? Do you do something? Nothing.”
On the contrary, when you do not forgive, then what is happening is the person whom you do not forgive is actually torturing you, while you are not torturing that person.
Shri Mataji, 1983
The Agnya Chakra, sometimes called the Third Eye, is situated at the centre of the brain. This is the level of the mind. Our mind has two lobes: the ego, which gives us our sense of separateness; and our superego, which has our conditionings and memory. The goal in Sahaja Yoga is to bring the light of the Spirit to the brain and so achieve enlightenment, Self-realisation. The Sahaja Yoga affirmations for the Agnya Chakra are, “I forgive everyone, including myself,” “Mother, by your grace I am forgiven,” “Mother, please make me a forgiving person,” and “Mother, verily You are the forgiveness.”
When the Kundalini passes through this chakra, the thought waves elongate so that the space between the thoughts grows longer. The present moment begins to fill the attention and we enter the state of meditation in thoughtless awareness. Then we can see without colouring or projecting - simply, innocently, like a child.
Jesus Christ, the personification or Deity of the Agnya Chakra is said to have explained, “Unless you be as little children, you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.” This entry point is “the narrow gate” between the ego (ahankara) and superego (manas). This is the “now” point that remains clear and unpressured, beyond the mind’s remembrances of the past, and beyond the ego’s mental projections about the future.
The mind, like the body, gives us fairly convincing ideas of our existence. However, with an enlightened mind we find, as Shri Mataji has said, that we are not the body, the mind, ego and conditionings, but we are the Spirit. This was the essential revelation of Jesus Christ who fully manifested the Divine qualities of the Agnya Chakra – compassion and forgiveness. His testimony, of undoubted Oneness with His Father, is the Nirvikalpa experience of the Yogi, who has been cleansed and prepared by the Divine Mother, Kundalini. His assertion, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Light,” is the ultimate expression of this enlightened Agnya.
It is through deep meditation, forgiveness and humility that the process of crossing the Agnya Chakra is worked out. The left and right channels cross just below the Agnya. If either of these channels is overly active they create a burden and an imbalance in the subtle body that pressures and closes the narrow gate and has us again feeling alone and unconnected. The right channel is easily inflated with the idea, “I do.” Too much thinking, planning, projecting, over-activity, anger, competitiveness or superiority will cause blockage and also deplete the left side of the essential ability to feel and love. Becoming too “right-sided” means we can enter the hot realm of the supra-conscious, the realm of the future. The left channel can catch if we are overly emotional, too expressive, feeling victimised, wishing harm to ourselves, becoming immersed in the past, and too involved in unhealthy habits, subconscious images or dead ideas. This is the realm where everything from the past is placed, including dead spirits and the Collective Sub-conscious.
A central idea in spiritual evolution is the idea of being “born again”. This is not a process of self- or group-certification. It is the process of Self-realisation in which we break through, surrender the lesser senses of ego and conditioning, and become resurrected, identified with the eternal awareness, the Spirit. Here we go beyond the mind and often humorously witness the play of the ego and conditionings as they battle to have their way. We are still in the world, yet in a detached, joy-filled and loving way. We easily forgive, for not to forgive causes problems. We know and enjoy our own Spirit, the same Spirit in all, and witness the play of the Creation. We are humble before the ultimate majesty of the Creator and also spontaneously experience true love and compassion for the human condition.
Pavan Keatley
(Photograph: orthodox.cn)