The Yogic View of the Ego

Aum Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

Namaste everyone.

So, this is a continuation in the Wisdom of the Bhagavad-gita series, and the topic I’ve been given, as James said, was The Yogic View of the Ego. You very familiar with the term? Somewhat? A lot of people sort of know the word, and it’s commonly used in a derogatory sense—somebody’s got a big ego or an inflated ego. But, even though it’s used in that way, if you ask people to explain exactly what it means, a lot of people sort of struggle a little bit with that.

It’s actually a word, “ego” is derived from Latin, and literally translated it simply means “I”. That’s what it means, “I.” So, over time it’s sort of like taken on deeper and more sort of technical meaning, especially in relation to psychoanalysis, existential philosophy, and what some people consider to be spiritual subjects, or spiritual discourse.

It was sort of popularized in the works of Sigmund Freud, although he wrote in German. He didn’t write in English, and he never used the word “ego.” He used a German expression which literally means the “I”, meaning the sense of who I am, the “I”. But the English translator used the term “ego” when he translated, and so we see with modern psychology it’s sort of—it’s widely used, and it’s what’s influenced almost everybody in the Western world.

So the way in which people use it, and the meaning of this word “ego” (even though, as I said, it’s—in Latin, it simply means “I”) has come to mean a variety of different things for different people. It’s kind of used in different ways. And there were different sort of propositions that Freud, and then later the modern psychiatrists and psychologists that followed him, sort of developed, different ideas of what that could mean.

One of the things that we are going to be dealing with is what we call the materialistic perspective. The vast majority of people in this world, even though they may have some interest in that which is spiritual, are fundamentally materialists. Materialist is the idea that everything that exists is material, it’s some form of material energy. So, the idea that, when you break it down, everything is simply atoms and subatomic particles, and chemical interactions from complex molecules, and electrical impulses that are produced by them—I mean that this is how people think—the mind comes into being as a result of all these processes of the brain. But we understand, from the yogic perspective, that that is really not the case at all. But if you accept that idea that the concepts that you have in your mind, even concepts of ego and of self, if it’s generated within the mind, then people must appreciate that that’s seeing—the perspective is, that I am material.

From the yogic teaching, this philosophy, this idea that the body that I’m wearing is me, this is who I am, is considered a very unfortunate misunderstanding, that is a foundation for all unhappiness. In the yogic teachings they have some very precise definitions. It’s not left up to somebody to speculate. They have very precise definitions as to what these things are. And so, you will see that in foundational yogic, or Vedic, teaching they have this understanding that there is a true self, and there is a false self. So that would translate, if we’re going to use the word “ego,” it means there is a real or true ego but there is also a false ego. In the Vedic perspective, the body is not the true self. It is simply an outer covering or garment, and the true self, you, the living being, reside within this outer garment.

The false self is what we will discover is related to all of the labels attached to the body. If my body is 20 years old, I say, “I am 20.” If my body is male or female I say, “I am male” or, “..female.” If—whatever condition, racial extraction, size, shape, everything, age, the whole the whole thing, I attach labels that describe the condition of that body, and I say that is me. But this is considered a false understanding. It is actually misleading and is very much the cause of all unhappiness and suffering in this world, if we really trace things back carefully.

So, the last time we talked, we did a talk on consciousness and the mind. So I’ll just revisit something that we covered there, and it is this appreciation: You have this body, which I said is an outer garment. In Sanskrit this is called the sthula sarira, which means the gross physical body, and within that body there is the true self, the living being. It is called an atma, which is a very precise word, the Sanskrit word. It literally means the self. The self is that person residing within the body.

But that atma also has an, what I’ll just call, just for visualization purpose, an internal covering. This is, they describe it—in Sanskrit this is called the linga sarira, the subtle body. And this subtle body—you don’t have to memorize this or get too lost, I’m just running over it. You can revisit it, maybe, when I post it online, if you’re interested. The atma covered by this subtle body, the layer that is the initial covering of the atma, or the spirit soul, is called the ahankara. Ahankara, we are going to translate as the false ego, the false concepts of self. And then there is another layer called the buddhi, or intelligence. And then a third outer layer called the manah, or the mind. So this subtle body is comprised of these three things.

The word ahankara, it’s made up of two words, aham, which in Sanskrit means “I”, and when you say kara, in this sense, it means a representation of the “I”, or the false sense of the “I”. And the way it influences the living being is we start to adopt all of these notions that this body is me, and whatever condition my body is in, that is me.

But when we turn to the Bhagavad-gita, they had really interesting ways of looking at the material energy. They spoke about five, what they call mahabhutas, which means the five material elements. Although they did discuss things on an atomic level they looked at things a little bit more differently. So it describes in this one verse in the Bhagavad-gita:

“Earth, water, fire, air, ether [or the akasha], mind, intelligence and false ego [the ahankara]—all together these eight constitute My separated material energies.” [Bhagavad-gītā 7.4]

says Sri Krishna. So here this ahankara and the mind and the material intelligence are categorized as material energies. These are subtle forms. The others, like earth, water, fire, and air, they are considered grosser forms of material energy. And then the actual self, or the living being, is then mentioned in the following verse:

“Besides these, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature.” [Bhagavad-gītā 7.5]

So here there is just a broad definition that everything that you can see with your eyes and smell and hear and touch and taste, and all the activity of the mind, this is considered broadly the material energy. The living beings are considered a higher nature. They have a higher nature, a spiritual nature.

The characteristic of the presence of the atma, the self, is life. Anything that you—where you see life you know is because of the presence of the atma. And as we discussed last time, consciousness is a characteristic of the atma, the spiritual being. Consciousness is not created by the mind or mental activity or by the brain. It doesn’t come from atoms or atomic particles. Consciousness is part of the eternal nature of the atma.

So, when we now consider the nature of this false ego, the false self, the Bhagavad-gita actually doesn’t go into detail explaining that. And the reason it doesn’t go into detail is because this used to be common knowledge, that everybody was schooled in this understanding a long time ago, the way people looked at the world. We have, over time, become incredibly fallen and degraded and utterly confused, and so you see the result of that in the world today.

Everybody’s hunting for pleasure, for happiness, to find a home, for love, for security, and yet there is so much unhappiness. And even when people succeed in getting all the things they desire and think will bring them happiness, they find it’s not fulfilling, it’s not touching me in the core of my being; and that’s because it’s not a spiritual experience. I am spiritual. I need spiritual experience, I need spiritual nutrition.

When we now consider—you know, the discussion, of trying to come to understand the ego, or the false ego more accurately, is actually an important part of the process of self-realization. So, it’s kind of like, okay, so what does this subtle covering of the spirit soul, what does it do, and how is it connected with me, the spiritual being inside?

So I’m going to quote a verse from an ancient text called the Bhagavat Purana, which describes—and you can try to visualize this—it’s really amazing the examples that they use to impart actually very elevated subject matters meaning, to give meaning to them in very simple way:

“During the rainy season the moon was prevented from appearing directly by the covering of the clouds, which were themselves illuminated by the moon’s rays. Similarly, the living being in material existence is prevented from appearing directly by the covering of the false ego, which is itself illuminated by the consciousness of the pure soul.” [Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.20.19]

So this is—I mean we’ve had that experience: You go out when it is meant to be a moon out, and if it’s a very cloudy night you look up, you can’t see the moon, but yet the clouds are illuminated because of the moon shining through it. In a similar manner, as I said, consciousness arises from the spirit soul, the atma, and it is projected through the gross—the subtle and then the gross physical body. My body appears to be alive because I am present within it. When I leave this is called death. When I leave, the body dies. I do not die. I cannot die. I am an eternal spiritual being. But when I leave, the body now manifests its true nature, which is just dead material energy.

But when the living being is residing within, it imparts consciousness to the body, I can feel things. I can feel if something pricks my toe, if I bang my head. I have consciousness that pervades my entire body. And it doesn’t matter what size your body is, whether it’s the body of an ant or the body of a whale, that same spiritual being is the same for all. And the consciousness of that spiritual being permeates the gross and the subtle physical body.

But, the false ego is a covering of the soul that makes it so we are forgetful and bewildered. We don’t have spiritual vision. We can’t see our true self. We just look at the body and think that’s me. So the false ego, the ahankara, is like a filter that affects and it alters the consciousness that is emanating from the spirit soul, from the atma.

I’m trying to keep it real simple. This is actually a really quite complex subject, and it’s very profound, but we’ll give it a go. We mentioned, the last talk, on consciousness and the mind, quoting from the Yoga Sutra, how the mind appears to be alive and active because of the consciousness that is lent to it from the soul, just as the body is lent consciousness because of the presence of the soul. But this is the difference between the mind and the false ego: the mind, it can go nuts, especially when somebody is really angry or highly emotional state, it can start going on a trip, and it can be raging.

And even in that condition—we’ve talked about—that sometimes it’s like you can hear a voice, “Don’t do it Don’t say it. Don’t. Don’t,” but you just do it anyway. You go “Aaaagh!” and behave in ways that you shouldn’t behave. You can try to focus and concentrate, “What was that thing?” and you’re trying to remember it, and you’re trying to dredge through, “Okay, when we did that, then what happened?” and you’re trying to remember things. The reason you can exercise control over the mind, you can try to get it to do things like focus or concentrate or remember something, is because it’s different from you. If it was you, you couldn’t do that, you’d just be flowing with the mind. But the fact that you can observe the mind and look at how it works, even in a highly emotional state, indicates that we are different from the mind.

But you cannot do that with the false ego. So, we’ve used the example before: if I was in a room, and I covered all of the light bulbs and the glass on the windows, with one particular colour of cellophane—let’s say green, or let’s say blue, blue cellophane, cover everything. And if you’ve never been in this room before, and the only light that’s shining is blue light, when you come in you can’t tell what colour this carpet is, the rug is. You can’t tell what colour this is. You can’t tell, because everything is coloured with a blue hue. It’s like this with the false ego. The false ego, the ahankara, when it covers the living being it distorts the consciousness, and the consciousness that comes through it is distorted, and what we end up seeing, and how we end up seeing things is distorted.

And the simple example of this is when I look at this body and say, “This is me.” I really am convinced that I’m a male, and I’m a Kiwi, and I’m 73 years old, and I’m like 183, whatever, centimetres, all of the things that describe my body, I am convinced that it is me. And yet, at the time of death I’m going to leave that thing. That’s going to fall over dead, and I’m going to move on. And it’s like, Wow! My whole lifetime was spent absorbed in something that was untrue, the idea of the body as being the self, and I couldn’t see it in another way. Unless you’re engaged in some spiritual process you don’t see it in another way. And that shows you how powerful this distortion, or this illusion, is.

And it’s not just a few people, it’s everyone and everything. When the living being adopts any kind of body, an animal body, a bird body, a human body, then from different ethnic extractions, different sexual identities, different—we just completely are absorbed in all those labels as being us. And it’s an absolute—from a spiritual point of view, that’s an absolute disaster.

So, with this—the distinction I was saying between the mind and the false ego, the false concept of self, the mind I can step back from even while it’s active and doing things, and I can observe it, and I can be aware of what it’s doing, and how it’s doing things. You cannot step back from the false ego and observe how it is affecting you. Your only ability is to look back at something that’s happened, something that you’ve said, some action that you’ve done, the way you are functioning, you can look back at it, knowing, with this knowledge, knowing that I am an eternal spiritual being. And it’s like, “Oh my God! Look at what I said! Look at what I did!” I can look back at it, and I can see the effect that the false ego, the ahankara, is having upon me, but while it’s going on I cannot step back from it, I cannot separate myself from it.

Is this somewhat understandable, or it’s kind of a bit too far out? No? It’s reasonably understandable? Okay.

But understanding what is this false ego is somewhat pivotal, or crucial, in the process of self-realization. This is a massive word: to realize my actual, eternal, spiritual identity. Who am I, the one residing within this body? Who am I, and what is my eternal nature? What is my actual, eternal, spiritual purpose? So, having some grasp, some understanding is—it can be really, really helpful.

So, if we look at the effect of the false ego, or the ahankara—and I’ll just repeat it again We consider—and it’s difficult using terminology that’s imposed by others, like the word ego. We don’t use this term in Sanskrit. We have the self, and we have the false sense of self, but when we consider the effect that this false identity, this covering of false self, what effect it has on me, it’s described in the Bhagavad-gita that:

“The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature.” [Bhagavad-gītā 3.27]

I’ll explain in a second. I’ll read another quote. This is from the Bhagavat Purana:

“When the soul is under the spell of material nature and the false ego, identifying one’s body as the self, the person becomes absorbed in material activities, and by the influence of the false ego one thinks that they are the proprietor of everything.” [Bhāgavata Purāṇa 3.27.2]

So, here this concept of proprietor, we’ve mentioned before: In the material condition I see myself as the centre of everything. I see everything in relation to me and that I am the centre. So the language I adopt, I will talk about my parents, my children, my husband or my wife, or my partner. I will talk about my siblings, my friends, my community, my racial group, my ethnicity, my national identity—I’m a kiwi, and it’s just like, What!? Everything, I think of everything and I see everything with me at the centre, and I see myself as being the possessor of all of these things. They are mine. I claim them as mine. But this is described here as an utterly bewildered state.

So, I’m just going to use another little example, we’ve talked about before: movie house. You go into a movie, particularly if it’s a really intense and engaging movie. You’re sitting in the seat. Actually, nothing is happening to you, right? You’re just sitting in a seat, nobody’s touching you. It’s not moving, nothing (unless there’s an earthquake), but you’re just there. They have a light that’s being projected onto a screen, and there’s sound being played. That light is bouncing back into your eye. Your eye doesn’t see. Your eye is just a lens to allow light to go in. That light goes in, and it hits photosensitive cells at the back of the eyeball, which set off electrical impulses that now travel down the optic nerve to the visual cortex of the brain, and it fires off all of these electrical and chemical reactions take place. And this is called seeing.

But of course, the yogis would question, “Well…” They knew this process, and they asked the question, “Where is the picture, and who’s looking at it?” I mean, we’re just like caught up, and we look around, and we think that we understand the processes and what’s going on, but if we analyze it, it’s like mysterious. It’s like, “Where is that picture that I’m seeing right now?” When I look at you guys, and you’re looking at me, where is that picture, and who is the one that is seeing it? It’s amazing.

And somebody goes into a movie house, and then you’re watching these things, all these flashing lights, all these images that are just two-dimensional, but you become so carried away by an intense movie. You can become frightened. Sometimes people scream, or their heart beats fast, it’s like really scary. Or it gets really intense, or it’s hilarious, and they’re just laughing and laughing, but there’s just light going bouncing through your eyes and some sound, same process. But I’m experiencing something that I think is real and almost like multi-dimensional. I can become sexually aroused. I can become angry. I can become frightened. I can have all of these, and my body reacts. Like somebody swings a weapon or something at the camera, and you’ll see sometimes people—“Whoa!” [mimes ducking out of the way] they go like that. And people that create movies think it’s fantastic if the audience really reacts like they’re in the middle of something.

But it’s sort of like, okay, this is an extraordinary experience. Nothing is happening to you. You are just sitting in a chair, but in this state, you’ve forgotten where you’ve parked the car. You don’t know where it is. You’ve forgotten all the problems that you’ve got, and you’re meant to call this person and deal with this, and you got this problem and got that problem, and this is going on, and you’re going to meet somebody later about—all of that’s forgotten, and you’re just totally immersed in this experience.

That is like a little microcosm of what’s going on with the living being lending consciousness to and residing within this body, and the way the mind is working, and the way the body is working. And I’ve just become completely oblivious to my actual identity, just like the person sitting in a movie house. I’m not talking about this from a spiritual point of view. The person sitting in the movie house has even forgotten their name. They’re not even aware of their name or their family or anything. They’re just caught up in the movie, and they’re experiencing and reacting to all these things that are happening.

That example, if we apply it to what we’re talking about, indicates what is going on, and how the living being becomes bewildered. And there are just all of these forces. There’s some major subject matter here that we’re not really getting into, but there are these invisible energies in the material world. They call them the tri guna, the three qualities of material nature, goodness, passion and ignorance.

When a person is influenced by goodness they tend to want to be in a peaceful, natural surrounding. When they’re in the mode of passion they’re all fired up, like in a nightclub, or at the racetrack, or watching the footy, or engaging in athletic competition, or being really creative. It’s just like you’re being swept away by something. And in the mode of ignorance people are drawn into intoxication, heavy intoxication, like getting completely wasted with alcohol or with drugs, or in deep states of depression where they’re not relating to anybody. They’re just absolutely withdrawn, like in a deep, dark hole.

The living being is actually untouched by this. This is like the living being is sitting in a movie house, a three-dimensional movie house, and the movie is so intense that we’re being swept away by the movie. But when a person advances spiritually, they are able to absolutely step back from this whirlwind of material experience, and experience the reality of their spiritual existence and who they truly are, an awakening of a connection, a relationship, to my source, to the Supreme Soul.

So, the yogis really understood in amazing depth how all of this was going on. Do you guys think this is like far out or what? Is it amazing? I mean, I think it’s just amazing how the living being absolutely loses the plot, is absolutely bewildered. And the primary thing that’s causing that bewilderment is this false ego, which is a subtle form of energy that is distorting the consciousness of the atma itself.

There’s another example that’s given in the Bhagavat Purana, and this is like, you can relate to this, especially when you’re a kid:

“Just as a person who is whirling around perceives the ground to be turning…”

Right? We’ve had that experience when you’re a kid, and the parents spin you around, or you’re just in one place, and you spin around in a circle, and while you’re spinning, when you’re looking at the ground, the ground looks like it is turning around. So:

“Just as a person who is whirling around perceives the ground to be turning, one who is affected by false ego thinks himself the doer, when actually it is only the mind is acting.” [Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.46.41]

This is a really deep idea. It’s like the movie house idea. You’re sitting in the movie house. You’re not doing anything, but yet you’re having all of these physiological reactions, heart beating faster, feeling exhilarated, excited, happy, aroused, scared, really frightened about something, but you’re just sitting in the chair. Nothing’s happening to you. So, these examples give us some little way of trying to understand what’s going on.

Because of the influence of this bewildering false ego, then the living being spends their entire life—and this is what’s even more amazing and scary. It’s not one life, it is lifetimes. We spend lifetimes absorbed in—And every time I say, “I am…” we’re not talking about myself, the spiritual being, we are talking about the body and the mind. So when I say, “I am hungry,” “I am full,” “I am sad,” “I am happy,” “I am tired,” “I’m feeling energetic,” when I say, “I am young,” or, “I am old,” “I’m single,” or “I’m married,” “I’m poor,” or, “I’m rich,” “I’m beautiful,” or, “I’m ugly,” “I’m pregnant…” This is a big one for the ladies, because that’s such a heavy experience, but actually the spirit soul is not pregnant, it is the body. But I’m saying, “I am…” “I am a child,” “I’m good at this,” or, “I’m good at that,” etc. All of these things that begin with “I am…” are almost entirely related to the false concept of self and not to myself as an eternal spiritual being. And the reason this is happening is because of this heavy filter that’s distorting our consciousness and making it so we think of things in this way. We perceive things in this way.

So, for one who is an advanced transcendentalist all of these experiences and life are practically like a dream, in the sense that when somebody is dreaming and having a nightmare, and it’s like, it’s really real: somebody’s stabbing you, or strangling you, or an animal’s attacking you, it’s like, “Oh no!!” And then as soon as somebody is woken up, [mimes sudden waking] and they wake up, instantly there’s this awareness, “Oh, phew! It was just a nightmare. Phew. Thank you for waking me up. That was a freakout.” The moment one wakes up there is awareness that that intense experience that you are having was like a dream.

And so they say that when you become actually self-realized there is this time of awakening where you begin to look at all this time, being lost in this bodily identity, as being something like a dream state. And so, what are the consequences of being absorbed in this? It describes in the Bhagavat Purana:

“Lamentation, elation, fear, anger, greed, confusion and hankering, as well as birth and death, are experiences of the false ego and not of the pure soul.” [Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.28.15]

In the Bhagavad-gita Krishna says to Arjuna, first one of the things He said was, “Never was there a time when I, nor you, nor all these kings, did not exist, nor will there be a time when you ever cease to be,” that we are eternal spiritual beings. The spirit soul is unchanging and eternal, but all of the material experiences are temporary and passing.

So a big question is, “Is there another way to live? Is there a way not to be subjected to this influence?” And of course, the answer is, yes. And part of the process of trying to cultivate a spiritual life is to develop a deeper appreciation of the truth of our own spiritual identity.

Sometimes you’ll hear in some spiritual teachings the idea of becoming ego-less. Have you heard of this, of giving up the ego, becoming ego-less? Usually this terminology or this idea is predominantly found in Buddhism, and one school of Vedic thought called Advaita vada. The ancient teachings is, though, you can never become ego-less. You are—you have a pure spiritual identity. This is the identity of the atma, which is eternal; and the idea of giving that up is actually not possible. We can give up the false ego, the false ideas of self, but not the true ideas.

So, if somebody wants to delve into that topic, I’ll put a couple of links in this talk when I post it. One is a talk titled One with God but different from God, and the other one is called The Nature of the Soul; and if you want to look at those, it delves more into that.

So, a person that actually is advancing in self-realization, how do they experience the world, and how do they behave? So, there is a description here from the Bhagavad-gita

“A person in divine consciousness, although engaged in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving about, sleeping, and breathing, always knows within himself that he actually is doing nothing at all. Because while speaking, evacuating, receiving, opening or closing his eyes, he always knows that only the material senses are engaged with their objects, and he is aloof from them.” [Bhagavad-gītā 5.8-9]

So, this would be like somebody sitting in the movie house watching the movie and always being aware that I’m just sitting here, and I’m watching this, and yeah, this is technically a good story, it was written well. People that are trained in cinematography and script writing, when they look at movies it’s different than everybody else. They’re looking at which angle the camera was shooting from. They can imagine how the scene was shot and where the lighting is. Other people, when they see it, they don’t think about all the stuff that’s going on on a movie set. They’re just looking and absorbed in that. And so, in a similar manner a person that is growing in spiritual understanding, the way in which they look at their own life and watching the activities of the body and understanding and experiencing that I am an eternal spiritual being separate from this.

Is this too far out or…? This is actually quite a—If you don’t like the topic, it’s James’s fault. He’s the one that tells me what to talk about. I try my best to make it kind of like interesting. The good thing is you don’t have to get absolutely caught up in this. I will post a few more verses, from different spiritual texts when I do post this online, just as food for thought for people.

The process that we are engaged in with the meditation upon spiritual sound, it’s part of a process, a yoga process known as bhakti, bhakti yoga. And when one may—in other schools of yoga, the yogis that are trying to figure this out and how to deal with all this stuff and how to deal with the mind and bring it under control, how to deal with the false ego and how to become free from its influence, it’s like, oh my God! It’s like mission impossible!

But I mentioned earlier, like we have two coverings. The soul has a gross body, physical body, and a subtle body, the linga sarira. There is one verse in the Bhagavat Purana that states that one who is engaged in this process of bhakti, that it:

“…dissolves the subtle body of the living entity without separate effort, just as fire in the stomach digests all that we eat.” [Bhāgavata Purāṇa 3:25:33]

And so, the good news is, you don’t have to worry about this. You don’t have to get too involved. Being aware that I am being influenced, and when I look back at different things that happen in my life, when I’m losing the plot, when I’m really unhappy, when I’m overwhelmed with stuff, by understanding the difference between me, the spiritual being, my mind, and even this covering, the false ego, it gives me a perspective, and it gives me an ability to deal with things in life.

For instance, I was talking with a friend at lunch today, and we were talking about sometimes people go through really sad or depressive states, and they become really overwhelmed in that condition, and they think they can never get out of it. Like when things are going really bad people tend to think like “Wow, there’s never going to be any end to this. I’m stuck in this.” But being able to embrace the idea that, “This too shall pass,” this is part of the nature of this world. Even the really good times and the really bad times, they don’t last. They all pass. And when I become thoughtful about that, in many ways it gives me strength to maintain a direction in life.

And if I will engage in this process, this meditation upon spiritual sound, it’s like, I’ve used the example of a dimmer switch: you come into a dark room, and you click the dimmer switch. When you click it there’s still no light, you have to turn it. And as you turn it the light becomes brighter and brighter and brighter. And so, the process of self-realization is like that. It is a gradual process. And when we engage in this activity, this meditation, regularly, it begins to dissipate the fog. We begin to see things with clarity.

And that last verse that I read, they use the example, it’s like it dissolves the subtle body, meaning that subtle body, these influences that are pulling us everywhere, begin to lose their hold, and we begin to see with great clarity, and I begin to be able to live a life that is more meaningful and purposeful. I can begin to experience a deep inner happiness, the awakening of spiritual love, and I become really rock solid in that experience. And all of the things around me, and life, may come and go—even the death of my body will not disturb me—and I will find solace, I will be taking shelter and experiencing spiritual happiness absorbed in these spiritual sounds.

So that’s what I’m—what I got. Actually, I got lots more, but I’m trying to get it under control here. It’s wild. These subjects are just like truly amazing, because in regular life you’ve never heard anything like this. You will have some feeling about some of these kind of things in your life at different points, but it’s like there’s not that clarity of understanding.

So, we’ll do a little kirtan meditation, and then if, after that, if you have questions that you want to ask, I will do my best to try and answer them and to explain.

So, I’ll also use the Mahamantra. The way that we engage in this process is just to be able to let everything go. We carry such a load. Isn’t it? Life, the experience of life, all of this stuff, we’re carrying this massive load all the time, and our heart is anxious, and we want happiness. That’s because it’s part of our spiritual nature to be joyful, to be lost in a state of great spiritual happiness. That’s our natural condition. But because we’ve taken on this body, and we’ve lost the plot and become absorbed in it, we try to fulfill that spiritual need through this body. But even when we have nice experiences, they don’t last, and they don’t completely fulfill us. So, when we just let go of things, just take a time out and rest your heart and rest your mind in these spiritual sound vibrations…