The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita : Ch-7. Part-2.

7: The Art of Meditation : 2.


What is the higher Self, we may be wondering, whose law we have to abide by and whose law we have not to contradict? The higher Self is not some different thing; it is not another person. It is a larger degree of our own personality. It is a wider dimension of what we are in our own selves. It is, to give an example, an adult in comparison with a small baby. Very crudely, in a physical sense, we may say the mature mind and consciousness of a wise adult is the higher self of the baby that knows nothing.


But the higher Self here is used in a more significant manner than this analogy would indicate. It is a qualitatively more intense consciousness and a quantitatively larger dimension at the same time. We may also give an example of waking and dream, to make the matter clear. The waking consciousness may be regarded as the higher Self in comparison with the consciousness of the dream subject, which can be regarded as the lower self in comparison with the waking, because the waking consciousness comprehends all that is in dream and determines all the values that go as realities in dream. We should regard that as the higher Self which exceeds the limits of our present personality.

The more unselfish we become, the more we are tending towards the higher Self; and meditation is nothing but the focusing of the consciousness of the lower self in the direction of this higher Self or, we may say, the intention of the selfish individual to become more unselfish in various ways. There are hundreds and hundreds of ways of becoming unselfish, and we know very well what it means. To regard the values which exceed the limits of our physical personality would be a tendency towards unselfishness. But we cling to this body and consider only the physical values of this body as the be-all and end-all of this life. To disregard the lives of others would be a life of selfishness. A person who has a consideration for values which are outside of and transcending his own individual self would be regarded as an unselfish individual.

Swami Krishnananda

To be continued  ....