Letter # 91: "Me And Mine"

About 2,000 years ago, Jesus said, “Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” [Luke 17:33]. Is it easy to give up body and mind? And what are body and mind anyway?
About 5,000 years ago, the sage Vyasa documented the Vedas, which are spiritual texts. The writings therein offer deep insights into body, mind and spirit. Here’s a conversation based on the Vedic concepts of Jnana Yoga - the yoga of "neti neti", "not this-not that" [see also Logic Of Neti-Neti. Letter # 58]. The dialogue is between a questioner and Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981) of India. The discussion challenges our usual notions of the body and the sense of “I”.
Questioner: I am very attached to my family and possessions. How can I conquer this attachment?
Nisargadatta Maharaj: This attachment is born along with the sense of ‘me’ and ‘mine’. Find the true meaning of these words and you will be free of all bondage. You have a mind which is spread (out) in time. One after another, (as) all things happen to you, the memory remains. There is nothing wrong in it. The problem arises only when the memory of past pains and pleasures – which are essential to all organic life – remains as a reflex, dominating behaviour. This reflex takes the shape of “I” and uses the body and mind for its purposes, which are invariablty in search for pleasure or in flight from pain. When you recognize the “I” as it is, a bundle of desires and fears, and the sense of ‘mine’, as embracing all things and people needed for the purpose of avoiding pain and securing pleasure, you will see that the ‘I’ and the ‘mine’ are false ideas., having no foundation in reality. Created by the mind, they rule their creator as long as it takes them to be true; when questioned, they dissolve.
The ‘I’ and ‘mine’, having no existence in themselves, need a support which they find in the body. The body becomes their point of reference. When you talk of ‘my husband’ and ‘my children’, you mean the body’s husband and the body’s children. Give up the idea of being the body and face the question ‘Who am I?’. At once a process will be set in motion which will bring back reality, or rather, will take the mind to reality. Only, you must not be afraid.
Q: What am I to be afraid of?
M: For reality to be, the ideas of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ must go. They will go if you let them. Then your normal, natural state reappears in which your are neither the body nor the mind, neither the ‘me’ nor the ‘mine’, but in a different state of being altogether. It is pure awareness of being, without being this or that, without any self-identification with anything in particular, or in general. In that pure light of consciousness there is nothing, not even the idea of nothing. There is only light.” [I am That P386-7].
Being privy to such conversations is mind expanding. Guru Nanak sings: “Sadh kai sang(i) drirai sabh dharam; Sadh kai sang(i) keval Parbrahm,” which is rendered into English as “By association of the saints, man realizes the essence of all religions; By association of the saints, man sees only the Supreme everywhere.” [SS Asht 7. P 77].

God Bless; Allah Hu Akbar; May The Forces Of The Universe Bring You Harmony; Hare Krishna; Radha-Swami; and Nanak Naam Chardi Kala Tere Bhane Sarbat Dha Bhalla.

I wish to express my gratitude for your comments, which inspire me to carry on writing. Please forgive my fallibilities in presenting this material. Also, feel free to send this message on to someone that you might think would like to receive it. If you do send it on, my only request of you is that you send it as it is, in its entirety, and to not alter or modify any of the text, references or authorship information. Thus you will help to give credit or liability to where they are properly due.
Jas Bhopal
Copyright© 2008
References: "The Holy Bible" Online version; "The Koran" as translated by SV Mir Ahmed Ali 2005 ISBN 0-9761870-0-0); "The Bhagavad Gita As it Is" as translated by Srila Prabhupada ISBN 0-89213-268-X; The Srimad Bhagavatum as translated by Srila Prabhupada ISBN0-89213-259-0; "I Am That. Talks With Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj” ISBN 0-89386-022-0; The Dhammapada ISBN-10:1-84483-344-5; The Sacred Sukhmani ISBN 81-7205-098-4; Wikipedia.