Once upon a time there was a king who was famous for his charity. People said, "To hungry he gives food to scholars he gives rewards; to noblemen he gives titles and honours. In fact he is never tired of giving."
But he had already grown tired of giving. He thought, "all my life I have been giving alms and awards. Where is the end? Are the people really needy or they continue to come simply because I give? Don't I see the same faces coming to me again and again wearing a standard mask of gratitude?" He thought a lot and decided to stop the practice " If give I must, it should be only to those who are really needy. It is high time I know who are really needy and, to begin with, I must find out the poorest man in my kingdom, he decided. Accordingly he sent his minister to find out the poorest man.
A week later the minister returned and announced in the tone of a successful explorer. "My lord, not far from here, inside the forest, there is a small mountain. Top of that sits the poorest man of our land- a mendicant. He has no roof on his head, nothing on his body except a yard of bark; he lives on whatever fruits some wood-cutters care to leave beside him on their way home from the forest."
"Is there really such a man in my kingdom? I must see him," said the king and rode into the forest and then climbed the mountain and found out the mendicant sitting still, his eyes closed.
The king had to wait for a long time. When the mendicant opened his eyes, he said, "I am the king of this land. I am sad to see the miserable condition in which you are living. I want you to dress well; tell me, what kind of dress will you like? Dhoti or chapkan?" the mendicant smiled, but kept quite.
The king said again, I will like to build a house for you; tell me, what kind of house will you like to own?" The mendicant smiled again; yet he did not speak. A little later the king again said, "I will arrange to send some food for you everyday. Tell me your preference in matters of food. " the mendicant smiled but still kept mum.
The king began losing patience and cried out. "I appeal to you, do speak!"
Slowly but sweetly the mendicant said. "My dear king. You are mistaken I am not the poorest man. There is another man in the kingdom that is poorer than myself So far as I am concerned although I look poor. I am very rich, for I can change the earth into gold",
The king gaped with amazement for some time and asked. "Will you kindly tell me who is poorer than you? And will you kindly reveal to me the secret of transforming the earth into gold? The mendicant said, "To know these things you have to follow a certain discipline."
"I will follow, said the king enthusiastically.
"For full one year, everyday, you must come here once before the sunrise and once again before the sunset and spend some time with me, " said the mendicant.
"I will do so, " said the joyous king, bowing to the mendicant.
And he came there twice everyday without fail. The mendicant seldom uttered any work, but his charming smile always spoke of his affection for the king. He made the king sit down and meditate for some time. For the king the discipline was a bit awkward experience for the first few weeks. But soon he realised that it was a most welcome change from the dry or anxious hours of the court where he was always surrounded by diplomats and flatterers and discontent people. After a few months he grew so fond of his visits to the mendicant that he eagerly looked forward to the twilights.
The silence of the mountain, the sunrise and sunset which coloured the landscape, the breeze which embraced him with the message of freedom, the songs of the birds in the wood and above all the quiet yet overwhelming presence of the mendicant slowly made the king a different man. The little time he spent there everyday had its sure effect on the rest of his time and routine.
The king did not remember when a year passed. He even did not know when several years passed. At the end of the third year one day the mendicant suddenly asked the king, "well, it seems we have forgotten about the two things you wanted to know-about the man poorer than myself and about the secret of transforming the earth into gold. Would you not like to know about them?"
The king smiled and replied. "But haven't I known them already? I was the poorer man because I was anxious to possess more gold and I was begging to know the secret of changing the earth into gold. And secondly, I believe, by now I have known the secret of changing the earth into gold.
When I sit here and marvel at the splendour of nature all around at sunsets and sunrises when the colours of heaven are sprinkled on earth- at the diamond -fringed clouds - at all God's creation- all appear to me a thousand time more wonderful than gold”. The mendicant smiled and said. "You have got it- and that is because you have turned gold within."
LOWERSELF AND THE HIGHERSELF
According to Indian psycho-philosophy, the gold within referred to in the story lies in the cave of the heart. We may symbolise it with golden flame or the Higher-self. Its characteristics are given as follows:
1. Eternally perfect
2. Constantly blissful
3. Completely autonomous
4. Truth and light in itself
5. Identical with the higher self of all others.
When we say I, majority of the times we are not referring to the self-mentioned above. This reference to self in normal usage is toward the lower self through which we are connected to the exterior world. But when we refer to the self within or the interior world or the internal centrifugal force or source/within, we are referring to the Higher Self. Though, the higher and the lower self are very deeply connected, the awareness of this connection is lost in our day to day over involvement with the exterior world. While the lower self keeps jumping around, the higher self is watching silently.
According to Vivekananda:
‘ Religion is manifestation of divinity within you’. ‘Education is manifestation of perfection already in the man’.
Thus divinity and perfection are not external objects, but internal bliss achieved through religion and real education.
We may compare the Lower self and higher self as follows.
Thus as the lower self is deficit-driven, it is demanding. The behaviour coming from this state is the one that tries to grab and watch self-interest only. The Higher Self being poorna gracefully allows others to gain and remains bliss-full.
Where as self (lower) of each individual is different from that of the other, the Self (higher) in all is the same.
Naturally the qualities like team-spirit, collaboration, can in real sense be driven from the higher-self which is poorna and identical with the higher-self of all others and not the lower self which is deficit-driven and cannot see a common string in all human beings. Thus it can lead us to interpersonal conflicts only.
Thus the need is to withdrawn for a time being from the exterior world and to look within to establish a connection with this true higher Self.
Socrates declared: ‘Know thyself’.
We know ourselves, only in the extremely narrow sense of selfish desires and ambitions of our mento-physcial existence. At the most some of us reflect the dimension of social existence too. And it is this type of extremely limited knowing, which underlies all the issues of human in- effectiveness in organizations. The great problem seems to be our inability even to diagnose this as the key issue.
ILLUSTRATIONS
Let us try to understand the higher and the lower self and their inter-relation more clearly through these illustrations though they cannot fully signify the nature of higher self in real sense:
(a) When air is pumped into a bladder, the football becomes round and swollen. The air inside serves certain function for a while. But when it is deflated or punctured, the football loses its shape and the air in it returns to its original free state. It returns to its source. The air in all different types of shapes looks different but is actually the same air. On the same analogy the higher self of each one of us is identical and is a part of the same, all pervading divinity. Where as the lower self is one identified with this Body, Mind & intellect complex and which we normally call I and mine. Just like the air inside a ball or a tube looses connection with the air in the atmosphere and is seen as a ball or tube only, we start recognizing ourselves with the body, mind & intellect complex which are the exterior forms and which keep us involve in the exterior world. We forget the real nature i.e. the higher self within. Thus more the lower self remain anchored to or connected to the inner source or higher self, the more ethical will be the behaviour, and the personality. As we have already seen that the source of Values is within, that source is this higher self only, which in turn is a part or reflection of the all-pervading Divinity.
(b) Similarly a close friendship between a blind man and a lame one makes the two together a functional pair- the mobility of the blind guided by the sight of the lame. This metaphor is used to hint at the nature of the lower-self and higher-self combination in every individual. We can say, in each person there are two aspects: one, the active and mobile but insentient part of the being; the other the witness and still but sentient part of the being. The moment the blind stops listening to the lame he stands danger of misleading himself. In the same way if we stop paying attention to the higher self within, we start following the path of disaster. We call this higher self the Atman, which is a part of all pervading Bliss - the Paramatman.
These working implications of Yoga-Vedanta psychology underlie the mystic affirmation uttered by Christ:
‘O Lord! Let Thy will be done, not mine',
As Sri Aurobindo says:
By practice in concentrated silence, everyone can develop a kind of dual consciousness- the one engaged in surface-level activity, caught in obscurity and struggle; the other, behind, remaining calm and strong with effortless insight. After some sadhana the mobile but erring prakriti (lower-self) becomes subject to the guiding light and rectitude of the witness purusha (higher-self). Then the individual achieves ever more perfection as a worker. The revived poorna higher self directs the executive lower self to perform wholesomely.
Thus by listening to that higher Self within, we are in fact listening to the God. This paves the way for empowerment of our consciousness, from a higher source, which leads to us to perfection/ excellence. Thus, the whole of Indian civilization and society, her systems and structures were in principle and in practice aimed at ultimately helping each individual to ascend to the higher self. This was provided for by a constant and consistent weaving of the sacred into the secular, i.e. adding human values to the day-to-day activities. As Enrich Forman says:
We are aware of the existence of a Self, of a core in our personality which is unchangeable and which persists through out our life inspite of varying circumstances and regardless of certain changes and opinions and feelings. It is this core which is the reality behind the word 'I' or Self and on which our conviction of our own identity is based.
Here Forman’s 'I' corresponds to the Higher self of Indian philosophy and is referred to as unchanging core.
For the ultimate truth in man is not in his Intellect or in his material wealth: it is in his imagination of sympathy, in his illumination of heart, in his activities of self-sacrifice in his capacity of extending love far and wide across all barriers of caste and colour, in his realizing this world not as a storehouse of mechanical power but as a habitation of man's soul with its eternal music of beauty and its inner light of a divine presence.
RABINDRANATH TAGORE
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