Code Name God.

cng book

Yes, it is the title of a book and not something that I wanted to expound on.

My cousin Damodaran was browsing books in a local lending library when he came across this book, was intrigued by the blurbs “This book may change your life” – Sydney Sheldon; and “The author’s personal odyssey… in an attempt ot find common ground between Eastern spirituality and Western science is eloquently told and makes for fascintaing reading.” – Fritjof Capra, author of The Tao Of Physics. He borrowed it from the library, returned it after reading and decided to buy a copy for himself to keep as a source book and a few more copies to be distributed among his friends. After he had done all that, knowing my interest in Buddhism and Vedanta as well as my involvement with Vipassana for over three decades, he ordered me as he is wont to, to get myself a copy which I promptly did and have just finished reading it.

I can safely say that I finished ‘reading’ the first half of the book but for the second half of the book, I should really be using the word ‘studying’ instead. The second half is when the author gets away from the background story of his rags to riches story to how he gets on a journey of spiritual enquiry and how he reconciles his background as a Scientist with Eastern mysticism and meditation.

There is really nothing new in what he writes as Capra has written extensively on the subject and I have read all the latter’s books, but how he writes is where the book scores. It is easy to read and understand even for a non scientist and the examples he gives lead one to understand the complexities of quantum physics and that makes all the difference.

I recommend this book to people who are interested in exploring how Physicists are now validating the findings and experiences of Eastern mystics without access to sophisticated equipment like colliders. It is also a fascinating story of the journey of a poor farmer’s son from penury to riches, despair with materialism and eventual happiness through spiritualism.

Ego.

I hope that you enjoy reading this post on the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where ten of us write on the same topic. Today’s topic has been chosen by Conrad The Old Fossil. The nine other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Maxi, Maria SF, Padmum, Paul, Rohit, Shackman, The Old Fossil and Will. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too!

Ego

I have a sneaking suspicion that TOF is planning on becoming a Swami. Otherwise why would he choose this topic?

The word ego is now used mostly in a negative way to denote something not quite nice to have. I try not to.

Ego is defined as follows by the Free online dictionary.

1. the self of an individual person; the conscious subject
2. (Psychoanalysis) the conscious mind, based on perception of the environment from birth onwards: responsible for modifying the antisocial instincts of the id and itself modified by the conscience (superego)
3. one’s image of oneself; morale to boost one’s ego
4. egotism; conceit.

These are all valid and are used in various contexts in the physical realm, and the word is more often misused in the spiritual tradition where the word ego is used instead of Ahankara which is the correct Sanskrit word for that part of the personality which is responsible for the sense of I, Me, Mine etc and also for the sense of doership.

In the Advaita system, Ahankara is actually the state of ignorance of one’s true self. Let me explain.

Logically, the body, mind and intellect are all objects that the subject “I” can objectify. Similarly the Ahankara is also objectified by the self, and the quest is to identify and abide in the self that is the I, and leave the mind-body-intellect-ego complex to perform its functions assigned for it during this life.

In that abidance, which is called consciousness,  ego is simply another object, ie a non reality and therefore not worth praising or condemning.

Carl Jung was among those early seekers to answers for questions of the psyche from the Eastern traditions, who identified as the I as being consciousness and also famously propagated the idea of collective consciousness, which is the concept of Atma and Paramatma which is the Witness to the Ego’s manipulations.

Oddly enough the more scientists delve into the physical matter, the more they are becoming aware that there is no matter and are beginning to look for answers in the spiritual and holistic sense.

For those who are interested to explore this further, a good source will be Fritjof Capra and Carl Jung.