Precondition for Offering the Ego into the Divine Consciousness

When we think about dissolving the ego and offering ourselves to the Divine, we do not often consider the details involved and the difficulties attendant on that process. What is it we are offering? How are we accomplishing that offering? What does the offering look like in terms of its practical implications in our lives? Does it change the way we think, feel, respond?

It is one thing to carry an idea around that we are devotees and we are offering to the Divine. Yet, it is quite another thing to truly be able to accomplish this. One of the issues that arises is raised by the Mother, when she points out that as long as we are a mass of reflexes, manipulated responses, and an amalgam of any number of influences, we do not have the ability or the control of ourselves needed to truly make such an offering.

The separation of the witness consciousness, the Purusha, from the external active nature, Prakriti, provides leverage for a disinterested observation of the nature. This opens the door to a review of the influences that actually make up what we know as our external nature and personality. If we are not aware of these influences, how can we realistically say that we are making our own independent decisions? How can we appreciate whether the offering we would like to make is on the surface only, hiding deeper influences that actually strengthen and enhance the ego and fulfill the cravings of the desire soul?

The Mother notes: “First one must become a conscious, well-knit individualised being, who exists in himself, by himself, independently of all his surroundings, who can hear anything, read anything, see anything without changing. He receives from outside only what he wants to receive; he automatically refuses all that is not in conformity with his plan and nothing can leave an imprint on him unless he agrees to receive the imprint. Then one begins to become an individuality! When one is an individuality, one can make an offering of it.”

“For, unless one possesses something, one cannot give it. First, one must be, and then afterwards one can give oneself.”

“So long as one does not exist, one can give nothing. And for the separative ego to disappear, as you say, one must be able to give oneself entirely, totally without reservation. And to be able to give oneself, one must first exist. And to exist one must be individualised.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 3, Becoming an Individual, pp. 109-110