Hidden Treasure Series - Part VI- On ‘Self’

My dear friends and friends-of-(y)our friends,

Today, without much ado, we get to the ‘meat’ of the understanding of the true meaning of ‘self’ which bothers many of us, isn’t it?

Ravi: A cheerful Friday evening to you Shri. GRK. Tell me, Does the word ‘self’ mean our name, our caste, our sex, our age and our religion?

GRK: Yes, it means all these. And, much more. Self means ‘i’, our identify, our self-consciousness. “I am so and so, my level is this and my status is this” etc. For those, self means status and the level.

Ravi:  Is ‘self’ not an image of oneself?

GRK: We can safely say that ‘Self’ in other words means an ‘image of oneself’ or in other words, you see yourself in a disassociated state.

Ravi: And what the ‘self’ does to an individual if not understood properly?

GRK: Self means attachment to certain things. It is a divisive force. It divides ‘i’ from the rest. It leads to choice making. It is subjectivity leading to angles in one’s perceptions. Thus it leads to contradictions, as self-versus others. In understanding, it colors, nay blocks our understanding. Self is ego, it is pride, it is estimating of on self, often self-conscious estimate. Thus it leads to conflict with on self, with others, the surrounding reality and with the whole nature itself. Hence, ‘self’ leads to sorrow-contradiction-conflict-agony and peace-less-ness. 

Ravi: And what’s the way out of this ‘self’ consuming pride in mankind?

GRK: The possible way for peace or joy or happiness is to be aware of the self, to sublimate the self, to raise above the self, to forget the self, nay, to erase the ‘self’ itself. Where there is no ‘self’ there is no contradiction and no conflict -no colored perception and no understanding based on choice.

Ravi: In short, as regards ‘self’, we becoming the ‘subject’ to ourselves is FAR better than we becoming the subject(s) to others! Anyway for your information, have stopped using CAPITAL ‘I’. Instead using ‘i’. Not just symbolical.

GRK:  That’s the progress man(kind) develops. See you soon!

Ravi: Thank you for these awesome walk-talk sessions with me. Shall always cherish these sessions with you and right now FEELING manifold ‘joy’ as these ‘pearls of wisdom’ are being ‘shared’ with our brethren on ‘Mother Earth’

Allow me to end with a quote by Robert Louis Stevenson:

“In every part and corner of our life, to lose oneself is to be the gainer; to forget oneself is to be happy”. 

Kind Regards

G&W Ravi