The identity crisis

Week 18, chapter 6, (shlokas 4- 10)

Tells Krishna- the being when he gets enlightened with self-knowledge becomes indifferent to pleasures and sorrows…or with the outcome of any indulgences.

Asks Arjuna—And who gives such a state to a yogi? On this, Krishna laughs and says, since the illusion of duality is broken, then who can give to whom? When the spell of illusion is broken and a being comes out of his ignorance, becomes aware of his ‘reality’, and overcomes the ongoing dream of life and death. Now he knows that he is eternal, and gradually becomes more and more aware of his eternal life. The pride related to the body—the more is given up by a yogi, the better he carves his own destiny towards his spiritual well-being (kalyan).

Krishna here talks about the lost sense of identity—the identity crisis. That identifying with the physical body and ego related to it is like blindness that deprives one of enjoying the bliss of their own ‘reality’. The misconception about ‘self’, the unfortunate, illusory ideas related to one’s own sense of identity drives one towards the concept of death and destruction (Even then, his reality remains with him though he is disconnected with it).

So, if consciously one may give up ego, he will embrace a greater sense of identity that is, his eternal self. The more the ego—the greater is the illusion such that the being becomes his own enemy.

When the being is liberated from the entanglement of ‘sankalp’ and ‘vikalp’ (sankalp- resolution or a vow; vikalp- choices, if not this then that), the divinity of a being is attained/affirmed. When the vessel is broken, the space within and outside the vessel merges into one; and when the ego/identification with the physical body is dissolved, the being becomes rooted in the formless eternal spirit and becomes ‘that’ (the drop when dissolves in the ocean become the ocean itself). The sense of heat and cold, pleasure or sorrow, honour or insult doesn’t create any reaction/thought in such a being. The illusion of someone being an enemy or a friend, someone being small or big disappears as he attains his own reality, he experiences oneness with every being… the sight of such a being is equivalent to visiting a pilgrimage—calming and disillusioning. His words become dharma (righteousness), his sight evokes siddhi (miraculous power) and the pleasures of heaven -his play. Even the remembrance of such a being speaks of his enlightenment. The never-setting sun of pure knowledge illuminates his heart, and so, he is always full of joy. And like this Shri Krishna praises and endorse true yogis, sages, and enlightened beings saying the qualities of such enlightened beings are beyond measures.

(saying this, Krishna deliberately closes the description of enlightened beings, so as to divert Arjuna’s attention—why? narrates Gyaneshwara next)