Can japa (meditative chanting), yoga and bhakti (devotional worship) free me from the ego (ahankar)?
Will the Ego Go, Through Chanting and Renouncing?
Questioner: Should we do meditative chanting (japa), yoga, devotional worship (bhakti) or what should we do to bring an end to the ego?
Dadashri: Meditative chanting, yoga, all increase the ego. Out of these, only bhakti does not increase egoism; it actually reduces egoism.
Questioner: Can bhakti bring the ego under control?
Dadashri: Through bhakti, the ego can be reduced. But if you stop doing bhakti, the ego will increase again. It decreases and increases. But if 'one' really has the awareness of, 'Who am I?', when he comes to know that, the egoism will end, provided that he knows it exactly. You cannot say that one knows this. To know it, would mean that it has to be effective (asakarak).
Questioner: Are you saying, that doing these things, is egoism, and that if we want to get rid of the egoism, we should stop doing it?
Dadashri: But who is this that is speaking? The egoism itself is saying 'I want to get rid of egoism.' Now tell me, is it going to die on its own? Will it take poison by itself? So it is the poison itself that says, 'I want to get rid of the egoism.' Doesn't it seem like a big contradiction?
Questioner: So can a human being ever become free of egoism?
Dadashri: If one cannot become free of egoism, then liberation (moksha) can never be there. There is not a single drop of egoism in me; it is one hundred percent not there. Where there is no percent of intellect (buddhi), there is no percent of egoism (ahankar) there.
Questioner: Is it not egoism to say, 'I do not have any egoism'?
Dadashri: That is what you need to understand. Who is this speaking, do you know? This is the "original tape record" that is talking.
Questioner: That is fine, but how can we become free from egoism; isn't that the problem?
Dadashri: To become that, you need to go to someone who is devoid of egoism, and you will find the way. And after you come into your own Self (swaroop), you will become devoid of egoism. Tell the person whose ego has dissolved, 'Help me please.' Just as you would ask a doctor somewhere, 'Doctor, there's something wrong with my health, please help me.' The only difference would be, that there you would have to pay a fee, but here there is no fee. If you ask for help, he will help you immediately. Therefore, if there is no path that would end egoism, then egoism would never arise. In this world, whatever takes birth, certainly has a death, but people do not find the way. No the egoism may be emptied, but where does that happen? The answer is, that you need to go to someone who has become devoid of egoism, and ask him for the grace that would allow you to get rid of your egoism, and it would happen. Otherwise, if you go to someone whose egoism still remains, how will he be able to remove his own egoism?
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