Unmasking Our Identity (The Dichotomy

Sri Ramakrishna

oi-Staff

By Super

Wednesday, April 4, 2012, 9:12

Our real identity is something positive. Our external identities are passing and deluding. They come into being with our birth and disappear with our death. To discover our real, unchanging identity, and not adding to our temporary identities, is the purpose of human life. This core identity is the source of all joy, knowledge and strength. Then what about all these identities that we develop and carry with us? Outlining the structure of human personality, says Swami Vivekananda,'This human being is composed first of this external covering, the body; second, the finer body, consisting of mind, intellect, and egoism. Behind them is the real Self of man. We have seen that all the qualities and powers of the gross body are borrowed from the mind; and the mind, the finer body, borrows its powers and luminosity from the soul, standing behind.'

All our assumed identities are thus related to 'external covering' and the 'finer covering'—like the outer cloak and under-garment. In other words, body-mind is the basis of all our identities. Of course these identities confer on us our distinct status, an individuality. But while this individuality has a functional importance, it is also the source of our sorrow and problems as well. All our struggles, competitions and heart-burns, our social and personal prestige are born of these identities. And we are

quite protective about our 'individuality'. Observes Swamiji:'Which state is my individuality? When I was a baby sprawling on the floor trying to swallow my thumb? Was that the individuality I should be sorry to lose? Fifty years hence I shall look upon this present state and laugh, just as I [now] look upon the baby state. Which of these individualities shall I keep?'

Does this rising above our individuality mean getting into a monoculture where there will be no differences, no distinctions? Far from it. The more we approach the centre, the more the radii meet. We must try to recognize the divine thread that runs through us all, and treat others as divine and not mere body-mind. This is how unity in diversity can be practised.

To Be Continued