THE DEATH OF THE INDIVIDUAL EGO

The sleepless ones were also described as egoless. The Sanskrit term for ego is ahamkara, “I do” or “I am the doer.” This “doing” includes not only the action of the body, but also the action of the mind.

As long as the soul identifies with the activity of the human mind and body, it conceives itself as the thinker and doer. The thoughts of the mind are conceived as my thoughts and the actions of the body are conceived as my actions. According to the seers, all such notions of me and mine are manifestations of the individual ego, which binds the soul to the individual mind and body through a process of identification.

In order for the thoughtless state to become permanent, the soul’s identification must shift. Rather than being identified with the human body and mind, which perform the process of thinking and doing, the soul must become identified with the field of pure consciousness, which is devoid of all thinking and doing. The permanent realization of the thoughtless state results in the death of the individual ego. Such souls no longer conceive the thoughts of the mind as my thoughts or the actions of the body as my actions. The egoless soul remains an uninvolved witness to the thoughts of the mind and the actions of the body, as though all thoughts and actions were carried out by an unseen hand—without any involvement on the part of the soul.

In the Vedic tradition, this was described as the desireless state of renunciation. Because it is established in the actionless state of pure consciousness, the soul has no desire to participate in the world from which it has become alienated. Effectively, it has renounced the world. The mind and body continue to participate in the world, but they do so completely on their own.

The ancients held that to become spiritually enlightened, first the individual ego must die—we must die to this world before we can be reborn in the other world. This means not that the physical body must die, but that the individual ego, which binds the soul to this world by means of desire, must die. The death of the individual ego is accomplished by the repeated experience of the state of pure consciousness in which all thoughts and desires are transcended. By repeated experience, the soul realizes that state eventually as its own eternal self. This realization, which happens in an instant, results immediately in the death of the individual ego. From that point forward, the soul becomes devoid of individual ego and all the desires associated with it; it simultaneously becomes egoless and sleepless.