The ABC of self interferences

 Question:   Why is it sometimes I find concentration on the Self so easy, and at other times hopelessly difficult?

 

Ramana Maharshi:   Because of vasanas. But really it is easy, since we are the Self. All we have to do is to remember that. If the will and desire to remember Self are strong enough, they will eventually overcome vasanas. We keep on forgetting it, and thus think we are this body, or this ego. There must be a great battle going on inwardly all the time until Self is realised. This battle is symbolically spoken of in scriptural writings as the fight between God and Satan. In our holy scriptures it is a Mahabharata war, where the asuras represent our bad thoughts and the devas our elevating ones.

 

The Hindus have a great expression to describe what is standing between us and the Higher Power. It isn’t always our conscious ego; it’s often our subconscious drives and inherent tendency that make us too self occupied to be consciously part of the Oneness that always prevails. The Hindus call that baggage that we carry around vasanas. Maybe the ABC of our self interference can be summed up as:

 

Agendas

Biases

Conditioning 

Drives 

 

That’s why facing the life that seems often beyond us is so priceless because we can notice the stuff that is slumbering in the depth of our being. Never mind the war of good and bad that is going on inside. It describes the grip our mind and our somatic drives still has over us. Never mind cravings, temptations and life’s ups and downs. It is designed to introduce us to the ABC of self interferences. The important realization is that we can always return to the essence at the center of our being. Life is designed to get us there.