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Mortal Fear 21
We’re talking about breaking the bondage of all mortal shackles— the ineffable treasure of attaining a higher consciousness which merges into the timeless and eternal to become one with the creative force of the universe. We’re talking about the possibility of realizing our own divinity. To understand this, let’s look more deeply into the nature of ego.
BIRTH OF EGO
Sai Baba, voicing the insight of many of the world’s religions, has said that all of creation is based upon the delusion that there are a multiplicity of separate and discrete entities in the universe, when there is actually only one. This is the delusion of duality—referred to as maya in Hindu scriptures. According to Sai Baba, this is such a necessary part of the drama we perceive as reality that it was actually the first principle God created. Ego, our mental construct of being distinct and special, is an aspect of this delusion, manifesting through the mind. The sense of a separate identity is the very basis of the ego’s existence. To conceive of anything else, of no-mind, threatens its integrity. We are faced with the threat of dissolution of all that we trust in for our sense of safety, security and certainty.
The ego is a grand mystery. Although spiritual systems see it as an obstacle to transcendence after a certain stage of psychological development, on close examination one must, at the same time, appreciate it as one of evolution’s greatest achievements. We may gain greater respect for this powerful delusion, and the strength with which we hold to it, by appreciating its origin and the nature of the struggle in which it was born. For the power that created the ego and which maintains its integrity in the face of all obstacles is the same awesome power, which created the cosmos.
Scriptures tell of a monumental moment when divine will created duality. In an instant, birth and death, right and wrong, pleasure and pain, separate shape and form manifested. Out of this primordial eruption was born the powerful process of differentiation and individuation—a process fired with an intensity great enough to prevail against the awesome destructive forces of the cosmos.
The ego’s relentless drive to evolve, differentiate and master is an outgrowth of the fundamental process of life itself—life screaming and struggling to separate itself from the primordial slime. How