Ego: Chit-Jada-Granthi

Sri Ramana Maharshi

D: Conceding that the aham-vritti essentially comprises all the forms of the ego, why should that vritti alone be chosen as the means for Self-enquiry? 

M: Because it is the one irreducible datum of your experience; because seeking its source is the only practicable course you can adopt to realise the Self. The ego is said to have a causal body, but how can you make it the subject of your investigation? When the ego adopts that form, you are immersed in the darkness of sleep. 

D: But is not the ego in its subtle and causal forms too intangible to be tackled through the enquiry into the source of aham-vritti conducted while the mind is awake? 

M: No. The enquiry into the source of aham-vritti touches the very existence of the ego. Therefore the subtlety of the ego’s form is not a material consideration. 

D: While the one aim is to realise the unconditioned, pure Being of the Self, which is in no way dependent on the ego, how can enquiry pertaining to the ego in the form of aham-vritti be of any use?

M: From the functional point of view, the form, activity or whatever else you may call it (it is immaterial, since it is evanescent), the ego has one and only one characteristic. The ego functions as the knot between the Self which is Pure Consciousness and the physical body which is inert and insentient. The ego is therefore called the chit-jada granthi. In your investigation into the source of aham-vritti, you take the essential chit aspect of the ego; and for this reason the enquiry must lead to the realization of the pure consciousness of the Self. 

D: What is the relation between the pure consciousness realised by the jnani and the ‘I-am’-ness which is accepted as the primary datum of experience? 

M: The undifferentiated consciousness of Pure Being is the heart or hridayam which you really are, as signified by the word itself (hrit + ayam = heart am I). From the heart arises the ‘I-am’-ness as the primary datum of one’s experience. By itself it is suddha-sattva in character. It is in this suddha-sattva svarupa (that is, uncontaminated by rajas and tamas), that the ‘I’ appears to subsist in the jnani...

D: In the jnani the ego subsists in the sattvic form and therefore it appears as something real. Am I right? 

M: No. The existence of the ego in any form, either in the jnani or ajnani is itself an appearance. But to the ajnani who is deluded into thinking that the waking state and the world are real, the ego also appears to be real. Since he sees the jnani act like other individuals, he feels constrained to posit some notion of individuality with reference to the jnani also.