Brace yourselves, this is a long chunk of text, but these five verses are traditionally grouped together. These verses are straight fire, each word and phrase a gem with potential to transform our lives. That said, for this post I will be focusing on what I have bolded and underlined.
TEXTS 8-12: Humility; pridelessness; nonviolence; tolerance; simplicity; approaching a bona fide spiritual master; cleanliness; steadiness; self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification; absence of false ego; the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; detachment; freedom from entanglement with children, wife, home and the rest; even-mindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me; aspiring to live in a solitary place; detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization; and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth – all these I declare to be knowledge, and besides this whatever there may be is ignorance.
Everyone is searching for belonging - in fact, it is considered a human need.
Kendra Cherry writes, "The need to belong, also often referred to as belongingness, refers to a human emotional need to affiliate with and be accepted by members of a group" (verywellmind.com). Belongingness is essential to living a healthy life as a human being, and according to this definition, belonging has two aspects -
1) being affiliated with a group and
2) being accepted by members of that group.
How does one go about belonging with a group?
Identifying with a group.
If I'm affiliated with the National Association of Teachers of English (NATE), to be accepted by that group usually means that I AM a teacher of English to be accepted. I mean, I can't really think of a person who would belong to that organization who wasn't a teacher of English. Maybe an administrator? A fanboy/fangirl....?
I can identify with so many roles and experiences in this material world, from being a teacher of English and attending a NATE conference, being an overeater and attending Overeaters Anonymous, being a gurukuli and attending a Kulimela... our identities are pretty limitless.
But those identities are constantly changing. They're temporary.
Thus, our sense of belonging is changing. Our belonging is temporary.
Deep down, we all crave for an eternal belonging, a group of people to be affiliated with and accepted by that never changes. But if we want to belong in an eternal way, we must uncover our eternal identity.
The most clear cut translation of identity is ego. Contrary to popular understanding, ego is not negative (or positive). Ego simply means "identity."
Ego is often mistranslated to mean prideful, self-absorbed, and big-headed because that person has a false identity, or a false ego. Prabhupad writes that the preliminary understanding is that "False ego means accepting this body as oneself." This is the biggest mistake - my body is "me."
The image that comes to mind is of a self-absorbed body builder and I tend to think, "That man (or woman) has a big ego," But really what I mean is "That man is so absorbed in his (or her) body that he thinks that he IS his body and that is pretty distasteful." After all, there's something off-putting about seeing a man or woman strut his or her muscular body around with a smug look.
He or she knows that they're attractive and cool and strong - but all of those attributes belong to the body.
What about the self?
Is that body builder attractive and cool and strong on the inside? Maybe. Maybe not. We just don't know, because the body is not a reflection of true identity.
There is such a thing as a real ego. Prabhupad writes, "When one understands that he is not his body and is spirit soul, he comes to his real ego. Ego is there." This means that our true identity is a spirit soul - this is our real, authentic ego. This is the highest sense of self. Of course, "False ego is condemned, but not real ego." False ego is condemned because the body is matter that is always changing.
That same bodybuilder will get old and lose all attractiveness, coolness, and strength. This is no foundation upon which to build an authentic existence. Placing one's sense of self in the eternal spirit soul is the doorway to peace and freedom. In fact, "When the sense of self is applied to reality, that is real ego." Our reality is not this ever-changing body. Our reality is the spirit soul.
One may say that the solution to all ego is to just claim that we should have no ego at all and merge into nothingness. Prabhupad writes that "There are some philosophers who say we should give up our ego, but we cannot give up our ego, because ego means identity." If we attempt to give up our ego, this means we would have no identity, no sense of self.
But if we have no sense of self or identity, we cannot belong.
Belonging is a core human need, and one could argue is a core soul need. Belonging is a foundation for many other needs of the soul such as Significance, Connection/Love, and Contribution (resus.com.au). These are needs.
Needs are needs.
This means if they're not met in a healthy way, one will attempt to get them met in an unhealthy way - throwing tantrums (Significance), forcing others to follow my rules (Connection/Love), and others forced to follow harsh rules makes a Contribution.
Trying to get these needs met by identifying with the body only leads to frustration and heartbreak. On the other hand, meeting these needs by identifying with the soul leads to the love and contribution and belonging that we all hunger for.
Prabhupad emphasizes, "In the Vedic literature (Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.4.10) it is said, ahaṁ brahmāsmi: I am Brahman, I am spirit. This “I am,” the sense of self, also exists in the liberated stage of self-realization. This sense of “I am” is ego, but when the sense of “I am” is applied to this false body it is false ego." In this aphorism, aham means "I am" and that "I am" is eternal - as Prabhupad says here, this sense of self exists even in the liberated stage. When we shed this material body and return to God, we will still exist in spirit - aham brahmasmi. But this sense of identity applied to this body is so ephemeral, the identities ever-changing, rolling by like so many coats we put on and discard.
Ultimately, those souls in the spiritual world is the group to be affiliated with and accepted by. The spiritual world is a place where there is an eternal exchange of love, connection, growth, and contribution. That is where we eternally belong.
Full purport here: https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/13/8-12/
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