The ego and desire to become God are the poison that hinders the soul

[dattaswami]

The ego and desire to become God are the poison that hinders the soul

 

219. Ahantaakaamau visham phalaaya tadarthamadvaitam.

 

Translation: The ego and desire to become God are the poison that hinders the soul becoming God through the human incarnation. The soul becomes God in the human incarnation only to fulfill the work of God and not to satisfy its ego and ambition.

 

Explanation: Neither the possibility of the above-explained monism nor the open chance for such monism to any soul is false. The twist that the soul is already God is for the sake of an atheist only. Such an atheist worships the Lord without true sincerity since he feels that the difference between the Lord and Himself is only relative and in the absolute plane, both the Lord and Himself are already one. Such defective worship is inevitable in the beginning because every beginning has to be associated with defects only as per the Gita (Sarvaarambhaahi doshena…). Such defects must be removed in course of time and the soul must feel that it is a part of the imaginable creation, whereas God is the Unimaginable Creator. The difference is eternal and hence, Dvaita or duality is the basic eternal truth. God grants the above explained monism when the soul gets a chance to become the human incarnation. The soul pervaded by God becomes God for all practical purposes and the monism is practically true. The duality in the human incarnation is only the theoretical truth. Before such a chance of human incarnation, duality is the practical truth and during the human incarnation, monism is the practical truth. Hence, both monism and duality are equally important and equally true in different contexts. In the same context of human incarnation, the monism is true in the view of devotee, whereas duality is true in the view of the liberated soul charged by God. This means simultaneously the liberated soul charged by God is treated as God by devotee, whereas the liberated soul charged by God treats Himself different from God. As long as the soul aspires to become God, it will never get this chance because this ambition is the greatest poison and sin. Once this ambition is totally eradicated from the soul during the long worship of the Lord, the soul deserves to become the human incarnation. The human incarnation is to fulfill the work of God and not to satisfy the ambition of the soul. Unless this ambition and ego are completely eradicated, the soul remains undeserving to become the human incarnation.