The practice of Self Inquiry is recommended as a practical approach to Self Realization. However, to the seeker, although it may seem as a simple practical method, it presents many doubts and difficulties. When one starts out on the journey of discovery of one's own self, the biggest obstacle is the conditioned mentality that the self is something other than "I' or "me"(this mind-body entity which we call "I"). Is the self to be explored as we would any objective thing? Is the self something other than the one who is exploring? In that case, who is the one exploring the self? What exactly is the meaning of inquiry into the self? When I say, "I" does it denote the self or the ego?
To understand, it would be appropriate to use the well known story of the Snake and the Rope. For those of you who are wondering what the story is all about, we will have a brief version of the story presented here. There are perhaps many versions of the story but hopefully this serves the purpose.
The Snake and the Rope Story: In ancient India, a peasant after having finished his work in the fields was heading back home. The walk back home was through the fields. There was just one narrow path back home and no other path available. It was late in the evening and the sun had set leaving just enough light in the sky to barely be able to make out the path ahead. As this tired peasant was walking along the path, he noticed something in his path ahead. It was coiled up object on the ground. He immediately panicked thinking it is a poisonous snake and started running in the opposite direction. Another man was also walking along the same path a few hundred feet behind the peasant. He had an oil lamp in hand to guide him along the path as it was fairly dark by now. He saw the peasant running towards him and asked him the reason for his panic. When the peasant explained to him that there was a snake lying curled up right in the middle of the path, the man with the lamp calmed him down and suggested they take a closer look at the object on the ground before deciding what to do next. The peasant readily agreed to this suggestion. They decided to take a wooden stick along with them just to be safe. and they both headed back down the path to the spot where the coiled up object was on the ground. They approached it very carefully holding the lamp up front for better visibility. As the lamp cast its light on the object, it became obvious that it was just a coiled up piece of rope. There was actually no snake and the peasant had obviously mistaken the rope for a snake in the dim light of dusk. Feeling foolish at his false assumption, the peasant thanked the man with the lamp and they both headed along the path.
The ego is none other than the self. The self is the only reality and there is none other than the self. In non-duality, there is no place for duality. Consciousness comes into existence only by grasping a form . It can flourish only by grasping to a form or body. The consciousness (chit) when aware of the body attaches itself to the body and creates the notion of the first person "I am this body". This notion of being a person, or first person, is the ego. As Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi says, "the ego is the knot (granthi)that binds the consciousness (chit) to the non-conscious(jada -the body)". Hence, the ego is none other than the consciousness attached to the body and thoughts(mind)-the adjuncts.
The ego is like the snake in the rope. The rope is the reality and the snake is the appearance (on the substratum of the rope). When looked for carefully, the ego disappears, just like the snake disappears when looked for in the rope.The snake like the ego is a delusion, an imagination, which does not really exist other than as a thought. Whereas the rope is like the self, the reality, on which the appearance of the snake has come about. The ego cannot be without the self. The self however IS, regardless of the ego being present or absent. Without the rope there is no question of a mistaken appearance of the snake.
When inquiring "who am I?", the attentiveness should be directed ONLY to the "I" portion of the "I am so and so" or "I am the body". It does not matter whether the seeker is thinking this "I" is the self or the ego. As noted above, the ego and the self are the one and the same. If inquiring into the "I" as the ego, then one is inquiring as to where the "I" came from. When one is inquiring into the "I" as the self, then one is inquiring into the nature of the "I", since the self does not have a source and does not arise from somewhere. Self inquiry is none other than self-attentiveness. Self attentiveness is none other than attentiveness to our very being. And being is itself none other than attention or consciousness or awareness of existence (sat-chit)
It is now obvious that the aim of practice of Self-Inquiry is to gradually destroy this false notion of being some body and to repeatedly bring our attention back to who we really, really, are i.e. just this being. With repeated and constant practice, one does not fall prey to the delusion of being so and so. The delusion continues as long as the inquiry is done with an impure mind (just like the snake appears only in the dim light). However, when looked at in the presence of a pure mind, the light of the lamp (Knowledge) destroys the false appearance of a snake (Ignorance) and thereby exposes the rope (Reality).
