The medulla is the centre of ego, and the medulla is the path from where divine energy enters us. I want an explanation of it. When the ego dissolves and we enter superconsciousness, how is it that the medulla works for both cases?
—saloni gulati, India
Dear Saloni,
It is not the divine energy entering into us, it is that we are divine energy and we choose to enter human form compelled by past desires. When we enter superconsciousness the ego simply expands beyond the body and its limitations, even if but temporarily, until such time as we enter nirbikalpa samadhi.
Spirit becomes the creation and in the process of becoming differentiates into countless forms. These forms, including the human form, must, by necessity include the quality of the consciousness of separateness, individuality. With this we are each uniquely endowed, even as we are, at the same time, sparks of the Infinite Consciousness.
We incarnate into human form by the compulsions of unfulfilled desires (and fears). The Spirit has become separate through the countless choices our souls have made using the freedom of will and choice which are innate qualities of our soul to become and remain separate from God.
The medulla oblongata is the seat of ego because ego (“the soul identified with the body and personality”) is the root of our separateness. A doctor cannot operate on the medulla without causing instant death because the medulla is the incarnated essence of our self-identity and reason for incarnating.
Other aspects of our karmic matrix (software) reside in and along the subtle cerebro-spinal axis known as the chakras. But these are attributes added unto the the ego and thus are secondary.
To retrace our steps to our home in Infinity, we must, step by step, release the seeds of karma which reside along the spine until we come to and return to the medulla — the seat of ego — the last “frontier” — the last delusion — the last great spiritual test: surrendering the ego back into God. In this nothing is lost and Infinity itself is gained. No dimunition of self occurs because in Infinity resides all past, present and future. Our past lives, e.g., remain; only our identification with those lives and the ego as the doer of all actions is released!
In the Mahabharata, Bhishma represents ego. Bhishma was given the boon that he could not be killed or die without his willingness to do so. Thus on the battlefield of Kurukshetra he gives his famous speech on leadership (kingship) as he is filled with arrows from the battle such that his body does not touch the ground. But only when he wills it to be so will he die. This is our ego: only the ego can willingly surrender itself into what only appears to be extinction but in fact is eternal salvation.
Thus the medulla — the ego — is both the beginning and the end of our separateness. We enter the body through the doorway (the compulsion) of ego desires and we when we achieve samadhi the ego moves forward and up to the point between the eyebrows: the doorway to enlightenment.
I hope this is helpful to you,
Nayaswami Hriman
Seattle WA USA
