“Rascal” (Bengali, śālā) was Sri Ramakrishna’s favorite word whenever he admonished someone or when he spoke about the deleterious role of the ego in keeping us bound to the material world.
The ego—or the “I” sense—arises when the Ātman identifies itself with the body and the mind, and begins to see them as “me.” Other than my body and mind, everything else becomes “not me”—and all of this “not me” is what we generally think of as “the world.”
All experiences in the world need the ego. Without the ego, there is no world as we know it. The ego seems to disappear in deep sleep, and there is no experience of the world in that state. The deep sleep experience is always restful and always free from sorrow of any kind. But the freedom from sorrow in deep sleep is short-lived. When we wake up, we are back to where we were.
When we are awake or when we are dreaming, our experiences are mixed. They are a medley of joy (sukha) and sorrow (duḥkha), and we go back and forth between them. But on closer look, we discover that our embodied existence is really one filled with only suffering (as the Buddha discovered) and hence “joyless” (asukham, as Krishna described it in the Gita, 9. 33). Sure, there are solutions aplenty to alleviate sorrow and suffering. Medications do it, therapy does it, empathy and kind words do it—but all of these are only temporary solutions.
The only permanent solution to the problem of existential suffering is to get rid of the ego once and for all. Good luck doing that!—as it is easier said than done. No matter how much we try to be free from the shackles of the ego, it just seems beyond impossible. Since it is so tough to get rid of it, Sri Ramakrishna’s practical advice was: “Let the rascal be God’s servant” (Gospel, 105).
When my “I” becomes a “servant I” to God the master, my situation changes dramatically. God as master is different from the masters we are familiar with in the world. While worldly masters take away our freedom and foster an environment that promotes servitude, God as the master helps us become more free, more pure, and more strong. The love that brings me and God together, when it reaches its fulfillment eventually, blurs the servant-master relationship and blossoms into the experience of oneness. My “servant I” then remains neither a servant nor the “I.” I become what I always was, what I always am, what I always will be. The real me without the “I.”
There is immense benefit in having God as the divine master (prabhu) or a divine ruler (īśvara). As Gita (9. 17-18) tells us, God is, after all, our eternal father (pitā), mother (mātā), sustainer (dhātā), supporter (bhartā), witness (sākṣī), and goal (gati). Surrendering to God is the best way to be free from the puny ego. The relationship between God as the master and me as the servant protects me from every danger. A story illustrates this marvelously:
A cow went out to graze in the jungle. Suddenly she noticed a lion racing towards her. She turned and fled, fearing that at any moment the lion would sink his claws into her. She desperately looked for some place to escape and at last saw a shallow pond. Barely evading the lion’s reach, the cow jumped into the pond, and in the heat of the chase, the lion blindly leaped after her.
To the surprise of them both, the pond was extremely shallow yet filled with deep recesses of mud. After toppling over each other, the cow and the lion found themselves a short distance apart, stuck in the mud. Both had their heads above water but were unable to free themselves, no matter how much they tried.
The lion repeatedly growled at the cow and said, “I am going to enjoy the sound of crunching your bones between my teeth!” He kept furiously trying to free himself, but soon became fretful as he found no prospect of escape.
The cow thoughtfully smiled as she saw the lion struggle, and asked him, “Do you have a master?”
The lion disdainfully replied, “I am the king of the jungle. How ridiculous to ask me if I have a master! I am the master myself of everything here.”
The cow said, “You may be the king of the jungle, but at this moment you are powerless and unable to save your life.”
“Ha! And what about you?” the lion snapped back. “You are going to die here in this mud too!”
The cow smiled again and said, “No, I don’t think so.”
“If I, the king of the jungle, cannot free myself from this mud,” the lion said, “then how can you, a weak and ordinary cow?”
The cow gently replied, “I cannot free myself from this mud, it is true. But I have a master. When the sun sets and he finds I haven’t returned home, he will come looking for me. When he finds me, he will rescue me and escort me home.”
The lion fell silent and coldly glared at the cow.
Soon enough, the sun set, and the cow’s master arrived. He immediately recognized the plight the cow was in and lifted her to safety. As they walked home, the cow and her master both felt renewed gratitude for one another and pitied the lion they both would have been happy to save if only the lion had allowed them.
The cow represents a surrendered heart (the servant “I”), the lion represents an egoistic mind, and the master represents the Guru or God. The mud represents the world, and the chase represents the struggle for existence and survival.
No matter how many troubles appear to be created by the egoistic minds of the world, who are themselves as stuck as the surrendered heart, the surrendered heart has faith that God is always going to come at the right time to save her and take her back home. The inner self, the true self—not the ego—is our real home.
When totally stuck and helpless, when everything possible has been done and yet there is no way out, when every other effort fails, the surrendered heart still does not give up hope. She will just wait patiently until sundown.
The devotee whose “I” is surrendered at the feet of God has a heart that is filled with faith, hope and love which are inexhaustible. God always comes to the rescue of a devotee, fulfilling the promise in the Gita (9. 31):
कौन्तेय प्रतिजानीहि न मे भक्त: प्रणश्यति ।
Kaunteya pratijanīhi na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati.
“O Arjuna, know it for certain that my devotee is never destroyed.”