Desire is the urge to acquire something that will make the "I" experience pleasure.  Desire uses the experience of pleasure to traverse a path.  So assume that the mind knows that Moksham is to be attained but the path to be traversed is long, is full of pain and success is not assured. The desire to traverse the path will be weak and and may not be able to sustain the mind in pursuance of the effort. 

Pleasure is an illusion in the mind.  The sensation of pleasure can be physical, emotional or the experience of success and the experience of dominance over other beings.  To experience the pleasure of dominance,  the mind needs the EGO.  

The mind left to itself, will lose confidence in itself.  Its "spirit" needs to be kept up by intermittently subjecting the mind to the experience of pleasure, dominance, and most importantly "success". 

The ability to extract the pleasure and the sense of success requires the mind to associate these sensations with its own "superiority".  This perception of 'superiority' of the self is what is responsible for the experiencing of pleasure. 

Because the "I" is an illusion, and is a creature that lives in ignorance of the self,  it needs to be kept alive, by constant reassurance of its own existence and more importantly, its "permenance".

This is where KARMA comes into the picture.  KARMA is a series of premeditated experiences that occur in a predetermined sequence.  The sequence of events is spaced out so that over the life span of any individual the number of successful events are strucured to sustain the mind on the right path are adequate to sustain the effort.  Karma also has a number of failure events that are structured to divert the attention of the mind from the wrong twists and turns that it may take. Failures are structured to keep the mind away from being sucked into the pursuit of worldly objectives. 

So the EGO is the source of the illusion in the mind that it is superior, that it is the best and that it owns everything that it perceives including itself!!! The EGO also propogates the belief in the mind that it is superior to everything else that has been created. It propogates a self sustaining belief in the mind that it alone is the Truth and that it is completely self contained and self sustaining and it can manage to defeat and destroy all oppositon and barriers without any external help, including that of Earwara!!!!

If the mind has a suspicion that Easwara may be superior to everyhting else and is probably the ulitimate controller, then the EGO makes the mind think that it can invoke Easwaras blessings and endowment as it wills and wishes!!!!!

EGO is almost synonymou with the Identity "I".  The EGO makes the "I" develop the Belief that it is endowed with knowledge, strength, and courage,  and that it does not have to learn or acquire anything.  

This is when the "I" throws up its hands, starts to question its own identity, and, when all else fails, reaches out to the ALMIGHTY. 

THE Paramathma says again and again that OWNERSHIP AND ATTACHMENT ARE THE TWO PRIME STUMBLING BLOCKS IN THE PATH TO REALIZATION.  More on this in the subsequent sections of this web page.

Karma begins to unravel the thought process by using "I" as the starting point.  This illusion of "I" is the beginning of all other illusions.

The "I", because it is born out of attachment to the material world, does not know of any existence beyond that provided by the five senses. It believes in the permenance of this world and this is the reason that the mind continues to discharge its full Karma. If this identity accepted its own fallability, it will develop a detachment from this world very early on and the forces of Karma would be defeated very early on. 

The "I" comes with the major handicap of being unable to look at itself or to know itself.  The "I"  is based on complete ignorance of the self. 

This in a large part is the struggle of human life.

The Paramathma goes on to say that the "I", then creates the illusion of the external world ("MAYA") through its five offsprings - the sense organs.  

The constant "input" from the material world through the sense organs sustains the belief of the "I" of its own existence.  

Growth in ownership brings HAPPINESS to the "I" because it reiterates its invincibility.  

Decline in ownership brings FEAR, INSECURITY, and UNHAPPINESS.    

THE "I" ALSO DEVELOPS AN "EVALUATION" SYSTEM OF SUCCESSES AND FAILURE.  THE SYSTEM OF REWARDS AND PUNISHMENT THROUGH   EXPERIENCE OF PLEASURE AND PAIN,  HAPPINESS AND MISERY.  A SENSE OF BELONGING AND ALIENATION ALSO HELPS MOVE THOUGHT ALONG ITS KARMIC PATH.

The “I” uses its own attributes to create its children.

Pleasure seems to be a primary source of self conviction from the Material world. Sense of Physical pleasure, Sense of having been given a role, Sense of Contribution, Sense of Acceptance, Sense of Success, Sense of Accomplishment. Sense of Belonging, Sense of Attachments & Sense of Relationships, all operate through a curious feature of the "I", known as DESIRE.

DESIRES THAT CORRESPOND TO ONE's KARMIC TRAPS (OWNERSHIPS, RELATIONSHIPS,   PHYSICAL PLEASURES, etc.), BEGIN TO TAKE ROOT. OUR THOUGHT PROCESS TAKES OWNERSHIP OF ALL THAT IS PERCEIVED.  IT LOOKS AT ALL OBJECTS FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF "I" AND "MINE".  WHETHER IT IS IN REGARD TO FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS, PROPERTY OR ANY OTHER OBJECT THAT WE CAN PERCEIVE, THE MIND IMMEDIATELY ATTACHES A OWNERSHIP TAG, DEVELOPS A DESIRE TO RELATE TO A PERSON OR LIVING BEING  AND WANTS TO TAKE POSSESSION OF OBJECTS OF DESIRE.  MUCH OF OUR THOUGHT PROCESS TAKES ITS ROOTS FROM THESE DESIRES.  THE PARAMATHMA ADVOCATES VERY VERY STRONGLY THAT THE THOUGHT PROCESS SHOULD CLEANSE ITSELF OFF THIS "I" BASED FOUNDATION THAT IT USES AS THE ORIGIN OF ALL OUR THOUGHTS.

Any sense of ownership will lead to an illusion of attachment and consequently that object that we think we own will actually start occupying and dominating our thoughts by edging out everything else from our minds.  Examples would be fascinations with the furniture in our home, our vehicles,  a dear friend, a pet,  and most dangerously, with our own EGO! 

No Harm in legal ownership, as long as one is not mentally attached to these objects of desire.  But seperating ownership and desire is much easier said than done.

After a lapse of time,  the "I" suffers from increased dependance on the EGO for reassurance of its invincibility. 

The EGO on its part keeps communicating to the "I" that it posseses infinite knowledge and power which can be tapped at will.  

The "I" learns over time, that ownership fluctuates and is not permenant.  This causes frequent disruptions (UNHAPPINESS and INSECURITY)  in its self fulfilling system.

It then starts to seek an unending source of  supply of ownership and gives birth to "DOMINANCE", "CONTROL", and "INFLUENCE".  

These three children of "I" operate through gaining knowledge of the "CAUSE and EFFECT" relationships that seem to move events in this world.

The "I" nurtures these children and inculcates in them the belief that feeding the "I" should be the sole purpose in their lives.  These children, when mature, are imposed on other Jivatmas who are then expected to abide by the need to feed the "I" with reassurance.

As the number of these children increases,  the conflict within starts to become unmanageable.

Great turmoils start to happen within the self. 

This is the "self sustaining" cycle of perception between the "external world" and the "I".

An essential requirement for the "I" is to be reassured that it is unique and there is no one else or nothing like it. 

This illusion of superiority then seeks to sustain itself by "acquisitions", "conquests", "ownership", "victories", experiencing "physical comforts", accumulating wealth well in excess of "needs" etc., all of which in turn spawn their own children ("greed", "vanity", "relationships", "hatred" etc.), and so it goes on. 

"Ownership" is a prime  associate of the "EGO". 

Like any human child, these children of "I" become independant and self sustaining and will spawn events to sustain their own existence.  The events that these children spawn will enslave the "I" and tighten the grip of the Karmic cycle.

The competely false sense of ownership ("MINE")  pampers and sustains the existence of the "I" and further enhances the illiusion of its existence and identity. It starts to separate items that "belong" to itself and items that belong to "someone" else. 

Ownership ("Mine") has the same problem about its identity and permenance.  It needs confirmation, reiteration and reassuarnce for its sustenance.  It draws sustenance through increasing ownership. 

The "I" is the is how we differentiate ourselves from everything and everyone around us. The "I" exists only in the mind of the perceiver.  It does not have a physical form. It manifests in the mind by giving a shape and form to all objects that are perceived through the senses. Not only does it give a shape and form to the perceived objects, it also gives them attributes such as Good/Bad, Friend/Foe, Pleasure/Pain, happiness/sadness etc.  It must be clearly understood that the objects that are perceived do not actually have any of these attributes.  In fact none of the objects and fellow beings that are perceived have any of these attributes. All beings, objects and event that are perceived only reflect the attributes of our own mind.  If our mind is kept clear of FEAR, GREED, HATE, NEEDS, then none of the perceived objects will have an impact on the mind.

All the attributes mentioned above originate in the mind only because of the "I" being at the controlling center of our thoughts. 

What happens if the "I" is not there? The mind will not be able to differentiate between objects perceived by the senses. The sequence of event that we call our Karma will not be experienced. Without being able to experience our Karma, there will be no preset sequence of thoughts in our mind.  Without the preset sequence of events running through the mind, there will be no mental development through the learning process. 
When we awake and start to think, the process starts only from an "I" centric perspective.

Our entire perception of the universe begins only with the "I"  at the center.  Just as the ancients imagined that the Sun went around the Earth, the "I" assumes itself to be the center of all perceived activity, objects and people. 

The Mind subconciously begins with the assumption that everything that happens is related to itself and begins to function by classifying these objects, events and people as being either FOR or AGAINST ITSELF.   It assumes that the World works for it or against it and proceeds to function to PROTECT itself from enemies and to PROJECT itself on to the world of perceived objects, events and people.

So the Mind begins to work on constructing a strategy to PROTECT itself in every way from the "rest" of the world.

The "I" makes the mind view everything that is perceived only from the point of whether it is beneficial or harmful to itself. This self centered perspective is referred to as the EGO.

The "I" is synonymous with the "EGO". As with any other attribute, the "I" has both PROS and CONS. These are explored in the following pages.