I’ve been trying to connect to the Easy Path Satsang for months now. It just isn’t working out. The people in charge don’t seem interested in adding more people into the groups. That said, I have few Eckists to talk to. I did find an online group and posed this question:

I was reading the Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad this morning, coming across a passage below:

“Trying to bring together the lower self and the higher self to make them one, in order to enter into the worlds of ECK, is to bring about defeat. They do not mix, for none are as far apart in poles as these two qualities. The lower represents the Kal, which is the negative power, and Soul represents the ECK, which is the higher power. The twain shall never meet, for the lower, being of the Universal Mind Power, must step aside and be left behind so that Soul can enter into the heavenly worlds.” (Kindle p. 219)

While this references soul travel or “entering into the heavenly worlds”, it raises a point of consideration regarding the self — the lower and the higher. It reads that the lower steps aside, so the higher or Soul can enter into the heavenly worlds. For that to be the case, it seems to me that the personality self is the human bit, the biochemestry, psychology, etc. and would be classified here as “lower.”

Extrapolating a bit, is the Eckankar view that the personality (“I” or ego) self (or lower), is a product of the Kal influence, is left on the death of body? In other words there is no persistence of personality?

That would indicate that for the personality self that writes this message to post, it is lost on death and discarded… the Soul behind it, incarnates again, with a different personality/body and so on until the Soul is perfected through the efforts of the purified lower self. But the lower nature, no matter how purified, is never brought into oneness or harmony with the higher self or Soul… so there is no salvation for the lower, which is always discarded on death? Is that the idea, or am I misundesrtanding?

Someone replied to me. They had some interesting feedback and understanding. It’s a really good point to ponder:

One of the goals of Eckankar is in fact the preservation of the individual. It is true that much of what we regard as the personality is the ego’s reaction and adaptation to the material and psychic worlds. The personality is full of likes and dislikes, needs, wants, opinions, beliefs, attachments, etc. Soul is simply awareness. Self-identifying with the personality is natural for the human consciousness, but Soul, the jivatma, the true self, is free. It knows God through direct cognition, not by thought or reason or belief. The personality cannot direct Soul to God.

Personality does matter, and in some ways it is preserved, as long as it serves the individual. Even after death, the individual will want to interact with loved ones or continue certain personal pursuits. Eckankar teaches us to recognize the difference between the ego self and the true self, and then to have the mastery to maintain the awareness we have earned.