Removing Our Masks — Swami Manishananda

Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on October 31, 2010.In this Halloween-day talk, Swami Manishananda uses the image of masks and costumes to explore how we hide our true nature. Drawing on Vedanta, he explains that our real Self is not the shifting personality (“persona” literally meaning mask) but the inner light of existence–consciousness–bliss, the same reality called Atman in the individual and Brahman in the universe. What we usually take to be “me” is a bundle of coverings: the physical body, vital energy, deliberating mind, intellect and ego, and the causal layer of deep impressions carried from life to life. These masks generate our fears, desires, political identities, and everyday drama—our personal “Halloween party.”Spiritual life, he says, is the long work of unmasking: purifying these coverings until they become transparent to the divine, or drop off altogether. Using stories about Swami Vivekananda, William Penn, Will Rogers, Harry Truman, and others, he shows both the difficulty of simply “letting go” and the power of steady practice, discrimination, and faith. Genuine spiritual experience may come as grace, removing doubt about God and strengthening our resolve, but our part is persistent effort—truthfulness, self-control, devotion, and inner purification—until we no longer return to the party of birth and death and awaken to our timeless, unmasked Self.