What Is the Āṇava Mārga?
Much has been said of the path toward merger with Śiva, and much remains to be said. But the truth is this: most people on this Earth are following another path for the moment, the path of self-indulgence and self-interest and selfishness. No doubt, it is the most popular path, and it has its own pandits and masters, who teach how to perfect the path of the external ego, how to perfect worldliness, how to perfect the trinity of I, me and mine, how to perfect self-indulgence. But that is not the ultimate path, which is followed by the few, by mature souls. It is important for aspirants to know that the real path leading toward merger with Śiva has many detours, pitfalls and sidetracks that beckon unwary travelers. It is important for him or her to know about these side paths, to be warned, as I am doing now, to be wary of them, to be cautious, to be extremely careful.
One of these I call the āṇava mārga, or the path of egoism. True, it is not a traditional path, but it is a path well worn, well known in all human traditions. In fact, you could say there are three such untraditional paths, three worldly mārgas: āṇava, karma and māyā. The last two bonds, karma and māyā, are the first to begin to diminish their hold on the soul as one proceeds on the path to enlightenment. And when these fetters begin to loosen, the āṇava, the personal ego identity, thoughts of “me,” “my” and “mine,” should also begin to go, but often don’t. When karma and māyā begin to go, āṇava often becomes stronger and stronger and stronger.
The karma mārga is when the soul is totally enmeshed in the actions and reactions of the past and making new karmas so swiftly that little personal identity, or egoism, is experienced, like a small boat bouncing on a vast ocean of ignorance, the ignorance of the māyā mārga. This mārga is not spoken of at all in Hindu scripture, except indirectly, yet all the sages knew of its delightful distractions. It is truly there for the soul who is bound to ignorance of how to know karma, know dharma, or even know anything but the next and the next experience, as each is eagerly thrust upon him. Here the soul is bound by karmas, bound by māyā, giving the abilities to ignore. That is the path that has to be left once on it, the sidetrack to be ignored and passed by. A sharp turn, a firm decision, brings this unhappy soul onto the āṇava mārga, the path of extreme personal identity. Here the realization comes that “Yes! I am a person on this Earth with the rights of all. I am no longer bound and harassed by experience. I can adjust experience, create new experience for myself and for others. I can be the controller. I am I.”
The I becomes the realization and sometimes the end of the path of the karma and māyā mārga. The I, that all-important personal identity, so strong, becomes the realization of the small and limited “self,” which appears to be a big and real “self” to those who have found this path, which is not the spiritual path, but the path of grayness; while the karma and māyā mārgas are the paths of darkness. Yes, the āṇava mārga is a real mārga, a labyrinth. It truly is.
We are concerned to define āṇava because a word can be dispatched too quickly; a concept can be forgotten. Āṇava, the personal ego, finding oneself, with a small “s,” the personal identity, gaining intellectual freedom are all modern clichés. Defining the āṇava mārga appeared in my mind as a necessary thing to do while I was helping devotees to understand the charyā mārga, the kriyā mārga, bhakti yoga, karma yoga and rāja yoga. To offset the negative with the positive better explains the positive. To understand the pure essence of ignorance, where it comes from, its values, beliefs and motivations, better defines the heights of wisdom out of which comes dharma and aspirations for mukti. Sometimes, in fact, we see āṇava mārgīs thinking they are yoga mārgīs.
We cannot advance on the path without a starting place. No race was ever won but that everyone began at the same place. To know where we are on the path of life progressing to mukti—which is one of the four tenets of life, dharma, artha, kāma, and mukti, merger with Śiva—we should not be deluded by the ignorance of what the āṇava actually is, and what artha and kāma are, the strength of their hold on the soul, preventing the dharma and the final attainment of mukti.