The CEO of a corporation arrives in his office every morning in his Mercedes. Keeping his eyes peeled, the guard snaps up in attention and salutes the big boss. The CEO consciously ignores him and whizzes past. A bright student who loves animals writes to a well-known animal activist asking if it is a good idea to keep a hamster as a pet. The expert responds, “What a stupid idea!”
All of us have Facebook friends, who post status updates of every new outfit worn, every flight boarded, every VIP wedding/party attended. This constant need for likes along with the first two scenarios in which the CEO refuses to accord the respect due to a human being lower down in the hierarchy and the expert who thinks no end of her knowledge of animals are all signs of ego.
Small wonder that scriptures list ego or ahankar as a flaw that robs us of our spiritual nature.
Curiously, we are mostly egoless when we are born. Thereafter, depending on whether we hear words of praise or criticism — “What a lovely child”, “he is not as fair as his sister” — our ego, which is a reflection of how others perceive us, forms.
Power, good looks, wealth are among things that bloat a person’s ego and make one believe that one rules the world. However, impermanence is the nature of life and accidents, natural calamities, changes in fortune strike us in sudden ways and even the most massive ego is rendered powerless.
As Radhanath Swami says, “The basic principle of any religion is to understand that we are not the doers, that there is power beyond our own that is working through us. But I have the freewill to choose who I want to work through me. Is it going to be my own selfish ego or the grace of God?”
Driven by ego we are consumed by the desire for more power, more material goods, more recognition. Blinded totally we fail to appreciate the uniqueness of who we are and our purpose in life. This leads to frustration, anger, hatred and a chain of negative emotions and clouds our pure consciousness.
Even intellectual egotism is something we can ill afford because today knowledge is a vast expanse. We may know a little more than X or Y on a particular subject, yet when viewed in totality of what there is, it is but minuscule.
To dissolve the ego spiritual masters advise gratitude to God and performing actions without any pompous notions of “I did it” or attachment to results and being fully conscious of Universal oneness. As Swami Tejomayananda, head of the Chinmaya Mission says, “Sublimation of the ego is the aim of spirituality.”
The writer is a Reiki channel, yoga practitioner and a spiritual seeker
