A peep into your EGO

Many Maharishis and yogis have talked about crossing the 'I'-that is annihilating the EGO.
The theory of Evolution talks about the 'survival of the fittest'.Who can survive? Only those who with the physical strength built out of their own efforts or through mental strength created out of knowledge or Will power, can survive. In other words only persons covered with 'ego' can survive.


As soon as the baby is born first it understands the mother who takes care.As he grows within a few months he differentiates himself from his mother after self identification. This is the starting point of Ego.He cries ,cajoles to get things done .



Ego does exist only in human beings.The parents, schools, teachers Colleges and the University all render max assistance to build up and strengthen the Ego.Man has been conditioned that only strong egos can survive amidst struggles.
Intelligence alone won't do. He needs a smartness or applicability, essentially ego oriented to come to the top.Mere intelligence which is very light is covered by a thick layer of rocky ego,so that you don't become vulnerable.


As there is a constant competition to come to the top either in education or employment,man becomes miserable.Misery is the breeding ground for ego.If one feels internally happy, it sounds a death knell to ego. So man prefers not to be cheerful, wanting to achieve something bigger and bigger, a feeder point to the ego.They decide to live in miseries amidst crystallized ego and not in egoless happiness.



If you want great attainments, you should have different qualifications in different fields so that you can device solutions to multifaceted problems and occupy an enviable position.Having come to understand that ego is an inseparable part and parcel of human life,one cannot be expected to do away the Ego, confidence creating root of success in life.


Great seers advise you to understand the ego,analyse it,observe it from as many spheres as possible and not to be in a hurry to sacrifice it.The more one tries to destroy ego, he begins to think he is the humblest person in the world and the greatest

egoist is born.
Many many religious leaders have been doing it in a subtle level.They refine their ego in fine colours of religion and Godliness.Common man's ego is far far better since it is very gross and can be dropped easily.The subtle ego of Godmen,fake Gurus and yogins is deep rooted.
Our mythologies are abound in biographies of ego centric Maharishis.



We wonder why God should create Ego first and wants everyone to destroy it.He might have created man without any ego.



But for the Ego, there would not have been any ambition, no question of the fittest, and nature would have miserably failed in its theory of evolution. Perhaps we would have remained chimpanzees till now.
How does ego thrive?
It just makes its living in the friction.You are poor, you want to be rich.You are a school drop out,you want to be a graduate.You want to change the course of studies to make a big role.Ego thrives between what you are and what you want to become at every stage.Ambition and ego have very narrow line of demarcation.Ego evaporates when you just accept what you are and ready to say from your heart" I am fine as just I am."



It is an undeniable fact that all the recent discoveries, inventions and scientific advancements ,achievements of great artists and musicians etc are essentially the product 'EGO'.If you have an ideal, you will be mostly an egoist. Greater the ideal, still greater is the Ego and sure, greatest is the achievement.Many used to say that they have the ideal of 'egolessness.'.The ideal of being egoless itself brings greater ego to surface.We find more ego in humility too.
If you have no ideals at all, there may not be need for any ego. Even small vows like fasting for a day, not sleeping over a shivarathri night create some fiction and the resultant ego.


In Eastern countries the religions preach 'egolessness' from the beginning





.So it never comes to the point of disintegration;While Western philosophers favour building of strong egos for survival;It is felt it is easier for Westerners to dissolve ego completely and not so easy for eastern ideologists.

The expansion of the word EGO is stated to be Edging God Out.But an unanswered question always haunts.
If everything happens as per destiny or God's Will, does it mean that God also is Ego Centric that he decides every move and expects His will to prevail, notwithstanding the " Free Will' gifted to human beings?
Or is it'EXPERIENCE of GOD's OFFERS'?

Jayasala 42

 

Dear Pushpa,
Thank you very much for your response.
Ego seems to have been 'in built' in all human beings.There is absolutely no human being who has escaped this vital possession.In certain situations it gets the nomenclature of high ideals, ambitions etc and on different occasion the same trait is branded as vanity, pride and Ego.

Jayasala 42

 

Dear Viswa,

Thank you very much for beautiful thoughts on Ego. As correctly pointed out by you. even Adi Shankara had certain struggles.As man grows and aspires to know more and more his ego also grows propotionately.
World has to be full of activity and growth for which ambitions and knowledge are core essentials, even mingled with some Ego.A person without any high ideals may not have much Ego, but will not be beneficial to the society.
Actually the thought of writing this snippet dawned when I was reading 'Manisha Panchakam'by Adi Shankara with commentaries- a publication by Ramakrishna Mutt.When Adi Shankara himself became a victim of the 'caste' feeling, after all we are simple mortals inflicted by material desires, not necessarily by wealth.
Manisha means convictions
Manisha Panchakam is an essence of Advaitha vedantha and it has to be studied along with two slokas, questions raised by the Chandala, or sweeper.Those questions are more like answers.
He asks Shankara
" What is that you want to move away by saying" Go, Go"?Do you want the body( Annamaya kosa)to move away from another body made of food?"Or do you want Consciousness to move from Consciousness"
In the next sloka he asks the distinction between the reflection of the sun in Ganges and that in the ditches of the poor. He also specifically asks about the SPACE inside a Gols pot and a mud pot."
Actually manisha Panchakam is a dialogue between two forms of Sankara.
Though some what out of context. I would like to share what Swami Ranganathaananda of Ramakrishna Mutt has written in this connection.
"Sankara's biography was written three or four centuries after Sankara lived.The most famous among the biographies is Sankara Dik Vijayam by Madhava Vidyaranya.
It is said that Shiva and Parvathi met Shankaracharya on the way.Actual sloka says
"satyachaaryasya gamanekadhaachit mukthi dhaayakam
kaashee kshetram prathi saha gauryaa maargethu shankara;"
But it is said that the Chandaala was actually a Chandala only and not Lord Shiva.In those days, when 'untouchability' was in practice even by Gnanais,even for writing sake Madhava Vidyaranya didn't want to accept that sankaracharya was talking to a Chandala face to face. So he made it a fiction stating that the Chandala should be Lord Sankara only, whereas in fact it was actually an outcaste , who was teaching Shankara's Vedantha to Shankara himself.
Since Madhava Vidyaranya didn't want to spoil the image of Sankaracharya by saying that he was questioned by an outcaste,he intelligently introduced the character of Lord Shiva,
While talking about Ego, I can't but help mentioning about Ramakrishna.Raamkrishna Paramhamsa went to a Chandala's house at midnight and cleaned his toilet. Had he done this in day time, the outcaste would not have agreed for this.While cleaning the toilet Ramakrishna prayed to Jaganmatha"Amma, pl remove the thought from my mind that I , being a brahmin, am superior to others.Make me a servant of one and all in the society"
This prayer forms a significant part of annihilating Ego from everybody's life.The museum "Ramakrishna Darshanam 'in Hyderabad contains pictures of Ramakrishna cleaning the toilet of the outcaste.
Jayasala 42