Ego

Ego

Ego is derived from the root whose meaning is "I". This Ego is not born with birth but developed with time. From birth, as time keeps running we inculcate a plethora of habits & features that are all mixing up of all such things, making an ego. Like I am of this community, I follow this religion, I wear these types of clothes, I eat only some particular type of food, I follow these customs, dogmas, rituals, and many other things like that. So if you will have a little thought over it then you will find that ego is nothing just the boundaries we have made for our own selves. These limitations and boundaries, we made for ourselves define our whole life, we live by them and die without ever thinking that what is these prison walls that we have drawn and why are we following such a smothered living. We are continuously suffocating ourselves with this concept of ego. But at the end of the day, we find out that it's the "me" part of the real "i".You may easily distinguish by the fact that whenever you get hurt then you say that that "my" this and this part is paining but you never say that it's "i" who is paining. So it's your body part that is suffering but not you. Give it a thought, please!

So you are like a whole space and ego is like a little box in the same space. Now that box is only seeing that which is inside its own boundary and thinks that it's me and my world but when looked closely it's found that it's the same space inside the box and also outside of it. It's nothing different inside or outside but this ego creates a separate identity of our self and we feel only like a poor mortal with only an insignificant role in this whole wordily drama. It separates itself and finds that everything outside his skin is different from it and to survive he has to fight with it. What a pity!. This struggle goes on till the end of our lives. This ego makes us drunk with the pride of our wealth and belongings and we keep boasting about it till the last breath. It's like clinging to something that is not real at all, it's all made up by our own selves. There is a very interesting story regarding a method of catching monkeys in India. The strategy is to keep a banana inside a box that has a little entrance into it from where a monkey puts his hand inside and tries to get that banana. Now that hole is well enough to let the monkey's hand get it but it's not that big to get his hand outside along with the banana. So it creates a dilemma for a monkey, he wants to get that banana at any cost but in reality, it's can never be his property. Either he has to leave the banana inside the box only or he remains trapped on his own for the sake of his banana and in this way, it gets easily caught by the monkey catchers. The same situation is our own as we have been clinging the same like this monkey and due to which we suffer the same like a monkey. So ego makes us like a monkey and leaves us with no genuine acumen to deal with this tempting situation but in reality, it's just a trap.

Ego is the root cause of all the miseries and chaos in this world. It's only when someone does something which is outside our boundary then we feel it's not good and then the fights and wars take place as ego makes us feel that whatever is inside our boundary is legitimate and all else outside is blasphemy. So ego can never grasp the boundless reality with its all limited terms and conditions. Another word that we can use properly in the place of ego is self-ignorance. Yes, it's ignorance only that gives us a separate identity and we will go on living by it.

Now to get out of this pathetic conditioning, which is the cause of all the miseries of this globe, we need to demolish these self-made walls and need to have the right knowledge to discriminate between reality and illusion. According to the eastern philosophy of Vedanta, we are all one, and all world is also in that one. So there are only illusionary multiplicities and manifestations but in reality, it's only one undivided consciousness. So to end this self-ignorance we need not identify ourselves with this limited ego but we need to see all the things as self alone this cuts the cord of every suffering from an individual life and also from the whole world. You need to identify with this oneness and don't allow the ego to play its tricks on you. Teach it and make it natural enough to see the reality and remain in this world with total freedom and bliss. Love everyone like your own self and there remains nothing to fight with. Ego is not any bad thing but just we need to groom it. So keep practicing!!!