There is so much talk about not having an ego. Yet everyone has an ego no matter how humble they appear to be.
The 'Ego' provides each individual a sense of identity of the 'self'. The self that must do or not do, that takes actions to ensure security, survival and procreation.
The self we refer to is not one, but actually a number of selfs.
The material, social, intellectual and emotional selfs we all know to some degree, and this is what we know as the ego. The same ego that preserves us as we inhabit this body, this time and space. There is also the spiritual self, which I shall come to shortly.
Not every one wants to merge with the light, the Creator, 'Param-Atman', God etc. To ask those that have no such desire to compromise and surrender their ego, is counterintuitive and a negative approach for those that wish to survive, pursue, achieve and succeed.
Giving up the ego, the meaning of the self no matter how small or superficial it may be is suicidal for the achiever, and those who wish to succeed. Ego is essential for survival and necessary for achieving success.
We are so busy preparing for the afterlife that we forget that this life has to be lived. If we give up our ego we will never ever succeed, and even if we do survive for a while, we will most likely be unhappy.
People who try desperately to give up their ego before they are spiritually ready is to condemn them to a life of misery and suffering, because they will have to live duplicitous lives, faking humility etc.. With no hope of really living, or enjoyment or knowing real happiness they will simply endure life .
However we have to remember that with each interaction, experience and thought we change, in fact we change continuously and every moment. All these selfs like everything in existence will constantly decay until finally one day, they too will perish. That is to say that the ego that defines us in all these aspects too will change and perish.
If this ego is all that we have clung to, we will not look beyond and transcend the material and intellectual being that we are. Anything that comes and goes cannot be us.
Then there is the self that is the spiritual self, the soul whose existence we may not even be aware of. This is nothing but the recognition that we and the universe are one. We are within the universe and the universe is within us. The spiritual self never changes, this is what the great Gurus and Masters advice us to awaken to and realise, the meaning of the self'.
Only those who experience distress, and sadness will know the meaning of happiness and peace when they come across them and hence possess the capacity to be excited by and enjoy life. What we experience as the white light of success and happiness is actually the sum total of a number of coloured lights which are but all the experiences of positivity and negativity of our life experiences.
Ego is not only necessary but essential for achievement. Like a booster rocket which propels us to higher orbit to help achieve the highest of our potential and our life's purpose. Once we reach the Zenith of our life we will realise that our ego is unnecessary for the further journey of our life, for peace and happiness, one simply discards the ego. In fact one need not even discard the ego for we will transcend it.
To ask people to give up their ego before they have understood and possessed an ego is a fantasy and if pushed before its time, becomes an insanity. One cannot discard what one does not possess.
In life it is essential that we acquire, then continuously nourish and strengthen our egos with learning, experiencing and achievement, and then finally transcend the ego. All attempts to discard the ego will only result in our increased attachment to it. When realisation will dawn on us, the ego will drop off by itself, only then can we know contentment, peace and happiness.
Interesting Links:
Begin to live - Guru Wonder
This is an extract from my seminar and also my upcoming book on 'Achieving Success and Realising Happiness'
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