What is Ego?

What is ego?

In simple words ego means ignorance; and egoistic means self centred. Ego is the biggest enemy of human beings. Egoism is excessive concern for one’s own interests; excessively high opinion of oneself. The greatest intoxication is that of the ego; the worst madness is that of anger. A fool whose mind is deluded by egoism considers himself to be the doer. Unhappiness comes from the sense of I and Mine; they indicate ignorance. The more we identify ourselves with little ‘I ‘in us more will be our problems and confusions in life. One may understand the Cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

If one thinks of ignorance as a tree, the seed and the trunk of the tree are formed by the ego; properties are its branches, spouse, children are smaller branches, material wealth its leaves; paapa & punya are its flowers; happiness and unhappiness are the tree’s fruits. In order to exhaust mental impressions (Ego) nature provides new equipments (bodies) in which the same ego comes to live repeatedly life after life.
 
Man alone is given the freedom to act as he likes and to the extent he disobeys the universal law of sacrifice, to that extent he come to suffer, because he, with his arrogant and egoistic actions, brings discard in the harmony of the existence around him. All our sufferings in this world are caused by our own ego centric misconception and consequent arrogance characterized by our ever multiplying demands for wealth and our endless desires.

A person who is free from arrogance and anger finds goodness and beauty wherever he goes. Ego is just like a dust in the eyes. Without clearing the dust you can’t see anything clearly – clear the ego and see the world. 

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