Ego meaning अहंकार ( ego, narcissism, pride, egoism, egotism, flatulence) My dad (Late Ramratan ji )used to give example of Ravana so powerful and brilliant but its ego that resulted in his death . Ego (अहंकार) “Ego is everything that is a part of your “self-identity”.” Everything that we think is “mine” is the Ego. The things that we have attached to like family, friends, money, success, car etc. all these leads to ego and when these all are taken from us, it leaves us in pain, depression, and stress.
Ahankar is Sanskrit word which translate excessive pride, which you may gain it over continues success in the aforesaid fields, material wealth, spirituality, beauty, talents, physical strength, intelligence, authoritative powers, charity work etc.
Most people suffer from high blood pressure BP, but the suffering caused by EP ( Ego Pressure ) is much greater !! Sublimation of this ego is the aim of spirituality – the means of sure success and happiness . However, most time people don’t know the way and means of overcoming Ego problem
Albert Einstein says that “ego is inversely proportional to knowledge. The more is the knowledge; less is the ego”.
Shri Ramkrishna Paramahams “ If by the grace of God , a man realizes that he is not the doer ( karta) nor enjoyed ( Bhokta) ,but just an agent then he at once becomes a remove the “I “ factor
But the converse is also true. The person having the great amount of knowledge is good but when it really “hold on” to its knowledge then the seed of ego start growing.
Nature and universe are against those who are living in the ego. It doesn’t mean that the people who have an ego can’t be rich or can’t be successful, you can easily find them which have the ego tree inside them and are rich enough but what they are lacking is the following:
1. They cannot be a great Leader.
2. They cannot be a good learner.
3. They Cannot have a great relationship.
4. They cannot live life in the present moment and many more…
Ego is not a problem. The problem is that we don’t aware when the Ego starts growing inside us. When we will be aware of the moment ego starts building, we can get rid of it. This is the only solution to overcome ego.
Ego. It is considered as one of the six negative emotions- काम desires, क्रोध anger, लोभ greed, मोह attachment, मद और अहंकार ego and मत्सर envy “ Ahankar is difficult to eradicate altogether. And some amount of it is desired to live in this world. It shows our entity; our existence- you can’t ignore me, underrate me. You must respect my individuality.”
Beyond a point, it is dangerous. Why
- It doesn’t allow us to see things as they are. Our ahamkara gives them color and keeps us away from reality.
- It is our inferiority which we want to hide by projecting false image. How long can you avoid seeing your true identity? People will anyway come to know about it.
- It is a great barrier to move ahead, to grow, to prosper. As to grow the first thing necessary is to accept that I don’t know, I lack in this respect- ahamkara doesn’t allow this.
- It vitiates / spoils/ disturbs relationships. You don’t want or rather your false self doesn’t allow you to see reason, to agree, to compromise, to coordinate. And in the process, you are left alone.
How can we get rid of? ( Rightly commented by Shilpa Deshpande -Self realization is needed and those 7 steps you have expressed should be accommodate like a 7 habits)
- Accept this thing deep inside that shortcomings/ deficiencies are integral. No one is perfect. So if we have some lacking/ some shortcomings, accept it, admit it publicly. That way your respect/ your acceptability will increase.
- You need not be and you cannot be right all the time. True, you have your own idea, your own perspective, so do others. Accept others point of view , this is one more way of looking at things.
- Identity your own shortcomings either by self-reflection or by seeking advice from friends and work on it sincerely rather than defending your weakness all the time.
- Talk less listen more. Try to see whatever you are speaking is based on facts and not just to defend your past / false image.
- Reflect at the end of the day. If anything is appearing again and again and it doesn’t go away, it means it is the wrong thing you have done. Try to correct it in future.
- Expansion is life, contraction is death- so said Swami Vivekananda. So expand yourself. No narrowness, no meanness. Embrace all with love.
- Compromises are part of life. We raise our stature by doing it. Don’t remain stuck at one point.
Comments Received
Shilpa Deshpande -“Expanding our limits rather make self free from boundaries to feel the satisfaction of the achievement”
Kiran Gupta -Most easiest way is to give up self esteem and keep growing in our life .Do whatever best we can do for other based on our capability will bring humanity
Sarika & Rashmi Gupta -Example in this post provided me to think out of box thinking and understand how-to bring self improvements
Priya Kherdia -A good lesson I have learned learned from my father is discussions are important amongst friends, spouses, siblings. Unlike arguments which are often about who is right. Whereas take the ego out of an argument and it is a discussion about what is right. Discussions are important to grow as a person & society.
D .L. Sonee – ‘Ego’ is selfishness, we live in a world where others have their contribution. So respect all & be respected like wise now ‘ego’ becomes out dated .You may have good knowledge/ability ., but ‘ego’ isolates you ,If you want to work as a team for compliance, leave ‘i’ & adopt ‘we’ to be accepted by all with respect& love.
1. Accept views & opinions of people for their points of views in mutual discussions .
2. Then we get great& common Understanding & consolidated ideas on the topics,
3. In return you learn new ideas as well…
4. This is the art of living in a community with mutual respect…
Conclusion
Sharing knowledge , keep simplicity . thinking what’s ever we achieved is surely due to hard work but at same time developing the feeling that God has chosen you as agent to get great success will allow us to reduce the “I” factor . It’s very difficult to identify ad give up ego as I have seen even great Saint or famous personality still have the issues . I think discussion sometime does help for momentary feeling for need for change and some day we will be more thoughtful in our action and behaviors
When we gives up that what’s happening is just because of me than we stop our progress and get our mind diverted to Ego that no one can do without me .Truth is a company like Apple, Tata’s or any family continue to make progress even change of leadership but continue as no one is not dispensable than life continue sure great leaders don’t get in Ego as they have lot to accomplish and you will realize their life so simple like Narayan Murthy who started Infosys and many others example in our daily life . To be successful like our great leader we must pay attention to “I “ factor
Lets adopt good moral values to dissolve our ego in the realization of Supreme Truth and live a life of beauty and joy as competition between our career or seeing anyone grow more than us is not a solution rather develop our own positivity and hardworking aptitude is must . World has so many opportunities and its flat means with online there is no boundaries so why we should develop Ego ? Let’s our thoughts grows to make progress in our own mind by widening the horizon so everyone make progress and prosperity
Whatever path we take to achieve success just be true to ourselves that we adopt good moral values not to get restricted by the thoughts that we did something great that no one else has done before as this incident quiet often unknowingly might be the first step get in to science of Ego!! At this time, we should think that what great work done by scientist or our spiritual leader like Vivekananda ji, Hanuman ji as devotee but they didn’t had desire to get famous.
Ego is our enemy for our progress in life hence it’s for our own benefit that we develop realization to evaluate our action and identify root cause to remove Ego . Everyone of us make mistake but most intelligent person is the one who identify where and when they did mistake not work hard not to repeat it gain in future .