Ego and its perils

By Shantanu -
What is the definition of "Ego"? Anything to deal with "me" and "myself"? What is egoism and what is egotism? Are they good or bad? "I am a great leader, I am highly placed, I have influences, I have money, muscle power, I have education, I have a good job, I earn a lot, I can teach you a lesson, how dare you crossed my path!" - these are all statements of egoism, which Sri Ramakrishna used to call "bajjat Ami", meaning the "Evil Self", or "Kancha Ami" meaning "the unripe self". On the other hand he classified "Bhakta Ami", 'Das Ami" (Devotee Me, Servant (of lord) me) etc. as the "Paka Ami" or the 'Ripe Self'. He gave an example of 'Evil Self' (vide Gospels of Sri Ramakrishna or the Ramakrishna Kathamrita) - suppose someone had stolen 10 bucks from you, you thought how dare he steals from "Me", and getting hold of that guy, gave him a good thrashing, took away his belongings and then gave him up to police. That "Me" is "Bajjat Ami".
How very true! this bajjat ami dominates us most of the time. We think highly of ourselves, our achievements and refuse to think of our shortcomings. We get demoralized if somebody criticizes us, but we never bother to introspect. We always like to think of ourselves as superior to others, that we are better than most others, but in practice do exactly opposite. All these stem from the delusion of "ego", what is refered to as 'Ahamkara'. The perils of ego lies in our refusal to admit our shortcomings and not understanding the power of humility,unselfishness and the courage to introspect and rectify our course of life.

Comments

Post a Comment

Here you can post your own opinions, no spam however will be tolerated and no hateful comments will be posted.

Popular posts from this blog

Similarities between German and Sanskrit

By Shantanu -
After studying German grammer and while studying Sanskrit grammer, I came across some very interesting similarities between the two. Perhaps this is one of the reason why the "Aryan" theory came into existence after Europeans discovered the linguistic similarities of the ancient Indians with Europeans. The similarity is the underlying base for the Indo-Germanic languages. However to my mind the root cause of this similarity is not because European sprache spread across the globe towards the East along with Aryans (the theory has now been established as a bunkum except being tenaciously held by some racists and Marxists), but rather Sanskrit spread towards Europe which was at that point of time a mainly barabarian regime devoid of any capability of constructing a civilized form of language. Sanskrit was probably then as popular as English is today and thus early Europeans eagerly and zealously adopted the syntax as their base. Coming to the similarities that I observed -
Read more

Oi Mahamanab Ase - Netaji's Subhas Chandra Bose's after life and activities Part 1

By Shantanu -
A series of articles appeared in the Jayashree magazine by a certain penname called Charanik, which created some flutter in the later 1960s and 1970s. The writings were abstruse and cryptic and depicting the teachings of a certain spiritual person named Mahakaal who used to call himself a Mrito Bhoot or dead ghost. The narrations were based on journals and notes of the disciples of the aforementioned Mahakaal. Some of the intelligent mind however could ascertain the person behind Mahakaal, but the way the articles were written, they never gave away the names and the locations. Seasoned journalists like Barun Sengupta however sensed that there were more behind these articles and conjectured whether they pertained to Netaji. The articles only provided the activities, the viewpoints - both political and spiritual and some form of after life of a super human who was dead to the society. Since then, the articles have been republished by Jayashree in a book titled Oi Mahamanab Ase. The boo
Read more

Swami Vivekananda and Sudra Jagaran or the Awakening of the masses - His visions for a future world order - Part 1

By Shantanu -
A struggle to understand the prevailing social and economic conditions all over the world and a knowledge of Swami Vivekananda’s visions as reflected in his speeches and writings, can provide one with profound insights on the direction in which the world is moving. It does not need any prophetic vision, only some knowledge of history and ability to develop a regression model from the past data into future, based on variables shaped by the present conditions and an inspiration from Swami Vivekananda in his voice without his form. Swamiji’s profound thought was reflected in his essay – Modern India, and several of his letters. He said, “ According to the prevalence, in greater or lesser degree, of the three qualities of Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas in man, the four castes, the Brahmin, Kashatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra, are everywhere present at all times, in all civilised societies. By the mighty hand of time, their number and power also vary at different times in regard to different countr
Read more