Ego and its effacement

                                EGO AND ITS EFFACEMENT

                                                                                    _ A P ANAND

          There is a difference between ego and dignity or self-respect. Dignity should be preserved at all costs. Ego is ‘Tamas’ (lowest nature) of a person influenced by the mental state. This is a false pride towards one’s body and activities leading to laziness. Egoistic person is incomplete. Life is an illusion and transitory like a bubble which may burst/ deflate at any moment at the will of God. Why should we be so proud of it and turn our relations sour with others? President Thomas Jefferson from Virginia, one of the 56 signatories of the Declaration of Independence of USA (1776), with an idea of natural rights and individual liberty said, “Art of life is avoidance of pain.” On the contrary an egoistic person will desperately lose his confidence, trust and respect of others. He will have unquenchable characteristics and swelled in ego. He may feel burn-up, stressed and sucked-in syndrome and requires a lot of patience and tolerance. He hardly believes in the power of Supreme Lord and becomes a nit-pick person. He is like a strayed person, not knowing what to do and what not to do due to clouded vision and may sink down to the lowest ebb because of heavy weight of ego. Also ego is like a maelstrom (powerful whirlpool) to implicate the affected person and drown him in the evils of its rippling effect. We should learn lessons from the egoistic last days of Alexandra the Great, Hitler and Emperor Asoka. They were expansionists of their kingdoms through usurpations and believed in attachment.

          Ego is also an unfriendly nature. An egoistic may be corrupted by the wrong company he keeps. Ego is a cause of undue bondage and its roots never flourish in right direction but cause instability. Extra luxurious life, possession of unlimited money and power, sometimes, bring egoism. An egoistic will become disgruntled if not checked in time, will become belligerent (aggressive) if not heard and become restive if neglected. Also he may try to vie with others and waste his time, money and energy. All these acts are against the noble entreaties.

          Those who feel proud and display the pride are actually worthless and create pitfalls by themselves. They will forget their pious duties and spiritual injunctions for the welfare of all and think themselves superior to all. Their nature will deprive them recognition in society. Such a person may start fanning his hate campaign against someone he treats lowly. Ego will smother even the progress made by a person in some field. Retorting volatile and vituperate

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(insulting and abusive) language causes attrition in our relations and a person of such an instinct will have all sorts of prejudices. His outlook will be of jealousy and hatred. In case he disowns his follies or imposes his will on others to justify/ buttress his views, it will worsen the situation. He will become grouchy, grumbler and peevish as his mind is perturbed. His nature is to remain taut and not to bow down/ accede to the prevailing circumstances. Also he may become oppressive due to arrogance as he is inflicted with selfish motive (self-centredness) of ‘I’ness, mine and myself. Bhagavad Gita (Chapter XVII/5, 6) says that the hypocrites, proud and those who practice dire penance against the scriptural sanctions are obsessed with desire, attachment, power, tenacity and are rooted in demoniac disposition. They may end up in roaring anger, hatred, slander, cynic loneliness and vengeance etc. which give disastrous effects. If they do not improve upon their impulses they may become like an extinct volcano. An instinct of aversion/ repulsion takes place in their heart. In short, such a person will get beatings everywhere and thus he will never become virtuous and a personality of crème de la crème.

          When the egoist thinks to improve upon himself, tries to tinker (repair/ mend) his faults. He will start seeing the same soul in all. He will possess the virtues of non-attachment and thus belongs to one and all. He does not expect fruits/ rewards of his actions or selfless service. He knows that many treasurers are embedded in facing the difficulties and he has to unfold them. He recognizes that forgiveness avoids many irritations and not ego. He may, often, laugh at himself for his past follies but not at others egoistically. This way he will add years to his life. He will become kind hearted and endear to all. He will become a path-finder and start attending divine discourses of noble souls and shed ego to imbibe pleasantries. While praying to God he will submit that he is under His refuge and supplicate and beseech Him to forgive his sins. Thus he will leave behind a legacy of good qualities to emulate by others.

          After passing through rigorous blazes and rages of ego and refinement through virtues the inflicted person enters the stage of effacement to earn plaudits. This happens due to the twist/ change for betterment when his vacillating mind stabilizes. Now he will drool over God and His mysteries. He cultivates ‘Satavic’ (pure) qualities and starts discriminating between beneficial and worthless and wrong and right to lead egoless perfect life. Now in place of his earlier habits he will serve the humanity and deserving like handicapped/ crippled and poor etc. to singe his ego. A non-egoistic will bow his head before deity, nature (in praise of Lord’s

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grace and effulgence), elderly and saints/ divine souls to become humble/ sober as these are the pre-requisite acts for effacement of ego and to douse passion as well as to become ‘Padam Pursha’ (Supreme person). The one who has the ability of letting and persuading other one bow and submit his mind before the Supreme Truth, to the hilt, is the real extinguisher of ego. Prayer and repentance before God expiate our sins, melt down our ego, calm down our heart and mind and soften our attitude. It is a noble act of disposition of divinity as well as becoming fearless, control of senses, truthfulness and renunciation, absence of anger, modesty, sublimity and having enmity towards none. In Bhagavad Gita (Chapter XIII/ 7, 8,9,10, 11) moral virtues to approach God, the Absolute Truth, are well explained. Due to expiation of ego one becomes self-illuminator, he is ever ready to help needy, becomes an integral part of society and knows the real purpose of life as he is enlightened. Effacement of ego is like a thunderbolt (‘Vajra’), most powerful weapon of Lord of Rain (‘Indra’) to become an untainted person to achieve any goal in life. This act is also treated as remorse to improve upon vices. Embellishment with divine virtues will make a person of propriety. It is not out of place to mention here that where Lord Rama was called “Maryada Purushotam” (Supreme person of propriety) , Lord Krishna was known as “Prem and “ Leela”Purushotam”(Supreme personality of love and divine pranks). A person of these traits will become an epitome in the service of Supreme Lord and will work in unison with all for furthering the development of society. The Sikh religion has given so much importance to “Maryada Purushotam” that his glorified name is mentioned for about 2533 times in their religious book, Guru Granth Sahib.

          Mind, ego and intellect are our important internal organs/ functions. Effacement of ego and spirituality are dovetailed. If one does not control his/ her ego in time, keeps ostrich- like attitude, the same will haunt/ sting him/ her later on and make life miserable. So nip it in the bud. One should not act for the sake of awards/ rewards as these are the automatic resultants. We know that Lord has granted us measured and counted moments to live and we have to pass through certain stages before death at the will of God. When death is certain then why we should become egoistic to rile and mire our mind to whip up passions and make others pesky and crippling. Prayer makes us belittle before God and we merge with Him as the rivers, ultimately, merge with ocean and leave no identity of their own behind. Please remember that an egoistic person is always at the threshold of hell’s incinerator as he has become brimstone to turn to ashes.------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------A P ANAND, E/120“VIRGO”, LOWER KHARODI, MARVE ROAD, MALAD(W), MUMBAI-400 095, Ph: 022-2862 0872, E-mail: anandpanand@yahoo.com