Ego Meaning: Ego is just a three-letter word that we have given to something we are aware of. The very existence of the word was possible only because we realized its presence or we experience it somehow. Simply put, ‘I’ is ego, whereas ‘I am’ is not. The difference is very subtle that one may feel there’s no difference at all, but there is. That’s the very nature of Ego, to exist in very subtle ways. 

The sense of ‘I’ has come to us because we have too many false identities: the temporary body, the name, the nationality, the religion and many other countless identities that we carry. These identities are important when it comes to survival in a society or else how would people address us. We need those false identities, but we don’t have to take them so seriously that we start to believe them as the truth. 

The body is the first level of identity and that is how people know us likewise the name we are given when we were born. Just because our parents gave us a specific name, that does not mean we are that. The religion we belong to is just a consequence of where we were born and so is the nationality. These identities are useful for the survival process, but if you are looking for something beyond survival, you’ll have to be aware of their false nature. 

Unmasking the Ego and Ego Meaning

Ego Meaning: The very nature of mind is to protect whatever we are identified with. In other words, if we identify ourselves with a particular religion, we always try to protect it. That is how the mind works. You don’t want India to lose when there’s a cricket match between India and Pakistan. Whatever you are identified with, you’ll always try to protect it because that is the very nature of our mind. And, you know, what we have done to each other in the name of ‘My God is more loving than your God or My country is better than your country or my religion is more peaceful than your religion’. In simple words, what we are trying to say is ‘My Identity is better than your identity’. 

It is a battle between two egos. People are not even fighting for their religion or country; they are simply fighting for their egos. They are simply too pompous to believe that they are egoistic. The ego always wants to go on and on and on and on. Its presence becomes subtler and subtler, but one should be aware of it. One should not be cheated by one’s ego. 

Read the Following Conversation:
Priest 1: We are the best in teaching morals and helping the needy.
Priest 2: We are the best in spreading education so that they become capable of learning their own morals and helping themselves.
Priest 3: We are THE BEST in teaching humility or humbleness. We teach THE BEST Humbleness.

We cannot see anything else but the ego. Here the third priest talks about the humbleness / humility, but that talk comes from a deep center of ego. This is self-deception nothing more. Nobody else is deceived. This will occur, this is the means by which deception occurs. You have the ego; you conceal it through the opposite; you become humble superficially. This surface humbleness can’t deceive anybody. It might bamboozle you, yet it can’t delude any other person.

Is Your Life Yours? 

A king made an announcement in his entire kingdom asking people to point out what he didn’t have. Many people said he didn’t have a particular kind of Elephant, then he looked for it and acquired. Similarly, many people pointed one by one many other things and he kept on acquiring. One fine day the whole kingdom was silent and could not point out what the king did not have. He had everything, but still he was empty from the inside and he felt that he still did not have something. He still was missing something. 

He made another announcement of anyone who pointed out what he did not possess would be rewarded whatever is asked. Nobody could find anything that he did not possess. The whole kingdom was mum. The king’s frustration grew day by day and he could not do anything about it. When he went for a walk outside his palace, he found an old man, almost close to his death, milking a cow. The king pitied the old man and gave him some alms. 

The old man denied and said, “Please take your money back. I am almost dying. What would I do with this money?”. The king replied, “If you don’t need money, ask for anything you want and it’ll be granted.” The old man still remained firmly with his decision of not taking anything from the king and inquired this with the king, “What do you not have?”. The king with all his pride said, “I have everything and even the entire kingdom agrees that there is nothing that I do not have. I have everything” 

The old man laughed and laughed which enraged the king. The king out of his anger took his sword and kept it on the old man’s neck and said, “Tell me what do I not have or else I would behead you right at this moment”. The old man exclaimed, “My Lord, you do not have yourself. You do not have your life. It’ll be anyway taken one day. And, once you do not have your life, you do not have anything.” 

You see, even our lives are not ours. Ponder upon the above parable, meditate upon it. It is said, the heart is the seat of the creator and that’s where he lives. We are not separate from Existence, We ARE it. We are existence. Don’t fill yourself too much of yourself. Create that space for the creator. Allow him, do not stop him, do not become the barrier. You don’t have to try to invite him to live in you. He’s already in you. Just don’t be full of yourself. 

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