Ego

These quotes have been taken from Satsangs (discourses) given by our teacher Professor Ojaswi Sharma. He himself was never interested in writing anything but his students felt the need to preserve his wisdom. They taped his talks, transcribed them and sorted out into several Topics. Because the full discourses were very long, shorter passages were chosen on each Topic and presented here.

 

If you find the quotes inspiring and would like to read the full Satsangs please visit Universal Wisdom.

 

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The whole spiritual journey is nothing but the effort to phase out and destroy our own preferences. We are so full of ego and personal preferences that we want even God to obey us like a servant.

 

The domain of nature includes the body, the senses, the mind, the intellect, and even the ego. Of all these, the ego is the element which is the most false. Ego is what does not exist, the greatest of illusions.

 

We are always one with the truth. It is the illusion of separateness that has come to an end. The illusion of being separate from the truth is what we understand as 'the ego.'

 

Some event may or may not happen, or some situation may not be to your liking, or circumstances may or may not be favourable. But as long as a person identifies himself with the body, the stress of death will not go away. What will you do? You will die. Stress will remain. So from the spiritual point of view, there is stress when we identify our existence with the body (which includes the senses, mind, intellect etc.). Or to put it another way, so far as there is ego, there is stress.

 

Everything that causes you sorrow is due to your ego. Everything. All these other factors - fear of not being loved, or guilt etc. - are also included in ego. They are products of ego. Ego includes everything.

 

When we feel that we are being used by somebody, or were used in the past, we feel sorrow because of this. We ask how and why it could happen, wondering if it was due to fear of not being loved or guilt. This is all because mind interprets events in that way and according to the characteristics of the individual. But ultimately it is the ego. Ego is the real problem. Ego means the illusion of identifying our existence with what we are not, and the sense of separateness from the infinite truth. That is the ego.

 

Can the ego ever disappear completely? This is a good question. My reply is: ego as existence - as 'is-ness' or as 'being' - never disappears, but the idea of existing separately disappears. The idea of separation from the totality disappears.

 

The most extraordinary thing in human life is to become ordinary and at peace. Bliss and love emerge only when the illusion of being extraordinary goes away.

 

Voluntary surrender of the Ego brings the greatest freedom.

 

Ego is the one element that is not destroyed fully by self-effort. The very thought that you have destroyed your ego is itself another form of ego. The thought that one is ego-less is itself a sign of ego.

 

When, in place of one's own comfort, one cares more for the comfort of others, this results in expansion and magnanimity. A person who thinks about his own comfort is considering only himself. Considering only himself means that his ego is there in the centre, and the ego gets hurt when anything is done which is not according to his or her liking. This hurt to the ego is what we know as unhappiness. When a person takes care of others, his attention is directed away from his ego. When his attention is directed away from his own ego and he finds that others are happy, happiness starts coming to him.

 

After the death of ego, the real 'I' which was concealed by ego comes into view. When you realise your own Self there remains no duality at all.

 

The largest number of problems are nothing but mental. There is no problem outside of you - in fact, at this time you are the problem. There is no problem, but you are the problem. Transform yourself and there will be no problem!

 

The individual realises that he is a part of the totality, therefore he exists for the totality and that the totality does not exist for him. He is the means and not the end. He is a means to serve the totality and, therefore, there is no place for separateness and ego.