SOME THOUGHTS ON EGO-1

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,Every one of you might be aware of what ego means. Nevertheless this humble self dares to share his understanding on ego with the members. Before going into the nuts and bolts of the term 'ego' I would like to share with you some kinds of live egoistic tendencies in day-to-day interactions. In India, when the milkman or newspaper delivery boy comes late in the morning, we start shouting on them pointing out the delay. A little later, if we are not greeted with a cup of hot coffee or tea by our better halves, we

find an occasion for show of our ego. As the hour passes in the day, we have more and more occasions to show our egoistic behaviour on various other individuals. Let us ponder as to why we react in such a fashion? Because we have certain false or exaggerated estimate about our own selves and we expect others to live upto our own expectations. Show of anger or self-pride takes place with the servant-maid, subordinates at workplace, even with friends and relatives. We often hear statements like," so and so offended my sentiments,or I felt insulted, or he pricked my ego etc. etc. Even while participating in spiritual/ devotional activities , very often we find the play of ego. For eg., a professional musician or singer would not like to give chorus during a Bhajan session, when the bhajan is led by non-professional singers. In Govt. and other parlances,there are protocols to be observed by various subordinate officials. Even a minor slippage in the protocol would invite exhibition of ego

by the boss. That is because there is expectation from the boss that his subordinate should show reverence, deference etc. etc. towards the boss. Since the subordinate did not come upto the expectation of the boss, the latter`s ego is pricked. Occasionally, when we make a genuine suggestion (may be uninvited) to somebody, be it one of our family member or friends, it is not liked by the person to whom the suggestion was made as evidenced by the reaction of that person. This is another example of egoistic behaviour. We can go on expanding on such examples. The root-cause for such a behaviour by individuals is their ego which is like an inflated balloon.

 

(to be continued)

G.Balasubramanian

[Guest guest]

Hariom

this ego can be controlled by remaining balanced in maan-apman,dukh-sukh,labh-hani,

all dvinds (TWO),garmi-sardi,etc

mggarga

--- On Sat, 6/27/09, G Balasubramanian <gbsub wrote:

G Balasubramanian <gbsub SOME THOUGHTS ON EGO-1 Cc: USBrahmins , Aryakrishti-Vedic-Dharma , "Bhagavataseva Bagavataseva" <BhagavataSeva >Saturday, June 27, 2009, 1:10 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Friends,Every one of you might be aware of what ego means. Nevertheless this humble self dares to share his understanding on ego with the members. Before going into the nuts and bolts of the term 'ego' I would like to share with you some kinds of live egoistic tendencies in day-to-day interactions. In India, when the milkman or newspaper delivery boy comes late in the morning, we start shouting on them pointing out the delay. A little later, if we are not greeted with a cup of hot coffee or tea by our better halves, we find an occasion for show of our ego. As the hour passes in the day, we have more and more occasions to show our egoistic behaviour on various other individuals. Let us ponder as to why we

react in such a fashion? Because we have certain false or exaggerated estimate about our own selves and we expect others to live upto our own expectations. Show of anger or self-pride takes place with the servant-maid, subordinates at workplace, even with friends and relatives. We often hear statements like," so and so offended my sentiments,or I felt insulted, or he pricked my ego etc. etc. Even while participating in spiritual/ devotional activities , very often we find the play of ego. For eg., a professional musician or singer would not like to give chorus during a Bhajan session, when the bhajan is led by non-professional singers. In Govt. and other parlances,there are protocols to be observed by various subordinate officials. Even a minor slippage in the protocol would invite

exhibition of ego by the boss. That is because there is expectation from the boss that his subordinate should show reverence, deference etc. etc. towards the boss. Since the subordinate did not come upto the expectation of the boss, the latter`s ego is pricked. Occasionally, when we make a genuine suggestion (may be uninvited) to somebody, be it one of our family member or friends, it is not liked by the person to whom the suggestion was made as evidenced by the reaction of that person. This is another example of egoistic behaviour. We can go on expanding on such examples. The root-cause for such a behaviour by individuals is their ego which is like an inflated balloon.

(to be continued)

G.Balasubramanian