Ego

Ego - a very small three letter word with the power to destroy what ever comes its way. Be it a loving heart, or an intelligent brain, this ego shatters peace in to a billion pieces.

Where does this ego reside? Where does it come from? Is there any living creature that has no traces of ego in it? I guess no! Ego steps in to our life right from the time we are born! What am I saying? Are kids egoistic too? Well, in my opinion, not really - but we can see some minor traces of ego even in the babies! 

The moment a baby notices his/her mom give attention to someone else, it starts crying. The moment the mother puts the baby down from her arms, it starts weeping. Not to forget the moments when we have been seen teasing a little one calling his toys as ours or his mom as ours. I have also seen some little kids behave weird and egoistic when we try to caress them or fondle them. But they are not aware of it. Nor do we realise that its actually a shade of ego popping up in to the little mind. At that instant we find it really cute and we repeatedly try to make them angry or jealous. And as the kids grow up, so does the ego. The other day I was shocked by a real incident where in a 10th standard student killed a 9th standard boy in his ego, to get the school shut and let the teachers be troubled! How shocking! We also see people beat up and kill each other due to sometimes silly and at times over big issues. What ever it is, uncontrolled ego is havoc.

 What I am trying to say is that ego is a natural response of our mind in response to certain things or events or matters or even people. Ego resides in every living creature in the world. There is nothing unusual in finding ego in anyone and everyone. But when does it become bothersome and cumbersome?

It becomes an issue when the ego isn't in our control but we are in it's control.  It is a matter of worry if we let this ego reign and get blinded by it. To illustrate this, lets look at a story. 

once there lived a very cruel man in a holy city. He was very egoistic about his physique and looks. But he was poor. He used to pray everyday to god for some help. One fine day a pious sage saw this man and prayed to god to help this man. God appeared before the sage and told him that this man was so egoistic and that his boon would go waste. The sage still insisted and then God began to prove it to the sage:

The cruel egoistic man used to travel on a certain path daily. God now filled the path with bundles of gold and diamonds. But this man was busy with his ego. He challenged some one about his powers and said that he would walk on the path blind folded. He was very sure that he wouldn't go wrong on the path that he has been treading since years. As he walked ahead, he stumbled upon the bundles of gold and diamonds, but the man walked away thinking them to be bundles of stones!

So what happens in moments of ego? we are blinded by our ego. We walk past several precious treasures unaware that they are treasures. Oh, what a loss! 

No, we cant become ego less and selfless totally but we can always try to avoid being blinded by our ego. One way to do it is to remind ourselves of how big the universe is, how big the planet is, how big the country is, how big the town is and how small our existence is! What am I in front of a trillion wonders of the world? Repeat it until you realize that you are but a small creature in this never ending world of creatures. Let ego go! Maintain healthy levels of self respect and be watchful that ego doesn't get in - in the disguise of self respect. How do you think we can control our ego?