E G O

By

Achala Bhakthan

What is Ego?  What is its nature?  Is it harmful or helpful?

These are some of the questions raised by one of the aspirants who used to read my articles regularly.  It is a very intelligent question, which is common with all.  Let us look at the English Dictionary meaning. 

1. The part of the mind that has self-awareness.
2. Self-esteem
3. Activity devoted entirely to one’s own interests or feelings.

 Egotism in English Dictionary means “self conceit” or “selefishness” and Ego-centric is explained as “self-centered”.

To me, the third one above seems to be more apt and well described.  Any activity that we carry on with self-interest only is called Ego centric or self-centered activity.  The activity is performed for the benefit of self-alone, irrespective of its effects on others – other than me.  It never bothers about the feelings or sufferings that the activity creates on others.  The doer is interested only in his own benefits and enjoys the result in exclusion to others.  What is the entity Ego or what is its nature?  For this we have to find out the origin, the cause of rising of Ego.  Can anyone locate its source?  For this we have to first find out a situation where there is no Ego, which is very difficult, If not impossible, to find out.  Let us try. 

Consider the situation or state of mind of a child just born.  Has it any knowledge of the world and any feeling at the time of birth?  It cries on birth because it is brought from darkness (inside mother’s womb) and a soundless location to a state of brightness and a world full of sound.  It gets afraid by the sight and hearing.  That is all.  It experiences, for the first time, a fear.  That is all.  Can it think or re-act.  No.  However, during its growth, it is fondled by mother, father and various persons, who show love, kindness etc. etc. and teaches it words like Mumma, Puppa, Aunty etc. etc.  Due to repetitions, it picks up the sound wave and the words and slowly learns the language in due course.  It starts experiencing the feelings of love, hatred, kindness etc. etc. from the world outside.  Gradually, its sense organs start working and gathering stimuli from the world outside and its brain starts working.  When it grows, it starts talking and, probably trained by its relations,  it points to itself and says “I”.  This is the starting point of “I” as far as the child is concerned.  It points out to its chest while saying “I”.  That means, it identifies its body as the I.  When it talks about its feeling like “I want it”, “ I like it” etc. it identifies itself with the feelings (Mind) and when it distinguishes between colours and objects, it identifies itself with the Intellect.  Thus, we notice that the “I” (EGO) manifests itself  right in the childhood of all when the sense organs start working.  Therefore, can we safely answer the question “What is its nature?” as “the expression of ownership of BMI by an individual”?

Now let us consider the characteristics of EGO.  It is Self-esteem, Self-conceipt.  It is a feeling of possessiveness of objects - tangible and intangible.  If so, has it got an independent existence?  Not at all, since it is nothing but a feeling arising in us, which owns all activities performed at the BMI level.  This feeling is stemming out of the attachment to the BMI.  Let us look into a real situation in life.  You own a House.  Your friend comes to your house and stays with you for quite some time.  When guests come to your house, he poses to be the owner of the house and entertains them as though he is the real owner.  How do you feel?  What do you say to this?   You react angrily to him and call him a Mad person and declare to the guests that he is not the owner but you are.  Isn’t it?  Exactly, the Ego is your friend turned into an enemy.

It is, therefore, clear that EGO does not exist originally nor has it any pocessions.  But it tries to identify itself with the entire house (BMI) as if it is its own.  Actually, It sustains with the help of the 10 senses in our body – Gnanendriyaas and Karmendriyaas.  These Gnanendriyaas and Karmendriyaas are part of our Body and they bring stimuli from outside and react to it from within.  Gnanendriyas can be symbolized as the Media reporters, who collect information and news from the public and supply to the Medias.  Karmendriyaas can be equated to the Foreman and workers in the press who are printing the news as directed by the Editor, who gives directions to publish what news to publish and what not and how they should be presented etc.  Thus, these 10 organs in us are the focal points of activity in us. Eyes, Ears, Nose, Tongue and Skin are the sensing organs called Gnanendriyas (Organs of perception), because they bring Grnana, the knowledge, and perception about objects. Hands, Legs, Mouth, Excretory Organ and Genital Organ are the five Karmendriyaas which engage in activities, based on the orders from higher-ups, which comes out after analysis of the stimuli coming through Gnaanendriyaas from world outside.  Now, these indriyaas are part of our body and we can collectively call them as the Body.  But the indriyaas do not have the power to think, analyse, discriminate and give orders.  They only bring stimuli from outside and engage in action as directed by an independent authority.  Who is that?  Let us see the process of analyzing the stimuli and by whom and where it is processed etc.

The stimuli coming from outside bring old and new information by form, sound, smell, taste and touch feeling.  Everyone has an element called Vaasana in him, which is nothing but the rudimentary unfulfilled desires – a collection of desires unfulfilled earlier – and this vaasana picks up the stimuli that is congenial for it to experience by identifying it with the stored experience of the said stimuli.  New stimuli are analysed and compared with the existing ones and then accepted or rejected, based on the nature of wants existing in these Vaasanaas.  Every one has a store of past experiences with which these are compared and a decision arrived at whether a particular stimulus is to be accepted or not.  The decision is guided by the “likes” and “dislikes” already existing in us from past experiences. These likes and dislikes would have created various desires in us. If you pay attention to a thought, you get attached to it and you develop a desire to possess the object of the thought and make effort to get it.  If you do not get, you get disappointed and worried.  If you get it you rejoice and feel pleased.  Once you succeed you form more desires.  All these activities are going on in our MIND, which is nothing but a continuous thought flow.  CHITHAM has a store of past experiences and thoughts with which the comparison is done.  The Intellect in us is the one, which analyses these thoughts and compares with past experiences/thoughts and decides about the usefulness of any stimulus. Thus, the Intellect can be compared with the Editor of a Media.   However, the actions are taking place with the directions given by the “i” (EGO) in us.  This can be compared with the irrational owner of the media. The nature of actions depend upon the state of EGO, which is shaped up by past experiences, beliefs and its influence on the Gnanendriyaas and Karmendriyaas.  This EGO, is an abstract object, which has no shape or form or colour. And neither it is independent.  It is always attached to or identifies itself with the BMI (including the sense organs).  It is, therefore, affected by the actions and reactions, which are taking place at the BMI level because it is attached to them. If this EGO could function independently without attachment/ identification with the BMI, then there will be no EGO because it is dependent always – EGO vanishes.

The characteristic of EGO is the characteristic of that instrument/organ in BMI to which it attaches at any time.  Therefore, the characteristic varies all the time depending on the organ it gets attached to at any given time. When you say “I hear”, it is attached to ears.  At the saying that “I smell” it is at the Nose level, when it is felt that “I taste” It identifies with the Toungue etc. etc.  As EGO has no independent existence, it is easy to win over it, since if we win over the sense organs and Mind, we will be able to caste away the EGO.  It is, therefore, said that it is easy to overcome Ego if we know the technique.  It is nothing but a feeling of ownership of the above organs (Yajaman); it is the feeling of doer-ship of all actions (kartha); it is a feeling of enjoyer-ship of all results (Bhoktha).  These feelings arise due to ignorance (Avidhya), which casts a veil over the “I” (SAT), concealing our real nature (SATCHITANANDA). This imaginary relationship of SELF with the transient BMI created by the attachment or identification with BMI takes us far away from the real SELF.  In Vedantic terms, for a better understanding, we can this transient entity as “i” (EGO), i.e. unreal existence of a hypothetic entity called “Jaeevatma” (“i”), which is functioning in the materialistic realm, being always extrovert and going after Vishayaas (stimuli). This, I call as negative EGO, having negative influence in our life-style. Once you turn introvert and remove this identification/ attachment with BMI, then where will this EGO exist? – It loses its individuality and vanishes.

If the EGO is harmful, how to eradicate it?  GEETA prescribes four paths, Hata Yoga, Karma Yoga, Gnaana Yoga and Bhakthi Yoga.  We have already discussed in detail each of the three Yogas (except Hata Yoga) separately.  Please refer to these notes, as I do not want to repeat them here.  The Vedaas proclaim the Mahavakyaas :

TAT TWAM ASI  =  I am That                 AHAM BRAHMASMI = I am Brahman

Shift your possessiveness, and your identification/Attachment feelings from the BMI to SELF.    

 OM TAT SAT