People have been talking about getting rid of their egos for a very long time. They feel that it is their ego that causes the unpleasantness happening around them. So what exactly is ego and how can you overcome it? Keep reading further to know.
The Personality
Essentially, ego means when someone overestimates himself/herself. People sometimes also call it their ahamkara, self-esteem, atman, etc. What really happens is when we come into society, we want to fit in it and be approved by the people around us.
So we end up creating a false personality of ourselves which falls in sync with the trends of contemporary society. When someone does not like or approve of that personality, we are devastated. That personality is the ego.
More often than not, people create ego for themselves very early on, that too unconsciously. And they want others to recognize and pamper it.
The Consequence
As a result of the creation of a false personality, we do not realize what we truly are. We have already killed ourselves to be temporarily validated by others. Because of this ego, we start thinking too highly of ourselves.
We view those people as fools who think they are perfect, but we do not realize we are doing it ourselves as well. Sometimes, this goes a step further. When something good happens to us or we do something good, we conclude that we did it.
But when something unpleasant happens, or we make a mistake by doing something wrong because of trying to pamper our image and self-esteem, we say that it’s the ego that did it, and not us.
What happens is we have split ourselves into two different personalities inside us, one good and one bad. Today’s doctors call such a condition a multiple personality disorder. Just because it is not severe, does not mean it is not there.
What to Do?
One thing that we can do is to stop living for other people’s validation and approval and hence, stop trying to become the people we are not. This will eventually stop us from creating unnecessary personalities.
The other course of action is spirituality. Spirituality does not just mean that you sit cross-legged and eyes closed for a few minutes every day and the ego will suddenly disappear. For this, you need to first see and acknowledge the fact that when you do something good or bad, or something good or bad happens to you, it is not the ego that does it.
All the consequences that you face in life are of your actions. You are the cause of what you face in your life. Furthermore, because of ego, people become so full of themselves and always occupied with themselves that they cannot live their lives properly.
They cannot perceive the beauty that creation is and what they truly are. The spiritual path helps you become sensitive to life, and slowly break the limitations you have created for yourself in the form of ego, provided you are willing.