The Hidden Enemy Part V: Ego & How It Is Fuelled.

Continued from Part IV

As we have already discussed in the previous articles, ego is just the image of yourself on you through the eyes of the people. It mostly depends on what they have made you feel about yourself. You feel good about yourself when the ego (i.e. whatever you think you are) is confirmed by the people around you through their actions or reactions and that makes you feel happy. Similarly when one feels that the self image is getting invalidated through how people behave with oneself, one gets irritated, sad, miserable and unhappy. You feel bad about yourself. We have also seen that ego starts controlling us as soon as we find someone in vicinity and stealthily people become a part of us by creeping  into our thoughts and generating a vice like grip on them. We lose our connection with reality and true nature and get trapped in society assuming it to be the ultimate truth because the most marvellous gift of nature, the human mind has been usurped by people who are now controlled by how others behave with them. The mind is now limited in its performance and the most beautiful endowment of Mother Nature, the human life is now full of miseries. 

The ego once firmly planted in our mind is constantly growing.

The Sages of Ancient India found out that it grows by feeding on attracting attention.

Whether we accept it or not, whether we realise it happening to us or not, we all are always being compelled by our ego to attract attention by doing or saying whatever we are doing or saying. It works in a very subtle manner and most of us do not see it happening within us (although we always see it happening in others by noticing the way they behave).

We all try to attract attention in some way or the other. We all dress up in a certain way, try to talk intelligently, discuss our tastes, do our best to look beautiful and impress it upon others that we care, that we are polite and kind and that we are so much very like those around us in whatever values are held by them.

When no one pays attention to us we tend to feel down and out and empty. The ego becomes starved and hurt. It propels us to act irrationally and we do the stupidest of conceivable acts.

Most people do not even know how intricately this subtle tendency to attract attention is ingrained in them.

The Ego feeds upon gaining social acceptance, on throwing false impressions upon others, on lying, on the compliments offered by others, on criticizing others, on downsizing others, on show off, on lecturing others, on telling others what is right for them and what is wrong, on complaining, on preaching, on finding fault in others, on giving opinion without being asked to etc.

The Sages of Ancient India also found out that the Ego being false is never comfortable with itself.

Our Ego always knows that no matter what we think we are, our self image is incomplete and is flawed and baseless. If you look around yourself you will see that one constantly regrets what one is. At the same time one also always regrets what one is not. In this process, one always tends to impress upon others and also upon oneself that one is different from what one assumes oneself to be.

In other words our Ego is at constant conflict with itself and makes our minds restless and strained, taking away the natural calm that one is born with and which wanes away with the growth of Ego within us. We come in conflict with others and with ourselves.

                            ... Continued into Part VI