Miscellaneous - Religion   

Overcome ego

CHENNAI: Among the impediments that dog a spiritual seeker throughout his quest for liberation from rebirths, the ego is the most difficult to overcome. As worldly identity and status are related to an individual’s learning, lineage, power and pelf they boost the human ego and make him forget his real identity as a serf of the Lord. Saints have reiterated that worldly attainments distance a devotee from God because the ego is very subtle and overpowers one’s reason.

In his discourse, Sri Sthalasayanachariar said a devotee must constantly remind himself that he was a trustee of all that he was blessed with for everything rightly belonged to God. If this knowledge does not consciously dictate one’s actions it is very easy to become materialistic and avaricious, and eventually stray from the spiritual goal. Moreover, all without exception, right from the common man to the creator of this universe, Brahma, are possessive about their assets. As for rulers they become greedy because they constantly wish to expand their territory. In his Tiruvaymozhi Nammazhwar draws attention to a popular story of an emperor who was reduced to a pauper to drive home the evanescent nature of worldly riches: “Contemplate quickly the feet of Tirunarayana and arise! For, monarchs who rule the world as one empire, do one day go begging, leg bitten by a black pregnant dog, bowl broken, shamed and scorned by the world.”

How can one guard oneself from succumbing to ego and greed? The Bhagavad Gita points out: “God abides in the heart of all creatures, causing them to revolve according to their Karma by His illusive power, seated as those beings are in the vehicle of the body.” So by remembering that what one enjoys is God’s dispensation according to one’s Karma, attachment to one’s belongings can be overcome. In a verse of the Tiruppavai, Andal says that the maidens who observed a ritualistic vow to attain Lord Krishna as the end declared when they reached Him that they had shed their ego and attachment to all their possessions with the knowledge that He was the omnipotent Lord of the entire creation thus making themselves eligible for His grace.

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