{"id":3995,"date":"2013-07-13T01:52:46","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3995"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:52:46","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:46","slug":"53-the-ego-vol-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/03-questions-and-answers-volume-03\/53-the-ego-vol-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-53_The Ego.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\nThe Ego <\/font> <\/span><\/b>
\n
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

If a
\nman holds himself dear, let him guard himself closely. The sage should watch
\nthrough one of the three vigils of his existence (youth, maturity, or old age).
\n<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

One
\nshould begin by establishing oneself in the right path; then, one will be able
\nto advise others. Thus the sage is above all reproach. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

If
\none puts into practice what he teaches to others, being master of himself, he
\ncan very well guide others; for in truth it is difficult to master oneself. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In
\ntruth, one is one’s own master, for what other master can there be? By
\nmastering oneself, one acquires a mastery which is difficult to achieve. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The
\nevil done by himself, originated by himself, emanating from him, crushes the
\nfool as the diamond crushes a hard gem. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Just
\nas the creeper clings to the Sal tree, even so one entrapped by his own evil
\nactions does to himself the harm his enemy would wish him. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It is
\nso easy to do oneself wrong and harm, but how difficult it is to do what is
\ngood and profitable! <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The
\nfool who, because of his wrong views, rejects the teachings of the adepts, the
\nNoble Ones and the Just, brings about his own destruction, as the fruit of the
\nbamboo kills the plant.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Doing
\nevil, one harms oneself; avoiding evil, one<\/span><\/i>  <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 239<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span>purifies oneself; purity and impurity depend
\non ourselves; no one can purify another. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

No
\nman should neglect his supreme Good to follow another, however great. Knowing
\nclearly what is his best line of conduct, he should not swerve from it. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The question here seems to be more about egoism than ego. <\/span><\/p>\n

Egoism is a relatively easy thing to
\ncorrect, because everyone knows what it is. It is easy to discover, easy to
\ncorrect, if one truly wants to do it and is bent on it. <\/span><\/p>\n

But the ego is much more difficult to
\nseize, because, in fact, to realise what the ego is one must already be out of
\nit, otherwise one cannot find it out. You are wholly moulded from it, from head
\nto foot, from the outermost to the innermost, from the physical to the
\nspiritual, you are steeped in ego. It is mixed with everything and you are not
\naware of what it is. You must have already conquered it, come out of it, freed
\nyourself from it, at least partially, at least in some little corner of your
\nbeing somewhere, in order to realise what the ego is. <\/span><\/p>\n

The ego is what helps us to individualise
\nourselves and what prevents us from becoming divine. It is like that. Put that
\ntogether and you will find the ego. Without the ego, as the world is organised,
\nthere would be no individual, and with the ego the world cannot become divine. <\/span><\/p>\n

It would be logical to conclude, \u201cWell,
\nlet us first of all become conscious individuals and then we shall send away
\nthe ego and become divine.\u201d Only, when we have become conscious individuals, we
\nhave grown so accustomed to living with our ego that we are no longer able to
\ndiscern it and much labour is needed to become aware of its presence. <\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, everyone knows what
\negoism is. When you want to pull everything towards you and other people do not
\ninterest you, that is called egoism; when you put yourself at the centre of the
\nuniverse and all things exist only in relation <\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 240<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

to you, that is egoism. But it is very obvious, one must be blind
\nnot to see that one is egoistic. Everybody is a little egoistic, more or less,
\nand at least a certain proportion of egoism is normally acceptable; but even in
\nordinary life, when one is a little too egoistic, well, one receives knocks on
\nthe nose, because, since everyone is egoistic, no one much likes egoism in
\nothers.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is taken for granted, it is part of
\npublic morality. Yes, one must be a little bit egoistic, not too much, so it is
\nnot conspicuous! On the other hand, nobody speaks of the ego, because nobody
\nknows it. It is such an intimate companion that one does not even recognise its
\nexistence; and yet so long as it is there one will never have the divine
\nconsciousness. <\/span><\/p>\n

The ego is what makes one conscious of
\nbeing separate from others. If there were no ego, you would not perceive that
\nyou are a person separate from others. You would have the impression that you
\nare a small part of a whole, a very small part of a very great whole. On the
\nother hand, every one of you is most certainly quite conscious of being a
\nseparate person. Well, it is the ego that gives you this impression. As long as
\nyou are conscious in this way, it means that you have an ego. <\/span><\/p>\n

When you begin to be aware that everything
\nis yourself, and that this is only a very small point in the midst of thousands
\nand thousands of other points of the same person that you are everywhere, when
\nyou feel that you are yourself in everything and that there is no separation,
\nthen you know that you are on the way towards having no more ego. <\/span><\/p>\n

There even comes a time when it is
\nimpossible to conceive oneself and say, \u201cIt is not I\u201d, for even to express it
\nin this way, to say that the All is you, that you are the All or that you are
\nthe Divine or that the Divine is you, proves that something still remains.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a moment \u2013 this happens in a
\nflash and can hardly stay\u00a0 <\/span>when it is the
\nAll that thinks, it is the All that knows, it is the All that feels, it is the
\nAll that lives. There is not even… not even the impression that… you have
\nreached that point.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 241<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Then it is all right. But until then,
\nthere is still a little remnant of ego somewhere; usually it is the part which
\nlooks on, the witness that looks on. <\/span><\/p>\n

So do not assert that you have no more
\nego. It is not accurate. Say you are on the way towards having no more ego,
\nthat is the only correct thing to say. <\/span><\/p>\n

I do not believe that it has happened to
\nyou, has it?–not yet! And yet it is indispensable, if you truly intend to know
\nwhat the supramental is. If you are a candidate for supermanhood, you must
\nresolve to dispense with your ego, to go beyond it, for as long as you keep it
\nwith you, the supermind will be for you something unknown and inaccessible. <\/span><\/p>\n

But if through effort, through discipline,
\nthrough progressive mastery, you surmount your ego and go beyond it, even if
\nonly in the tiniest part of your being, this acts like the opening of a small
\nwindow somewhere, and by looking carefully through the window, you will be able
\nto glimpse the supermind. And that is a promise. When you glimpse it, you find
\nit so beautiful that you immediately want to get rid of all the rest… of the
\nego!<\/span><\/p>\n

Please note that I am not saying that you
\nmust be totally free from all ego in order to have a glimpse of the
\nsupramental; for then that would be something almost impossible. No, to be free
\nfrom ego, just a little bit somewhere, in some corner of your being, even only
\na little corner of the mind; if it is the mind and the vital, it is well and
\ngood, but if by chance \u2013 oh! not by chance \u2013 if by repeated efforts you have
\nentered into contact with your psychic being, then the door is wide open.
\nThrough the psychic you can suddenly have a very clear and beautiful vision of
\nwhat the supermind is, only a vision, not a realisation. That is the great way
\nout. But even without going so far as this beautiful realisation, the psychic
\nrealisation, if you succeed in liberating some part of your mind or your vital,
\nthat makes a kind of hole in the door, a keyhole; through this keyhole you have
\na glimpse, just a little glimpse. And that is already very attractive, very
\ninteresting. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>2 May 1958<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 242<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\t<\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ego \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0   If a man holds himself dear, let him guard himself closely. The sage should watch through one of the three vigils…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","wpcat-115-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3995\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}