Fwd: EGO

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Hare Krsna Bewildered by false ego, strength, pride, lust and anger. PREVIOUS Bhagavad-gita 16.5, 21 Two men (standing where the stairway makes its turn) are being offered both liberation and bondage. One man looks upward, following the spiritual master who points toward Sri

Radha-Krsna. The other man embraces the demoniac qualities by accepting the garland offered by Maya, Krsna's illusory energy. Drawn by ropes which are held by the personifications of lust, greed, and anger, he follows her down the steps. At the bottom he is reaching for Maya, and gliding towards hell. NEXT .... http://www.asitis.com/gallery/plate38.html The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes

of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities, which are in actuality carried out by nature. GITA 3:27 Two persons, one in Krsna consciousness and the other in material consciousness, working on the same level, may appear to be working on the same platform, but there is a wide gulf of difference in their respective positions. The person in material consciousness is convinced by false ego that he is the doer of everything. He does not know that the mechanism of the body is produced by material nature, which works under the supervision of the Supreme Lord. The materialistic person has no knowledge that ultimately he is under the control of Krsna. The person in false ego takes all credit for doing everything independently, and that is the symptom of his nescience. He does not know that this gross and subtle body is the creation of material

nature, under the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as such his bodily and mental activities should be engaged in the service of Krsna, in Krsna consciousness. The ignorant man forgets that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is known as Hrsikesa, or the master of the senses of the material body, for due to his long misuse of the senses in sense gratification, he is factually bewildered by the false ego, which makes him forget his eternal relationship with Krsna. SRILA PRABHUPADA Capil Sookdeo ------------------------ HINDU PERSPECTIVEDHARMA THE CAT: EPISODE 7 - "EGO"by Dr Greg

Bailey[view the cartoon] Ego is the most difficult thing we all have to master, Bodhi all the more so because a monk is supposed virtually to have extinguished the ego. When we know ourselves, as the Oracle of Delphi recommendedlong ago, do we know only the ego or something deeper and transcendent we have so much difficulty in grasping? Dharma, of course, true to his name already knows the deceptiveness present in thinking ego can easily be supressed and eradicated. The immediate difficulty, recognized in Buddhist meditational practice, is that our feeling of ego is helped along by the language we speak. It is so easy to transfer the linguistic unity of "I", "me" and "mine" into something else that unites one as an individual. For Hindus ego is what prevents a person from gaining in spiritual advancement. This maxim is found everywhere:

from the most sophisticated philosophical text, to the most emotional of devotional practices and to the most sublime poetry. Ego blocks the pathway to the higher self, that which communicates with the divine. The Sanskrit word for ego translates literally as "I-maker". It is much easier to translate than the word normally translated as "soul", as the latter has no referent outside of itself. Ego drives activity and will. In doing so it produces karma and rebirth. Above all it conspires to make the individual think that the mentally and physically active part of what drives him or her is the real locus of existence. It is both the foundation of meaning and the means whereby the individual will express this meaning. Unhappily it is really the source of spiritual ignorance and the first step to be taken by any person who places themselves on a path to enlightenment - however this might be conceived - is to recognize the ego for what it is and then to supress it.

This does not mean destroying it, only setting it in its proper place. In the famous Hindu text, the Bhagavadgita, Arjuna was not able to realize Krishna as the highest god until he had brought about the supression of his ego. In the earliest chapters of this book he is depicted arguing constantly with Krishna, as if he is pitting his own will against the divine. But this is the rub. He must do this. He must confront and conquer his ego in an act of self-sacrifice. In truth his own "self" is identical with Krishna's "self", yet this flash of insight will emerge only when Arjuna can see beyond the limited self created by ego. Which brings us back to Bodhi. Dharma already knows ego should be discovered and left to lie dormant. Hence he can sleep easily. It is not for him to strive after a false conception of self. Only Bodhi strives to complete himself in a way utterly recognizable as belonging to himself. But where is his own self? Is it in his

body, or is it in his shadow? From a Hindu perspective he has created a duality where none should exist. Unwittingly he has regained his own ego he had claimed to have lost, whilst recreating the spiritual duality upon which ego so thrives. Don't pick lemons.

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