Let Go of the Ego
Who is the one that says 'I'?
Who says this is 'mine' and that is 'my'?
It is our Ego that makes us cry,
Isn't it time to bid the Ego goodbye?
In the journey of life, we all experience hate, anger, jealousy, and revenge. But we rarely stop to understand the cause of it. These negative toxins arrive because of our ego. Ego means 'I'. We find ourselves constantly saying, 'This is my house, my car, my wife, my family.' What makes us say so? It is the ego. Although we know that when we come to this world, we bring nothing and when we go, we can take nothing with us, still we are bound by the cravings of the ego that make us believe that the people and possessions belong to us and this makes us miserable.
Most of us know that while it is good to have a healthy self- esteem, the ego can be very damaging. It becomes attached to our loved ones and our material wealth and eventually, we become miserable because of the ego.
Those who understand life, realize that they must let go of the ego. It is not easy to do so as we live imprisoned in a body-mind complex. From the time we are born, we are given a unique identity. We live believing that we are the name, with a nationality and a religion, that makes us who we are. Because we don't realize we are not this body, we also don't realize that this identity is fake. We are the ones who are alive inside, but the ego identifies us to be what we appear on the outside.
Giving up the ego means realizing that we are not the ones the world thinks us to be. However, we don't have to give up our possessions or break ties with all the people in our life when we live beyond being the ego. Letting go of the ego means not being attached to anything, whether it is a person or a product. Ultimately, nothing will be ours. We must realize this truth. This will help us to live, letting go of the ego. Because of the ego, we are not able to realize that we are manifestations of the Divine. God is within us. God is the Power that makes our heart, beat. Although we read this, and most scriptures advocate it, why don't we believe it? Even though we believe it, the Mind along with the Ego, ME, creates a veil between us and the Divine within. The ME acts like a layer of dark clouds that blocks us from seeing the beautiful blue sky and the sunshine. Although we are aware of how the dark clouds block the beautiful Sun, we are not aware that the ego blocks our vision of truth and we continue to live blinded by ignorance due to the ego. If only we let go of the ego, we will find God.
The reality of life is that we are all nothing but the Divine Soul. The body may appear to be, but in reality, we are Divine energy. The wise men and the sages of ancient civilizations used to say this thousands of years ago. Today, science endorses it. We human beings are nothing but energy though we appear to be a mass of cells that becomes identified by the ego.
Those who discover the truth of life learn the art of letting go of the ego, they realize that we are all the Divine Soul. In the end, the body that we think is us, will die and return to dust. If we think we are the ego, then along with the mind, we become the ME and we create Karma through our actions. Thereafter, the ego is born again and again, to suffer its past actions and invariably it suffers on earth.
Those who let go of the ego, realizing it is an illusion, do not take ownership of any action. They act as an instrument of the Divine and they do not create any Karma. All the carried forward Karma disappears and dissolves at death, as they let go of the Ego.
What happens next? Those who live letting go of their ego, become Jivanmuktas. They are realized human beings who are liberated when alive. At death, when the body returns to dust, they are liberated from the cycle of death and rebirth and they experience unification with the Divine. The mention of this can be traced back to the ancient story of the Kathopanishad, wherein Yama, the Lord of death is in conversation with Nachiketa. Nachiketa learns the secret that if we let go of the ego, we will become one with God.
The Ego is a wild monster. It will never let us believe that 'I' am not 'I'. It will never let us go on a quest to realize the truth, 'Who am I?' It wants us to be imprisoned in ignorance, as we live identifying ourselves with the body and mind, which we are not. Although we are the Divine Soul, the ego does not permit us to realize this.
The ego will never let go of us. We must make a conscious effort to let go of the ego. We must realize that we are not the ego, mind and body that is always saying, ‘This is me.’ We must learn to disassociate ourselves from our ego if we want to be truly free.
Those who do not let go of the ego, never achieve their ultimate goal of liberation and unification. They continue to live as an embodied Soul, as they suffer, and they are born again and again. Although we are Divinity, manifesting as a human being, the ego hides this truth from us, making us prisoners. It's time to break free. We must let go of the ego!
IN A NUTSHELL