I am so beautiful. I am so rich. I am so qualified. I am....
The word I, the false self perception, the misindentification of ourselves with this temporary material body is the root cause of all kinds of negativity and evil energies stemming within our hearts like pride, dissatisfaction, anger, hatred, bewilderment. It is imperative to recognize that we are all victims of this material disease called 'Ego' which arises due to illusion and thinking that we are greater or superior than people around us.
Let me share a story that greatly inspired me.
Once a sculptor in a village made a beautiful idol of a goddess and thought of selling it at a good price in the city. So he loaded the idol on his donkey and started towards the city. When he was going through the village, the villagers bowed in front of the idol as it looked like a real goddess. Whichever street he crossed, a crowd would bow in front of the idol.
But a strange thing happened. The Donkey, which was carrying the idol, thought that he was special and that was the reason why people were bowing to him. He was thrilled with his newfound respect.
Soon the sculptor returned after selling the idol. While he was crossing the village, the donkey stopped in the middle of the road, expecting a warm welcome. But nobody paid attention to him. The donkey felt insulted and started braying, so much so, that the villagers drove him away.
The same mistake, what the donkey did, is what most of us do. Whether we are progressing in our education, our careers or earn puny milestones in our personal lives, when we achieve small accomplishments in our day-to-day activities or even when we are on the divine path of self-realization, with God's grace, a glow enters our demeanor and we stand out in the crowd. People respect us and often bow in respect. But we should realize that people are bowing not to us but to that glimpse of God whom they realize resides within us. So the credit of this respect goes, solely to God, not to us. If we start taking the credit, we cross the thin line of demarcation and enter into an arena of false ego, which God never approves of, rather dislikes the most.
When we are materially contaminated, we are called conditioned. False consciousness is exhibited under the impression that I am a product of material nature. This is called false ego. One who is absorbed in the thought of bodily conceptions cannot understand his situation.
Out beyond our egos, out beyond the need to be right, out beyond the need for credit and for glory is a field of pure consciousness, love and cognizance of the divine source that we all came from, our Creator - God.
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 God. 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 God or Krishna, in spiritual consciousness. The ignorant man forgets that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is known as Hrishikesha, 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 Krishna.
This tight knot of false ego is due to ignorance. As long as one is ignorant about his identity, he is sure to act wrongly and thereby become entangled in material contamination. This ignorance of factual knowledge can only be dissipated by developing a mood of humility, a service attitude. Always thinking that we are simply servants of the servants of God. When we start seeing things in this light, the balloon of Ego would no longer inflate within us as we effortlessly transcend the material modes of nature that bind us. By making conscious efforts to develop this attitude of humility, we would soar higher, rise to a higher plane where there is no longer space for I, me or myself but we only envision and seek pleasure in the divine love for God, for His parts and parcels, His beautiful creations.
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