Ego – the identity with self and the feeling of being separate from others is called Ahamkar in Hinduism. It is the sense of individuality which makes us feel separate from all creation and the Creator. The individual is made up of physical, energy, mental, karmic impressions of past, the higher intellect and the soul. The light of the soul is covered by the karmas and thoughts. Hence the individual identifies himself with the body and not the soul. He knows yet he forgets that the body is perishable. It can sicken and die at any time and the soul which is a spark of God is immortal. Our pre-existing thoughts and bondages take over our physical and mental self and create the illusion of separation. This is ego. The ego takes over charge of self and the gap between self and others in this world and between self and God keep on increasing with passage of time. Creating and widening duality by which we are made separate from others and God is the work of ego.
The entire cosmos is pervaded by Brahman or Divinity. Nothing exists apart from God and all is but God. Every part of creation is God and His Magnificence. The warp and woof of all life and universe is God. Ego does not recognise this fundamental truth. Ego makes us feel separate from all others. So we believe that we are the ones with special qualities and abilities which enable us to earn more wealth, possess more objects of desire, be more powerful, separate, distinct and unique from the rest of the creation. We indulge in a variety of activities which are geared towards strengthening and sustaining our ego and think of ourselves as the doer of action. When we identify ourselves with our bodies, thoughts and actions, we create the cycle of karma and we are born repeatedly till we learn the truth of our soul, God and the Oneness of all Creation.
The ego makes us believe that we are doing action and are responsible for our actions. So we perform our actions for sake of fruit of actions. When we do so, we bind ourselves to karma and more karma and are reborn again and again in the endless cycle of births and deaths to fulfil our karma. We bind ourselves to this mortal life and forget our Divine nature. All actions are performed by us by our inherent nature. Due to ego we believe that we are performing the action. The dilemma of going to war or staying away was faced by Arjun as he was overcome with ego and delusion and forgot his real Divine nature. Sri Krishna explained to him that the men in the opposite side of the field were slated for death due to their karma and Arjun was merely doing his duty as a Kshatriya prince who was fighting for dharma. When Arjun was able to detach himself from his ego, he became an efficient fighting machine and though he killed many thousands of soldiers, the taint of killing did not touch him as he did not see himself as the doer of action.
In order to perform to our maximum potential in this life, we need to let go of ego and offer our actions to God and also the fruits of our actions to Him. We should accept the results of our work as prasad or blessings from God and move on. Such an approach to life is called Karma Yoga. Karma Yoga is one of the easy ways to overcome ego and receive Grace of God as we perform karma or work daily and we do not need separate time for spiritual practices. Karma yoga is spiritual practice at every moment of life when we do our work. By Karma yoga we can dissolve our ego and the sense that we are performing action and we are responsible for the results. By doing so, we break the cycle of karma and that of birth and death.
Depending on how we approach our ego, it can be of great help or a hindrance in the path of our progress in our lives. When we overcome our ego either by bhakti or by karma we can live in peace and in balance. Pain, sorrow, happiness or success does not affect us and we are in perfect peace and balance. We see all as divine blessing and there is no sense of doership. We become free from desires and attachment. In such a state, grace of God descends and we are able to leap over the separation and see all as one and merge with the Light. Let us start our work of dissolving the ego at once with the regular practice of mantra japa of SitaRam and meditation and following the teachings of the Guru.
