All of us have ego and some of us are extremely egoistic. We have very high opinion about ourselves and we like to hear similar words of our supposed greatness and praises from others. False compliments are flattery. Flattery is very pleasing to the ego. Our ego craves for attention. When someone flatters us, our ego is getting that attention and praises that it craves for. When we let go of common sense and indulge in being ego-centric, we enjoy the company of those who flatter us. Their presence and words inflate our ego further and make us feel very good.
A person of normal intelligence has awareness when someone pays him a sincere compliment and also knows when someone is flattering him/her. Flattery is false praise and always sounds insincere. But when our ego is inflated we are unable to distinguish between praise and flattery and accept insincere words as being right and true. Our vanity makes the false praises acceptable and welcome. Padding our ego with insincere words that are not true leads to our downfall. A person who likes flattery is vulnerable from all sides and can be hit and attacked at anytime. We should beware of those who flatter us – they are like vicious wolves who parade as friendly dogs. The story below illustrates this truth:
There lived a mighty elephant in a forest. He was huge and very powerful. He was brutal, haughty and egoistic by nature. He used to roam the forest without restraint and pull down trees and rip branches off the trees, without any purpose. He crushed innumerable nests with eggs and destroyed nestlings under his massive feet. All the animals in the forest were afraid of him. Even the tigers and the lions kept their distance from this elephant. No one was able to say anything to him, hurt him or kill him because of his gigantic size and ego.
Once, this elephant destroyed the burrows of jackals mercilessly during one of his strolls. The jackals were full of rage and called for a meeting. They were prepared to go to any extent to save their group. But killing the mighty elephant was not a small task. They discussed the strength and fierceness of the rogue animal and his weaknesses. Suddenly an old jackal volunteered to bring about the death of the mighty animal. His plan was based on cunningness and appeasing the ego of the elephant. There was no way the old jackal could match the huge animal in strength or ferocity.
The next day, the old jackal went to the elephant and bowed to him respectfully. He said: O Great One who possesses immeasurable strength, I bow to you. You are a great being. You are kind hearted, gentle and possess qualities of a leader. I come on behalf of all the animals of the forest to beg you to be our ruler. Your special qualities as leader make us choose you as our king. So kindly accept and rule us with your wisdom and compassion. I am here to take you to a gathering in the middle of the forest where all animals await your coronation. The astrologers have calculated the auspicious time and we must hurry. Please come with me. Hurry!
The elephant puffed with pride and self importance. He always wanted to be the King of the Jungle. So he accompanied the jackal to the place where the coronation was to be held. On the way, they walked through a swampy area. The old jackal walked easily over the swamp due to his lesser weight and light-footedness. The elephant stepped on the swamp and started sinking. His huge weight pulled him down. He was frightened and asked the jackal to bring the other animals to help him out. The jackal replied: You are cruel and ruthless and have killed many in the jungle without a second thought. You deserve to die in this manner. The jackal walked off and the elephant was sucked in by the bog.
Our ego prompts us to believe in lies and we cause our own downfall. Let us learn to overcome ego and give up lies and flattery. The mind and ego can be overcome by the SitaRam Mantra, meditation and teachings of the Guru.
