Random Replies

Still in response to “The Egoistic Me”, and “Cruise Control”:
Okay, yes, I admit I digressed a lot in my previous post, due to its irrelevance to the context you brought up the “ego” issue. The Ayn Rand’s book is nevertheless a good read, and is still in context, by the way. Now that you wrote another post that tangentially takes off on the concept of ego, I shall try to organize my thoughts on both these posts.

Ego doesn’t necessary mean bad, I reiterate anyway. What makes ego bad is disrespect towards others’ ego. About the bad ego, I am with you. Luck, in itself, is inexplicable, and how snugly it fits into the picture of ego is a different thing. What you said is right – people blame luck when they lose or the other one wins, and this is bad ego. However, as long as you regard others’ ego to be as big as your own, I think you’re not wrong or overconfident in assuming that it was your capability and planning that helped you achieve. Well, that’s enough said about Ego.

Routine is always monotonous, in fact, on the road or not, since the ride goes on. You’ve got a good analogy there – about road and life – but it’s only partially seen. Like we spoke, road is largely under control by rules of the government, and life is only influenced, not governed, by the rules of the society. It’s your choice to take which road you want, when to drive, how to go about the whole ride, who to take along, etc., and all this, in my humble opinion, is as important as the analogy that you struck on.

There’re other ways of looking at the Ferrari example – the Ferrari is neither your ego nor does it depict the lack of chance to prove yourself; it may be that you are in no hurry, and want to let the Cadillac pass anyway, with due respects to the “old Cadillac”. Or, may be, you do not want to be in the big bully’s path! See? Are these bad too?

By the way, is “cruising ahead” the soul goal or not? You seem to have contradicted yourself! I might agree that cruising ahead is not the soul goal, but then, staying put is not allowed by the rules of the society anyway; you should move anyway – choices, such as the direction you take, the speed you go, etc. are still in your hand! And, why do you think “reaching home safe is the foremost goal” for the soul? Is there a home, anyway? Which one are we talking about now?

Delay is not defeat, yes, but isn’t “defeat” the word in the dictionary of “ego” most of the times? Is that bold-facetype font addressed to the ego of yourself and/or the co-passengers? Ah, the co-passengers! You call them “real mess”? That’s only when you let them speak so loud as to influence or disturb your concentration on the road. Play your own music, and make sure they enjoy it too!

Continue blogging and I’ll ride along too.

The Ego... Me or You

This comes as a reply to “The Egoistic Me” (with permission from the original author):

Like I told you already, brother, you spoke only of the negative ego, and never mentioned there was a positive counterpart! Thus, here I go, starting with some italicized text that I wrote in a different context a few years ago. (References such as maaya or Rebirth bear relevance to the original context, and may thus be ignored.) I am no philosopher by training, but I feel that most of my rambling is acceptably true.

“Ego” is not always bad. In fact, “ego” is what keeps oneself very much in this world. If one is not egoistic, one cannot “feel” or “exist”, or even “exist the feelings” or “feel the existence”! Ego is not selfishness or self-centric nature. Ego is oneness – the true belief in “one” existence – the essence of most of the world’s philosophy. The nature of the human mind may define it narrowly sometimes and in some cases, but it’s not as harmful as it’s thought to be! That’s why most philosophies of the world preach that ego must be sustained, while life itself must be trivialized!
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Equating ourselves with our desires is the famous and debatable maaya! Once we realize this and hold our “ego” higher than our “desire” and not worry/care about “hypocrisy”, the maaya is shattered for good! The “ego” is then the only existing entity – yours or mine does not matter! It’s The Ego! This is the unification of the jeeva-atma and the parama-atma! If an entity called God exists (as one or in multitude), the Gods unify into one, and that one identifies itself with The Ego. Death of The Ego never occurs – it’s eternal – the Absolute! Where, then, is the question of Rebirth? Or, would you know ever if there’s a Rebirth at all? The Ego diminishes in itself, shrinks, expands, fills the world, divides itself,
establishes itself in multitude, ...it’s the same Soul in every being – It never dies, it never withers, it never deteriorates, ...all It does is “exist”.
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A disciple (unable to recollect his name – was it Ramananda?) suggested Vivekananda in his last days that the latter should undergo surgery for his kidney trouble, and that money will pour in to aid the Master. The Master ­–Swami Vivekananda – replied: “Why don’t you understand? I cannot live in this body any more! It’s too worn out to hold me! I need more space. I need to spread out into the world and carry out my deed...” (paraphrased from one of the publications by Sree Ramakrishna Math) – This “I” is the Ego!

I agree you already stated we’re not all Vivekananda-s. Well, of course, but we can take the good of what he said, like most other things we might have learnt from someone else including Vivekananda, can’t we?

Finally, not to make it too long, I’d end here for now, suggesting you to read Ayn Rand’s Anthem. :-)