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!
...
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. :-)