Liebe Besucher,
Liebe Devotees,
nach monatelanger intensiver und freudiger Arbeit an dieser Webseite zusammen mit unserer Webdesignerin bin ich sehr glücklich, dass nun alles soweit vollendet ist. Heute am 9.9.2016
ist zudem der Erscheinungstag von Shrimati Radharani, ein äußerst glücksverheißender Tag
für die Premiere unseres Forums und dieser Webseite als Ganzes.
Anstelle von Verhaltensregeln möchte ich einfach alle TeilnehmerInnen höflich darum bitten,
nett zueinander zu sein und auch bei Meinungsverschiedenheiten – die naturgemäß immer irgendwann bei Diskussionen auftreten werden – stets den guten Ton zu wahren.
Ich freue mich auf einen regen Austausch.
Euer Vedanta
Ego: Merciless Tyrant Within
Merciless Tyrant Within: Material Ego
His Holiness Shri Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji Maharaja
The ego comes into the picture once the mind makes the "like" or "dislike" label. The ego is the boss of the senses, and it commands the body to take action to support the mind's likes or dislikes. So, after the mind labels the experience as like or dislike, then the ego says, "We've got to do something about this!" If mind labels it as "like," then ego tells the body to get more of it - whether it is food, sex, praise, clothes, make-up, drugs, chocolate, money, attention...it doesn't matter what the item is. Ego's approach is simple:
Mind says I like it. So, I want more of it. I will make the body get me more of it.
Getting more of it is a way that the ego keeps it's image of itself alive. "Like" is the minds' indicator to the ego that whatever the material object is supports the ego's idea of who I think I am. Ego tells itself stories about how I am a caring person. I am smart. I am pretty. And it always is in comparison to others. I am more caring, more knowledgeable, more pretty than her. And then it does things to keep this story alive. Ego is selfish so it does not care about how others around it feel, in particular, how ones actions affect others. A person driven by material ego will do whatever it takes to keep their image of themselves alive, trampling and completely forgetting about other people's feelings whom they are in relation with. We are not aware of it, even though we all do this to some extent. To make matters worse, not only is material ego selfish, it is also a bully. It bullies the intelligence to work for it and to give it rationalizations on how what it is doing is okay, and right. Intelligence will say things to support the ego like:
It's okay to challenge the Guru, criticize the Guru, and control the Guru because he doesn't know as much as me. He only knows some things. He needs to listen to me and do what I say.
A good exercise is to honestly watch our own ego and to notice these patterns of rationalizing our material ego's likes and dislikes, to see just how frequent and prevalent they are in our mind's daily chatter and in our behaviors. If we are not able to clearly see, which no ego wants to be exposed like this, then one idea is to ask the people whom you are close to and that you interact with in your daily life. They might be able to shed some light on ways in which your ego has affected them. If, however, ego is under the influence of sattva, it may sacrifice for others and feel superior.
- Great thanks to Joshika for sharing!
