Ego is the biggest stumbling block in our spiritual journey. Our ego separates us from experiencing the Divine or God within us. Having ego equates to leading our life with the myopic thinking that our existence is limited to our 5 senses, mind and intellect. All of us identify mainly with a lower view of ourselves to varying degrees. However, spiritual growth means transcending our lower selves and experiencing the Soul or the God Principle that resides in each of us.
Regardless of the Path we follow, if we have a high ego, spiritual progress cannot take place.
Instead of thinking that the ego will get eliminated automatically by performing spiritual practice, we should make conscious efforts to reduce ego. Some efforts at the practical level are given ahead :
1. Praying : When we pray earnestly to God with humility, we express our helplessness. This helps reduce ego. Some examples of prayers are :
O’ God ! Make me aware of aspects that inflate my ego.
O’ God ! Please create incidents in my life and place me in the company of individuals who will help me reduce my ego.
O’ God ! Please help me accept any feedback or mistakes which others are making me aware of.
2. Developing the quality of thinking about others helps reduce ego. We should make efforts at the practical level for this. For example – when we see that a family member has more workload, we can offer to iron the clothes or help them with things they need.
3. Doing physical chores such as cleaning utensils, cleaning the house, etc. helps reduce ego faster.
4. Think of how vast the Universe is and how small we are in comparison. Besides, think of the vastness of time and how short our lives are in comparison.
5. Have the perspective or bhav (Spiritual emotion) that everything is happening as per God’s wish or because of God.
6. Offering gratitude : By expressing gratitude, the doership (‘I did it’) is offered unto the Guru or God, and this helps reduce ego.
(To learn more, please visit : sanatan.org/en/)
| When one is educated on Spirituality as per his innate nature and interests, he develops a liking for sadhana sooner ! |
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Mr Yogesh Jaltare is the new Editor of Sanatan Prabhat Group of Periodicals