The problem of ego

Please enjoy the following extract of a talk given by Shri Mataji, founder of Sahaja Yoga, in London on the 22nd October 1979 on the problems of ego.

“Those who have come for the first time should sit in front, is better, you see I can look after you better. Alright? Just put your hands like this (palm upwards).

Today, I was thinking of telling you about the ego problem, because I think everybody feels that that’s the biggest problem they all have, and there’s a big ego trip one gets into, and they don’t know what to do with it. So first part I will tell you how the ego rises and what it does to us; the second how to understand it, how to tackle the position of ego and put it in it’s own aspect.

As you see in the map here, the yellow stuff that you see on top is the ego, the balloon that is yellow is the ego. You see down below it starts from the Swadisthana. This is the color of the bile within us, and this Swadisthana chakra which is, for our creativity, is directly connected to that ego there, and when it starts rotating… round the Void and going to the various parts of the Void… it collects all the problems of the Void. Void is that green circle within us where physically we have, in the Void, we have uterus, we have kidney, it’s a complete viscera. All the intestines, ascending, transverse, descending colon, liver, is the upper part of liver more, then also pancreas and the spleen. So all the problems of these organs are collected by this chakra, which moves, it comes out of the Nabhi chakra, and moves round and round and round, and collects all the problems. It nourishes, gives power, the vital power to these organs, and also it generates necessary power for our creative action. It also collects the fat cells of the Void, converts it into the proper cells for the brain for its use, for the grey matter.

All this work it has to do, one chakra. It manifests Aortic plexus outside. On the physical level, we call it as Aortic plexus, and it has got six sub-plexuses, which look after all these organs. This is meant for our action, when we go into action this chakra starts working. By the first power, which is on the left hand side, we desire. But by the second one, we go into action and it’s called as kriya shakti. Now when this action, starts within us, it produces the byproducts, or we can say, all the problems of these organs, which are to be deposited somewhere and they are all deposited in the brain as ego.

All the problems that we have out of these, this creativity and the action of all these organs are to be counterbalanced and as a counterbalance the ego develops. For example now I have to come and meet you all here, I had to get out of the house, I had to change, I had to drive, whatever it is, then I came, I had to put in effort. I had to plan out how I’m going to talk to you, that I don’t do normally, but I’m saying generally people do it. And I put in the effort to come in. Now how am I to justify this, all this effort? What is the satisfaction, that one gets, out of doing this effort, this kriya, this action? We go on doing some action and why should we do it? After all action means, any activity means, exertion, botheration, problems, so best is to sit at home and do nothing of the kind. But we do not do that, we take up challenges, we rush up to it. All this we do with our kriya shakti, with our right action. Because we do action we have to have a satisfaction about it. As a reaction to that, ego develops. If we do not have the ego, we would not do anything, is a fact. But ego is the one that rationalizes all our madness, the rat race we are running into. If we did not have the ego we would not go into this… nonsense. The more we try to rationalize our activities the more ego develops to satisfy “Alright very good, very good now you are a successful man, see? You’re a very successful man, you have got this, you have got that.”

Lots of misunderstandings creep in when we pamper our ego like this or, I should say, that when we are satisfied with our ego, that we really get lost. We get identified with our ego and not with our Selves. So if you do some work very well, supposing you have, say, made a beautiful poetry, or say not piece of poetry but say you have made a very good painting, then you would like people to appreciate. If they do not appreciate you, you think you have done nothing, though you have done a beautiful canvas. But still you will be so dissatisfied with yourself, unless and until people appreciate you. They must garland you, they must say “Oh, you are great, you are really unique, you are a genius.” You know many artist, who created great art, got trapped into this kind of a misidentification. When they created some great art, the art could not give them satisfaction, they had to go to ego, and Mr. Ego would not be satisfied unless and until everybody says “Yes yes you are very good you have done this, you are a genius you are this you are that.” That’s how the ego develops then, within us. But a situation can arise where, even when we have done nothing, we want to take the credit. Then we call such a person egoistical who says “I will do this, I have done this, I I I I,” then we call him an egoistical person, because he gives words to his ego that’s why we call him egoistical, but all of us have got this Mr. Ego there, sitting on our heads.

When it starts bloating, the more successful you are the worse it is. The more you indulge into planning and thinking, the worse it is. The balloon goes on you see, pumped, as if you are pumping a balloon you see. The more you pump the more it becomes and you can never realize that you are… not that Ego. Then you start feeling very nice about it, because everybody says “Oh, what a great man he is”. The whole society develops on those lines.”

HH Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi