What did Ravana not have? He was the most knowledgeable person in the world. After doing penance for years, he got the boon of immortality. He had a large army. Palace, rubies, gold, silver, wealth, power were all there. Yet everything turned to dust. Everything was destroyed. The ten-headed Ravana lost all his immortality and ego and finally he too had to die.
Why?
For one reason only – 'Ego.'
Ego of knowledge, Ego of power, Ego of wealth, Ego of immortality.
This ego is something that can turn even the best of men into dust. May spoil all successes. Yesterday on Dussehra we burnt this ten-headed ego in the Dussehra Maidan, but have we been able to remove ego and pride in our personal lives?
This is also a kind of reminder that no matter how big you become in life and no matter how high you reach, you should never be proud.
So let's talk about 'relationship' today.of Let's talk about ego in the column. Learn how ego can negatively affect personal life and professional relationships.
Knowledge brings humility All of us must have read this verse in a Sanskrit book in our childhood –
Vidyam Dadati Vinayam, Vinayad Yati Eligibility.]
Worthy of wealth, Dhanat Dharmam Tatah Sukham ॥
This verse means – “Knowledge always humbles a person. With humility comes authority. Merit brings wealth and prosperity. “Prosperity leads to right conduct and right conduct leads to happiness and contentment.”
Simply put, just as a branch of a tree laden with fruits is always bent, so a person of true knowledge, wisdom and understanding is always calm and humble. He will not show his knowledge. He won't go around telling everyone to look how much he knows. If we have this humility within us, it will also give rise to worthiness. If we become competent, we can learn more new things. Money, prosperity and happiness will all follow us if we learn.
It's such a simple thing. But does modern psychology even support this?
What Sigmund Freud Said About 'Ego'
World-renowned psychologist Sigmund Freud began studying the complex aspects of human personality and ego in the early 1920s. He saw ego as a primitive human instinct.
According to Freud, feeling important is a natural and basic need of every human being. We cannot live with the feeling that we have no value. But think, if our forefathers had the ego that I will hunt alone, I will fight alone in the forest against the lion, I am the greatest, then mankind would not have survived.
We survived because we always lived in groups. Worked in a group, helped each other, protected each other and to do this it was very important to rise above your ego and have a feeling of mutual help and cooperation.
Psychology, which has evolved further with time, today believes that ego is the wall standing in the way of individual and collective achievements of man.
Ego makes us selfish and self-centeredRyan Holliday is an American bestselling author and life coach. He has written a book – 'Ego is the enemy.' Citing philosophers, authors, intellectuals and scientific research from around the world, this book explains how the ego becomes our own enemy. We become isolated from ourselves and cannot develop our full potential.
Ego prevents us from learning new things, from moving forward Even Socrates and Aristotle wrote that he who prides himself on knowing everything, actually knows nothing. No one knows everything. We learn something new every day, take a step forward every day. An egoistic person cannot do this. His path to learning new things and moving forward is blocked because he thinks he knows everything.
Ego pits us against ourselves Ryan Holliday gives an example in his book. He writes that when we are at our weakest, loneliest and weakest in life, we post on social media that we are partying. We are happy. That photo is months old. A big reason behind it is our ego, which is not ready to accept that we are not always strong. Sometimes we are weak and we need help.
According to Ryan, the most tragic aspect of ego is that it turns us away from ourselves and turns us against ourselves.
It has a negative impact on professional life Ryan writes in his book that many times we misunderstand that ego is very useful for us in the workplace, when the truth is the opposite. Ego is also a hindrance to professional growth because progress in the office requires always learning something new, always moving forward. Asking questions with childlike curiosity, acknowledging, praising and encouraging the achievements of others. But if our ego is too big then we cannot do all this.
If the ego becomes too big, the relationship deteriorates Ego does not help anywhere. It just ruins everything. Wars happen when the countries of the world start saying 'you are bigger than me' out of arrogance. If ego becomes bigger than love in a relationship, 'you are bigger than me' then the result leads to quarrels and divorce. So decide that you will destroy the Ravana or ego within you and make humility, simplicity, love and cooperation the first priority in your life.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
