Ego
Talks with Babaji
Is it God that judges us or do we judge ourselves for our actions?
God doesn’t judge anything. Our mind is made for judging, discriminating, understanding. It is our ego which uses the mind to judge others and ourselves.
Do our actions follow us into our next life?
Actions motivated by the ego create samskaras. Those samskaras get active in the next life.
If it is the ego which judges each individual action from a selfish perspective, should we then search within ourselves for forgiveness?
Yes, but human mind always projects out. We look for some reason somewhere else. We don’t go within to look for that reality. We can forgive ourselves only when we realize the Truth.
Doesn’t the eternal reality actually also exist within us?
Yes, when the ego is projecting out, then it’s our own mental creation. If the ego is removed, then there is no in or out. That is eternal reality.
How does mantra affect the ego?
If the mind is engaged in the God principle, through the mantra, then the ego will not go towards worldly things.
In relation to humiliation, it seems you couldn’t feel humiliated unless one was defending the ego.
Yes. It is the ego which feels humiliated and fights back, takes revenge or separates itself.
It seems like this is a series of battles with the ego. It seems the ego gets smarter and more subtle.
Right! The ego starts learning about the cause of its own pain and finds ways to get out from all worldly miseries.
Is there any end to this?
Ego can take any form for its own existence. It can get so subtle that we can’t see it or feel it. Then it starts affecting the mind in a grosser level. There is an end when the individual ego starts accepting universality by selfless service, Karma Yoga.
Could you give an illustration of how the ego can be so subtle that we can’t see it or feel it and then it comes to a grosser level?
A monk used to heal people. One time a woman who had tuberculosis came to live nearby. He gave her a hut to live close by. He healed her. Then his desire to have a woman started developing. There was a subtle desire all along but it was dormant. The desire got active when the woman was there. Desire is an expression of the ego.
In a group of people where death is eminent, some people will fight to survive and other people may just give up because they don’t feel they can go on. Could you comment on the difference between people who respond in such different ways?
All will fight. Some are stronger and will fight to the last. Some are weaker and will give up.
Where does the ego come in there?
Ego is the fighter. It fights until it loses the battle.
So that’s not surrender to God?
The loser surrenders. When the ego realizes, ’I am no more in control,’ then it has no choice but to surrender.
Could you talk about the ego of individuality in a state of meditation as opposed to working in its field of activity where the fear arises?
When the mind concentrates deeply on any spiritual object, the ego (whose nature is to go out in the world) stops. The ego in that state is separated from everything and dwells in its own universal form. It experiences its own pure conscious nature. But when vyutthana samskaras (outgoing thoughts) arise, the concentration is pulled down and the ego starts experiencing its individuality again.
What created fear in Arjuna?
Ego comes back with desires and attachment. Fear develops due to attachment. We are afraid of losing attachment. Ego of individuality is strengthened by desire and attachment.
Is there any other surrender except blind surrender?
Blind surrender is out of fear. Real surrender comes when one starts knowing the greatness of God.