This fellow is unruly. Hardcore rebel. It doesn’t give a damn to Truth, it only propagates its beliefs.

Ego is something we all have to some extent. It’s called Ahamkara in Hindi and Sanskrit. The root word is ‘aham’ which means ‘I’. Ego is the sense we ascribe to our ‘self’, this ‘I-self’.

We have ascribed many concepts, assumptions, beliefs to ourselves. And we hold these beliefs, assumptions, concepts as identities. That’s how Ego is born! For example, you may consider yourself a Hindu, or a Muslim, or a Buddhist, or whatever…this is just your ascribing…you are holding this identity so hard within yourself that your Ego tells you: you are a Hindu, or something else, and so on.

Ego is born out of our self-created identities that we don’t let go of. Because of our conditioning, programming from childhood. From childhood we’ve been programmed: ‘I am a Hindu’, ‘He is something else’, ‘I am a rich person’, ‘You are a poor person’…like this, it goes on. And we cling to these absolutely nonsensical identities so dearly, that we forget our basic humanity!

Ego divides us. Your ego vs. My Ego—all the time this battle is going on. Everyone thinks: ‘I am right, you’re wrong!’ No one shows the humility to say: I may be wrong, you may be right! Why can’t we say this? Because of our Ego…

We don’t like to be proven wrong. We don’t like to be smaller than anybody. We always want to be the right person! The higher person! There’s no humility in us. When we think, my opinion, my belief, my ideology, my thought, my my my….we are only being egoistic. Animals behave like this. Haven’t you seen a dog protecting its territory? A dog has a territory, it always protects that, never let other dogs trespass. The dog thinks, its ‘his’ area, his only. Are we not doing the same thing because of our Ego? A dog does this out of animalistic nature. But, we are humans, right? Why then on earth do we behave like animals? We are supposed to be the most intelligent, most loving, most helpful animal. But are we?

Instead, we have created all these divisions within our society and within us: caste, creed, gender, religion, economic level, cultural background—on so many factors we’ve divided ourselves. Similarly within us, we’re terribly divided: my opinion vs. your opinion, my interests vs. your interests, my knowledge vs. your knowledge…it’s endless.

Ego is never healthy, never beneficial. It divides, creates disparity, conflict. Ego—or call it selfishness— is the greatest enemy of Humanity!