{"id":76862,"date":"2019-07-21T04:30:50","date_gmt":"2019-07-21T02:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=76862"},"modified":"2019-07-21T12:37:37","modified_gmt":"2019-07-21T10:37:37","slug":"the-false-ego-our-constant-companion-and-troublemaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=76862","title":{"rendered":"The False Ego &#8211; Our Constant Companion And Troublemaker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The False ego - Our constant companion and troublemaker by Devaki Mataji\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/f6YWK3bo878?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Devaki Devi Dasi<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For the first years of our devotional life we may not give much attention to<br \/>\nthe topic of the false ego. We may not even be aware of how it affects us &#8211;<br \/>\nevery day, prompting us to say things which we should better not say, and do<br \/>\nthings which we should better not do. We may not realize the existence and<br \/>\nimpact of this constant companion, because the false ego works in very<br \/>\nsubtle ways. It can so easily remain hidden.<\/p>\n<p>In due course of time, we may come to understand just how important this<br \/>\ntopic of the false ego is! After all, material life and its culture is all<br \/>\nabout feeding and blowing up our false ego, taking every opportunity to<br \/>\nplace ourselves in the centre of attention; whereas spiritual life and its<br \/>\nculture is designed to subdue and dissolve it. Thus, in all discussions on<br \/>\nspiritual life and its culture we sooner or later come across this subject.<br \/>\nAnd the realization may strike us, how easily we can entirely miss the<br \/>\ntarget of devotional life: we can do the very opposite of what we should be<br \/>\ndoing &#8211; all in the name of Krishna consciousness.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of dissolving and subduing the false ego, Krishna consciousness can<br \/>\noffer an excellent opportunity to increase and feed it. It is going on<br \/>\nmassively. And we may think ourselves to be doing the right thing, but we<br \/>\nare not. We entirely miss the target, and thus we will not harvest the<br \/>\nfruits of pure devotional service, even after many years of so-called<br \/>\nspiritual practice.<br \/>\nFurthermore, after making efforts in deepening our chanting of the holy<br \/>\nname, we may come to understand how we will never be able to receive the<br \/>\nfull benefit and mercy which the holy name carries, unless we make a<br \/>\nconcentrated effort to subdue our false ego. This does not take place<br \/>\nautomatically simply by time passing by, but requires special endeavor. The<br \/>\ntwo practices have to go hand-in-hand: chanting the holy name and dissolving<br \/>\nour false ego &#8211; mainly by serving according to Vaishnava etiquette and<br \/>\nculture.<\/p>\n<p>Unless we add the culture and etiquette into our daily life, we easily<br \/>\nremain trapped in the ego-driven patterns of behavior, since this is what<br \/>\nmaterial life and its culture foster. And as a result we don&#8217;t move forward<br \/>\nbut invite stagnation into our devotional life. Therefore Chaitanya<br \/>\nMahaprabhu instructs us in the third verse of the Sri Sikshastaka to chant<br \/>\nthe holy name in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the<br \/>\nstraw in the street, and more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of<br \/>\nfalse prestige, and ready to offer all respects to others. Only in such<br \/>\nstate of mind can we receive all the wonderful powers and benefits which the<br \/>\nholy name carries.<\/p>\n<p>Vaishnava etiquette and culture is helping us to cultivate exactly this<br \/>\nstate of mind, which Mahaprabhu is recommending to us.<br \/>\nUnless we make such concentrated endeavor to transform our patterns of<br \/>\nbehavior parallel to our practice of hearing and chanting, we can hear<br \/>\nKrishna katha and chant the holy name for many years and yet maintain our<br \/>\nego-driven patterns of behavior. Through such hearing and chanting one acts<br \/>\nlike an elephant that covers itself in dirt immediately after bathing. Not a<br \/>\nvery effective process for purification. Furthermore, we commit the tenth<br \/>\noffence to chanting the holy name by maintaining material attachments, even<br \/>\nafter understanding so many instructions on this matter. We maintain the<br \/>\nattachment to the satisfaction which our false ego demands: wanting to be<br \/>\nspecial and unique, and desiring to become a more and more important person<br \/>\n&#8211; recognized as an advanced or serious devotee.<\/p>\n<p>Besides, while chanting japa, our mind may take us for a ride and distract<br \/>\nus. Once we understand how the false ego affects the mind and intelligence,<br \/>\nwe discover that it is indeed the false ego, which is our main enemy when<br \/>\nchanting. This underlying culprit makes its demands for a certain<br \/>\ngratification, which pushes the mind to engage us in all kinds of internal<br \/>\ndiscussions or monologues, taking us in circles. Just trying to control the<br \/>\nrestless mind may thus not offer a good solution. We have to start at the<br \/>\nvery root of the problem by targeting the false ego.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, people may say to us: &#8220;You know, what you say is really good and<br \/>\nso true, but how you say it&#8230;&#8230;.!&#8221; And at times we may respond: &#8220;If it&#8217;s<br \/>\ntrue, then why not just accept it?! I have good intentions, even though my<br \/>\ncharacter or nature may not allow me to always present things in such an<br \/>\nappealing or polite way. That&#8217;s just the way I am! I am saying the right<br \/>\nthing. So, what&#8217;s the problem?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>We may not realize how the best idea, the best concept can be completely<br \/>\npoisoned and spoiled through the influence of the false ego. Nor may we<br \/>\nunderstand that what we think to be our nature or character may very well be<br \/>\nour conditioning &#8211; our baggage we have been lugging around with us for many<br \/>\nlife times. We are not meant to maintain and protect such baggage but throw<br \/>\nit gradually over board. Nobody may have ever explained to us these things<br \/>\nmore deeply &#8211; we may have never heard much about such subtle topics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img src= \"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/yWuoBM0.jpg\" \/>Devaki Devi Dasi: For the first years of our devotional life we may not give much attention to the topic of the false ego. We may not even be aware of how it affects us every day, prompting us to say things which we should better not say, and do things which we should better not do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76864,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76862\/revisions\/76864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}