Knowing ego is freedom from ego || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)

Questioner: Sir, I have two questions. Firstly, do you agree that there is no ego-free person, and secondly, was it easier in earlier times to be less egoistic?

Acharya Prashant: Every time has its own challenges. If in those times there were less distractions, there also was less knowledge. So, forget about those times. We are living in these times and let’s talk about these only.

He has asked whether everybody has ego. Yes, all of us have ego.

As long as you are living, as long as there is this body, ego is there. That sense of ‘I am something’, is there. No doubt about it.

Why was that session on Ego conducted then? That session was not conducted to say that you must get rid of all ego. That session was conducted so that we may understand the ego. When you understand ego, then you are free from ego even when ego is there.

When you understand the ego, what do you understand? You understand that the ego is not your essential nature, that it has come from outside.

(Suddenly the speaker stands and picks up a water bottle in his hand. From now onwards, he uses this bottle as a metaphor for ego.)

Now, I am holding this bottle as if it is a part of my essential being. Let us assume for a while that this bottle is my essential being. I am holding on to this as if it is the part of my essential being. And then a session is held in which it is shown that this is not a part of your essential being. Yes, it is important for you, but it is not part of your essential being. Now what will happen? I will still have it. As long as I am alive, I will still have it, but I will not think that this is me. I will know that this is there and this may have a particular use as well, but this is not me.

So, ego will be there till the time you are alive. Surely, it will be there, but you can understand that it comes from outside and that it is an external entity ; and then you are free from ego. Ego is there still you are free from it. It is there and yet I am free from it, because now I am not considering it to be a part of ‘me’ now. I know that this is not a part of me, it is not my body, it is not me.

Excerpted from a ‘Shabd-Yog’ session. Edited for clarity.

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