What Is the Ego Tendency?
Acharya Prashant: You see, we often say that suffering is when things start cluttering the mind. Kabir Sahab says, “Maya is that which occupies your mind.” We need to ask, “To whom is the occupation?” Let’s say a girl keeps dancing in your mind, to whom is she dancing? Who is watching her? To whom has she come? Has she come to nobody? Has she come to an empty house? She is dancing in your mind. To whom has she come? Had he not been there, would she have come?
Questioner: No.
Acharya Prashant: That’s the ego tendency. Whenever you see something, you must see that which you are seeing is for you, otherwise, it wouldn’t have been there. Your universe is for you, otherwise, it is not there. That girl has come to your mind for you. You go away from yourself, the girl too won't be there.
Questioner: What is this going away from yourself?
Acharya Prashant: First of all, you are attached to the brain. The “I” tendency attached to the brain is called the mind, and therefore she comes to the mind. To merely the brain, she will not be big trouble, but to the mind, she is a big attraction or distraction. A male dog does not keep dreaming of a female dog, that does not happen, but a man can keep dreaming of a woman for 50 years, you are so attached to the brain that now there is all kind of mischief.
So, when things start appearing to you, when things start becoming important to you, when things start occupying you, you must ask “To whom have they come?” You must ask “So many unwelcome guests have arrived, but Who is the host?" So many unwelcome guests have arrived to the mind, the mind is the house. So many unwelcome guests have arrived to the house, but “who is the host”, and then you will hear a resounding order, ‘I am ’, that's what Nisargadatta teaches.
The guests are surely all bogus, but who is the host? I am. Had I not been the host, the guests would not have arrived. So, don't blame the guests, don't chase away the guests because even if you are chasing away the guests, you are still there. You go away from the house, the guests too would go away, which is the house? To which firstly you came, and then the guests came – The body. First of all, you are very attached to the body, and then therefore the girl starts circulating in the mind.
Questioner: When you say that ‘you go away from yourself or you leave the house.’ So, what is this leaving and how can it happen?
Acharya Prashant: I don't need to be here, right now you're in the house just as a patient is in the hospital, a patient does not visit the hospital on his own, in his bliss. The patient needs to be in the hospital. Similarly, you need to be in this house; that's bad, very bad, you have turned yourself into a patient, needlessly. Had you been just a visitor, a casual visitor to the body, an occasional visitor, it was okay. But you're here as a new visitor to the emergency, as a new enrollment in the trauma center, freshly admitted.
Questioner: So, is the detachment possible for a patient from the hospital?
Acharya Prashant: You tried a lot of mischief and you held yourself very wise. Now, ask yourself "Is the hospital any good, are you being treated?" First of all, you needlessly got admitted and now all kinds of things are being performed upon you, "Are you liking it?" Somebody is holding you to the stretcher, two nurses who think that you are a helpless baby, are trying to nurse you in their own personal ways, one is maybe the mother, and the other the wife, and they are trying to nurse you all the time, and one fellow who considers himself a master surgeon, is rushing towards you with a large saw, and now that you have started yelling at him, another one is dipping your face in anesthesia, they are trying to make you unconscious, do you like this hospital?
Questioner: No, but what is the choice available to me, where to go?
Acharya Prashant: All places are within the hospital, there is nowhere to go to, that is your go-to place - nowhere to go to. As long as the hope remains, you will get relieved from Fortis, only to be admitted into Apollo. Your entire journey will be from hospital to hospital, from one trauma center to another emergency ward. You don't need to be anywhere, you don't need to be anybody, there is nobody to hold onto, and there is nothing to defend, you don't need to protect anything, you don't need to safeguard anything, there are no vulnerabilities, you are not hurt.
