Song of Ego...

My ego needs.
My soul has.
My ego tries.
My soul does.
My ego knows the problem that is.
My soul becomes the answer that is.
I am not alone.
Within my unlit self:
My ego, my naked death.
I am not alone.
Within my snow-white heart:
My soul, and my Spirit's Flame.

Ego is the thief of thieves. Not to speak of ordinary experiences, even realisations are afraid of this intruder. To feel the absence of ego is as difficult as to see God's constant presence in oneself. Ego helps bondage grow. Bondage, in return, helps ego flourish or run amuck. Self-pity, self-indulgence and egoistic emotional cries are but one shortcoming with different names.

O small ego, O big ego, don't worry. Both of you have God's Compassion at your disposal. As there is no difference between a rill and a river when they run into the sea, neither is there a difference between an ordinary man and an important man when they dive into the Sea of God's Compassion.

Ego is diversity in unfulfilling action. Surrender is unity in fulfilled action, fulfilled manifestation and fulfilled perfection. Self-advertisement cannot even touch the feet of God-Realisation. God-Realisation cannot lower itself even to touch the head of self-advertisement.To think oneself always great is to believe that toil and skill are unnecessary.

No doubt, man is infinitely superior to a wild beast. But he always drinks two bottles of poison: one bottle is ego and the other is doubt. Until he has done away with these two bottles, man is no more than a higher animal.

The difference between God and man is this: man is the determining I. God is the determined We.

Happy is he who has overcome all selfishness. Blessed is he who sees God emerging from the sea of his ego. The moment we remove the minor of self-flattery from our eyes and hold up before us the minor of Truth, we see a half-animal jumping within and without us.

With your unlit and wild ego do not destroy yourself. Suicide is the worst possible barrier to the goal of self-realisation. If you destroy yourself, instead of starting your next life where you have left off in this one, you will have to go back to a much earlier point. There is one defeat that brings us a greater triumph than even victory does. What is that defeat? The defeat of our ego by our soul.

- Sri Chinmoy, Eastern Light For The Western Mind