What am I? Am I trying to be something that I am not? What are we doing on earth? Aren’t we doing all that has been done already millions of times? Aren’t we doing all that has been achieved or conquered millions of times before? We are all doing the most ordinary things but still feel a sense of doing something extraordinarily distinguished. That’s the way of the ego. The ego wants to do something distinguished. The ego wants to do something which is difficult, challenging and special—something which makes it feel extraordinary so its sense of pride is inflated, and it can say, ‘Look at who achieved that. Look at who I am.’ If you look into the ego, you will always find it in a dialogue. But if there is only one man left on this earth one day, then there wouldn’t be any ego because that false sense of pride would disappear.
Society has bred this ego. Society says that you are the most distinguished man on earth, the one who has to do something that is special, that you are better than the others. You also have a sense of coming to this earth to let your name remain here forever—to be remembered. So, you begin extending your family and wealth. In that hope people have collected enough wealth for many of their future generations to squander. But does that make life better or more complex? Does wealth make one distinguished? Perhaps people collect wealth to remain more distinguished than others in the future, even hundreds of years later. People talk about dynasties in the same sense. This sense of collecting too much wealth and having power, authority and prestige is a way of declaring to the world that one is more distinguished than others. This breeds the ego. Look into the eyes of a person who has achieved wealth, power and prestige, and you will find him proud of his sense of one-upmanship, like he has achieved more than you have and he has outsmarted and out-earned everyone else. That’s the whole case of humanity. Isn’t success often linked with the wealth you earn?
But when you are dying, will your wealth buy you another moment of life? It so happened to Alexander the Great when he was returning after conquering the world, having all the wealth of the world. He caught an illness and begged his doctors to grant him 24 more hours of life to meet his mother in exchange for all his wealth. But Alexander could not buy even a few hours. This precious life is granted as a gift. Success is not in out-earning others; it is in the joy of life. Success is to do what you wish to do in life and achieve what you ought to achieve, happily. The value of life is hidden in its happiness and the importance of life is hidden in its playfulness. It is the extraordinariness of man’s life that is absolutely beautiful.
A drop of water can quench your thirst, but when it is not available to you, something as ordinary as water can become extraordinary for you. Man is born extraordinary but his mind thinks he is ordinary. So, the desire to be extraordinary appears. It is the false ego that wants to be special. But when you are in the present, the weird feeling of being more distinguished than others disappears.
The problem of the ego is that it always wants to be unique, to be loved and to be of great value. Therefore, to be ordinary makes us feel poorer and disappointed. But life is hidden in its ordinariness. To do something ordinarily is the most extraordinary thing in life. For instance, when you are walking, you are doing something extraordinary, which is beyond you and your ego. With the simple act of walking, you are extraordinary. But man wants challenges to prove that he is extraordinary. He wants to do something very difficult. He wants to go to the moon and conquer it. All that mankind has done so far, in its thousands of years of development, is make a few changes on earth. He has created more lumens of artificial light, built automobiles so he can travel faster, and made smartphones so he can communicate remotely and store more information and memories.
Man can get prizes for painting a moth but billions of moths are created and annulled by nature within hours. Albert Einstein wrote that if he got another birth, he would not like to be a distinguished man. He would rather be an ordinary man, a plumber. Being distinguished and popular, being written about, having millions of followers on social media, being chased by shutterbugs—does this make you what you are? Are you the sum total of the publicity and followers you get? Are you made of the wealth and prestige that you have or of something beyond all this? Do you know whose life this is? Do you know who you are? Are you a mere dialogue between your ego and the world? Ending this dialogue is the beginning of life. And life’s ordinariness is so extraordinary that your ego cannot live in it and so it disappears.
You are not who you are because you live in a big mansion or drive a fleet of cars or own a private jet or are a member of elite clubs. This does not prove that you are more distinguished than others. Once you are defined by thoughts of your wealth, power and prestige, you live with a false ego. But does it create in you the feeling of being yourself? Life is in being. The wealthiest and most powerful is the one who simply is. He commands his existence and does not live in the false bubble of his ego. There is no sin in earning more than others, but do not let wealth, power, and prestige define who you are. Life is about rejoicing in its playfulness. And you are not separate from the joy and playfulness—you are that playfulness and joy. So, be it.
The author is a spiritual teacher and an independent advisor on policy, governance and leadership. He can be contacted at arunavlokitta@gmail.com