Ego & Guilt – Two Sides of the same Coin

 

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Ego & Guilt – Two Sides of the same Coin

In spirituality, ego and guilt are two sides of the same coin. These two emotions are extremely dangerous for spiritual progress – let me try and explain how and why from whatever I have seen and experienced. After I joined Samarpan Meditation and took diksha (initiation ceremony), started meditating regularly morning and evening, there was one thing which I would always observe during big events. There were a lot of volunteers who would throw their weight around, speak rudely and generally behave obnoxiously. I would always wonder why this happened, and much later realised that this was the ego of being a ‘volunteer’ and performing his duty as a volunteer. Many times, this would be because of over-enthusiasm – but these volunteers do not realise the negative attention they attract.

Everybody feels vibrations, gets fragrances with the Guru’s grace when the meditation happens in a large group, that is because the energy from the Guru is flowing continuously – so in this group getting vibrations and experiencing divine fragrances is not a big thing. But some people would feel good about this and develop an ego, ‘I’ got this vibration, ‘I’ got this fragrance etc. The ego is something which pulls you down very fast – Swamiji has mentioned this in umpteen discourses, the more you progress, the emptier you should become – but this does not happen. There are others who will praise you no end and inflate your ego. There are some who on the surface speak very politely and lovingly, but behind that sweetness is a poisonous dagger – you need to be aware of such people and protect yourself from them or avoid them, else they will be the first to gloat if you fall down.

Similarly, those who climb the spiritual ladder fast and then fall down because of lack of control then go into guilt. It is very difficult to lose the feeling of guilt. You hurt someone close you feel guilty and carry that pain in your heart and agya chakra. This needs cleansing all the time – forgiving and forgetting at the soul level can help cleanse the guilt.

One has to learn to stay on the middle path, do not go to extremes and you will be fine. Stay in the middle, do not let anyone inflate your ego, learn to watch yourself and then check yourself too if you notice that your ego is coming into play. The day your soul starts guiding you on these lines you will realise that ego and guilt are the two sides of the same coin, the two extremes of your emotions which are barriers to spiritual progress. Stay in the middle, stay focused, stay happy!