Spritual ego

answered 2013-10-02 19:39:43 -0500

WarriorsWill
222 ●5 ●7 ●15

Dear Meet,

From the best of my understanding, Spiritual ego derives when the gifts and blessing one has received from Akal Purakh, we start to feel/think as we achieved or created them ourselves. As a result, we start differentiating ourselves from others by considering ourselves more superior, we forget who the real doer and creator (Guru Ji) is. The virtue of humbleness starts to fade, Spiritual ego can eventually lead to the downfall of one's spiritual progress, in many Sakhi's its demonstrated how great yogis, Brahmins and masters of high spiritual heights tried challenging the Guru's or felt jealous of them. Eventually, they were blessed to be taught by the Guru their own weakness and they awoke, bowing in humility to Guru ji. I think spiritual ego comes in all aspirants but it's a phase you'll pass through if you stay close to Guru Ji and keep practicing Gurbani and other spiritual practices.

I get attacked my spiritual ego too, sometimes external factors like education, talent, comments from people etc. can give your existing ego more power, luckily remembrance of Guru Ji grounds you again. You have to be careful with all 5 vices and be ever ready, for they can attack you when you least suspect it. :)

Religion has a lot of power, you can influence people with it, have social status etc. so some people, unfortunately, take advantage of this power and use it for wrong means. But the Guru is ever present, no one can hide from Guru Ji, those whose intentions are false or are leading others astray will never abide in the heavens hereafter.

I'm sure Baba Guruka Singh ji and Lovepreet ji can provide more insight on this topic as they're more spiritually evolved. :)

Best wishes,

-Namastwang Akaale, Namastwang Kirpaale!

answered 2013-10-02 23:06:38 -0500

Lo K. B.
329 ●7 ●13 ●21

Sat Nam!

This is a very good question, Meet, and WarriorsWill is exactly right. Spiritual ego, from my own understanding, is exactly like any other type of inflated or imbalanced ego or excessive pride in oneself. It's considered more dangerous because it can be used to really hurt someone; the person who is afflicted by it starts to think that they are "entitled" to it and are somehow "above" everyone else and thus deserve some "special attention/award" which they do not! Some might believe that they know everything now, which is a foolish statement for even the most evolved being. A very famous example that is often used in both the Guru as well as historical accounts is of the pandits who tricked and scared people with false prophesies or promises in order to exhort money, control and/or power out of the innocent believers. Yogi Bhajan in his lecture was saying something along the lines of about how dangerous it is when one begins to abuse the shaktis that are given to them (like intruding in someone's thoughts or life) and, in turn, corrupt themselves and destroy the progress they have made.

As it is my "thing" to give personal experiences, I received a gift last year but I gave it to Guru ji. If and when you get a gift, and are aware of how powerful it is, ask the Guru to either teach you how to use it by His Will, or to withhold it until you are ready. That way, your ego is pushed aside and you prevent irreparable damage from occurring. Everyone experiences it as WarriorsWill has said, but if you let it get out of control, the damage is far more dangerous than other types of egos (like falsely believing that you are the best at your job), because you are dealing with another level rather than just physical.

I hope this has helped and I hope that Guruka Singh ji responds to this as well.

God bless you.