Page 31 - All India Magazine Jul-2025
P. 31

on the grounds that others are not transformed. But that is
        the stronghold of bad will, for each one's duty is to transform
        himself regardless of what others may do.
            If men knew that this transformation, the abolition of ego-
        ism, is the only way to gain constant peace and delight, they
        would consent to make the necessary effort. This, then, is the
        conviction that must awaken in them.
            Everyone should repeatedly be told: abolish your ego and
        peace will reign in you.
            The Divine help always responds to a sincere aspiration.
                                                        CWM 16: 428

        Ego and egoism
            On the other hand, everyone knows what egoism is. When
        you want to pull everything towards you and other people do
        not interest you, that is called egoism; when you put yourself
        at the centre of the universe and all things exist only in relation
        to you, that is egoism. But it is very obvious, one must be blind
        not to see that one is egoistic. Everybody is a little egoistic,
        more or less, and at least a certain proportion of egoism is nor-
        mally acceptable; but even in ordinary life, when one is a little
        too egoistic, well, one receives knocks on the nose, because,
        since everyone is egoistic, no one much likes egoism in others.
            It is taken for granted, it is part of public morality. Yes, one
        must be a little bit egoistic, not too much, so it is not conspicu-
        ous! On the other hand, nobody speaks of the ego, because
        nobody knows it. It is such an intimate companion that one
        does not even recognise its existence; and yet so long as it is
        there one will never have the divine consciousness.
            The ego is what makes one conscious of being separate
        from others. If there were no ego, you would not perceive that
        you are a person separate from others. You would have the im-
        pression that you are a small part of a whole, a very small part

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