Page 31 - All India Magazine Jul-2025

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

All India Magazine, July 2025 31