I suppose the ego came there [into human activity] first as a means of the outer consciousness individualising itself in the flux of Nature and, secondly, as an incentive for tamasic animal man to act and get something done. Otherwise he might merely have contented himself with food and sleep and done nothing else. With that incentive of ego (possession, vanity, ambition, eagerness for power etc. etc.) he began doing all sorts of things he might never otherwise have done. But now that he has to go higher, this ego comes badly in the way.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – IV: CWSA, Vol. 31, p. 217
The ego-centric man feels and values things as they affect him. “Does this please me or displease, give me gladness or pain, flatter my pride, vanity, ambition or hurt it, satisfy my desires or thwart them?” etc. The unegoistic man does not look at things like that. He looks to see what things are in themselves and would be even if he were not there, what is their meaning, how they fit into the scheme of things—or else he feels calm and equal, refers everything to the Divine, or if he is a man of action how they will serve the work that has to be done or the life of the world or the cause he serves etc. etc. There can be many points of view which are not ego-centric.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – IV: CWSA, Vol. 31, p. 228
The ego thinks of what it wants and has not. This is its constant preoccupation.
The soul is aware of what it is given and lives in endless gratitude.
The Mother – Words of the Mother – II: CWM, Vol. 14, p. 257
The extent of your difficulties gives you the measure of your ego.
The Mother – Words of the Mother – II: CWM, Vol. 14, p. 258
The ego is what helps us to individualise ourselves and what prevents us from becoming divine. It is like that. Put that together and you will find the ego. Without the ego, as the world is organised, there would be no individual, and with the ego the world cannot become divine.
….
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 normally 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.
The Mother – Questions and Answers: CWM, Vol. 3, pp. 240 – 41
It is not the soul but the ego and its pride that feel defeat and humiliation.
The Mother – Words of the Mother – II: CWM, Vol. 14, p. 259
But what we consider here as the true Nirvana is the disappearance of the ego into the splendour of the Supreme. And this way is what I call the positive way, the self-giving that is integral, total, perfect, without reserve, without bargaining.
The Mother – Questions and Answers: CWM, Vol. 3, p. 269
But hidden, but denied to mortal grasp,
Mystic, ineffable is the Spirit’s truth,
Unspoken, caught only by the spirit’s eye.
When naked of ego and mind it hears the Voice;
It looks through light to ever greater light
And sees Eternity ensphering Life.
Sri Aurobindo – Savitri: CWSA, Vol. 33 , Book Two, p. 272
Abolition of the ego: one exists only by the Divine and for the Divine.
***
All bitterness in life always comes from the ego refusing to abdicate.
***
All that happens is to teach us one and the same lesson, unless we get rid of our ego
there is no peace either for ourselves or for others. And without ego life becomes such a wonderful marvel!…
***
We can contemplate the divine smile when we have conquered our ego.
The Mother – Words of the Mother – II: CWM, Vol. 14, p. 257
“When we have passed beyond individualising, then we shall be real Persons.
Ego was the helper; Ego is the bar.”
Ego is the helper so long as it is needed to form the physical individuality, but when that is formed, ego must disappear.
The Mother – More Answers from the Mother: CWM, Vol. 17, p. 107
Our human consciousness has windows that open upon the Infinite. But generally men keep these windows carefully closed. We have to open them wide and allow the Infinite to enter us freely in order to transform us.
Two conditions are necessary to open the windows:
(1) ardent aspiration;
(2) progressive abolition of the ego.
The divine help is assured to those who set to work sincerely.
The Mother – Some Answers from the Mother: CWM, Vol. 16, p. 425
…. It is the ego which changes all the contacts of life into suffering, it is the ego which prevents us from being conscious of the Divine Presence within us and from becoming His calm, strong and happy instruments.
Let us make a complete offering of this ego with all its desires to the Divine, let us be confident and wait for the liberation that is sure to come.
The Mother – On Thoughts and Aphorisms: CWM, Vol. 10, p. 319
All human beings are full of ego. If you want to change, you must be very quiet and always aspire for a higher consciousness to come down into you in which there is not the ego. When it comes down, the real change will come. But you must be quiet within, not worried and restless—you must open confidently to the Mother’s Force and let it work in you.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – IV: CWSA, Vol. 31, p. 218
…. To be occupied always with oneself and the action of others on oneself is ego. One who is free from ego does not trouble about these things. In Yoga one must be unattached and indifferent to these things, concerned only with Sadhana and the Divine and towards others the attitude must be one of quiet goodwill without any demand or expectation. If one can’t arrive at this yet, one must always endeavour to arrive at that and not feed the lower vital movement by brooding on these other things.
Sri Aurobindo – Letters on Yoga – IV: CWSA, Vol. 31, p. 226
Sweet Mother,
Sri Aurobindo speaks of a “central knot of desires” which must be cut. How can one do it, where should one start?
The central knot of desires is the sense of separate personality; it is the ego. With the disappearance of the ego, the desires disappear.
The Mother – Some Answers from the Mother: CWM, Vol. 16, p. 244
The best thing we can do to express our gratitude is to overcome all egoism in ourselves and make a constant effort towards this transformation. Human egoism refuses to abdicate 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 egoism, 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.
The Mother – Some Answers from the Mother: CWM, Vol. 16, p. 428
Yes, those who live in their ego live constantly in an ugly drama. If people were a little less selfish things would not be so bad.
Meanwhile we must meet all these adverse circumstances with patience, endurance and equanimity.
The Mother – Words of the Mother – II: CWM, Vol. 14, p. 258
…. Ego was necessary to shape humanity, but we are now preparing the way for a superhumanity, a supra-humanity. The job of the ego is over—it did its job well, now it must disappear. And it is the psychic being, the Divine’s representative in man, that will stay on and pass into the next species. So we must learn to gather all our being around the psychic. Those who wish to pass to the supra-humanity must get rid of the ego and concentrate themselves around the psychic being.
The Mother – Agenda: Vol. 13, p. 155
Sweet Mother,
Sri Aurobindo says that the voice of the ordinary conscience is not the voice of the soul. What is it then?
The voice of the ordinary conscience is an ethical voice, a moral voice which distinguishes between good and evil, encourages us to do good and forbids us to do evil. This voice is very useful in ordinary life, until one is able to become conscious of one’s psychic being and allow oneself to be entirely guided by it—in other words, to rise above ordinary humanity, free oneself from all egoism and become a conscious instrument of the Divine Will. The soul itself, being a portion of the Divine, is above all moral and ethical notions; it bathes in the Divine Light and manifests it, but it can truly govern the whole being only when the ego has been dissolved.
The Mother – Some Answers from the Mother: CWM, Vol. 16, p. 248
…. You must understand that my mission is not to create maths, ascetics and Sannyasis; but to call back the souls of the strong to the Lila of Krishna & Kali. That is my teaching, as you can see from the Review, and my name must never be connected with monastic forms or the monastic ideal. Every ascetic movement since the time of Buddha has left India weaker and for a very obvious reason. Renunciation of life is one thing, to make life itself, national, individual, world-life greater & more divine is another. You cannot enforce one ideal on the country without weakening the other. You cannot take away the best souls from life & yet leave life stronger & greater. Renunciation of ego, acceptance of God in life is the Yoga I teach,—no other renunciation.
Sri Aurobindo – Autobiographical Notes and Other Writings of Historical Interest: CWSA, Vol. 36, p. 222
…. The essential of the sacrifice of works must be there and the essential is the surrender of all desire for the fruit of our works, the renunciation of all attachment to the result for which yet we labour. For so long as we work with attachment to the result, the sacrifice is offered not to the Divine, but to our ego. We may think otherwise, but we are deceiving ourselves; we are making our idea of the Divine, our sense of duty, our feeling for our fellow-creatures, our idea of what is good for the world or others, even our obedience to the Master a mask for our egoistic satisfactions and preferences and a specious shield against the demand made on us to root all desire out of our nature.
Sri Aurobindo – The Synthesis of Yoga – I: CWSA, Vol. 23, pp. 221 – 22
…. For not only the fruit of works belongs to the Lord alone, but our works also must be his; he is the true lord of our actions no less than of our results. This we must not see with the thinking mind only, it must become entirely true to our entire consciousness and will. The sadhaka has not only to think and know but to see and feel concretely and intensely even in the moment of the working and in its initiation and whole process that his works are not his at all, but are coming through him from the Supreme Existence. He must be always aware of a Force, a Presence, a Will that acts through his individual nature. But there is in taking this turn the danger that he may confuse his own disguised or sublimated ego or an inferior power with the Lord and substitute its demands for the supreme dictates….
Sri Aurobindo – The Synthesis of Yoga – I: CWSA, Vol. 23, p. 229
In the difficult hours of life, the imperative duty of each one is to overcome his ego in a total and unconditional self-giving to the Divine. Then the Divine will make you do what you have to do.
The Mother – Some Answers from the Mother: CWM, Vol. 16, p. 424
