Taming EGO !

Understanding the ego can be a little tricky, so I will try to explain it simply! Your ego is your self-image, and it allows you to be aware of yourself as a person separate from everyone else. It is the “you” that most people typically relate to. It is not your soul, or your higher self, but rather the mask your higher self wears in this physical reality to identify itself as an individual. Because the ego is a mask over the all-loving higher self, it can block out lot of our inner love and kindness when it’s relied upon too heavily. While egos do serve an important service to us, an out of control ego can cause us to take actions that are unloving and unkind.

Being aware that the ego is not a true representation of your soul can help you let go of it a bit, and not feel the need to rely on it so much. If you can let go of your ego a little bit, it will be easier to follow the intuition and guidance from your higher self, and this will help you make more decisions based on love and compassion rather than separation and disconnectedness.

Here are a few signs of an out of control ego. Please realize, we all do these things from time to time, and that’s ok. However, it’s a good idea to be aware of these signs, so that when we see them we can recognize that we are letting our egos get away from us. With awareness an out of control ego, we can choose to drop the mask when it isn’t serving us. We can remember that the separation is just an illusion, and that we’re really all in this together.

An Out of Control Ego Will:

1. Complain frequently
2. Argue and fight with others
3. Be defensive whenever criticized
4. Be self-critical, and speak badly about itself
5. Have a hard time apologizing
6. Be very impatient
7. Be judgmental of others

When we see these behaviors in ourselves it is a sign that we are working with an out of control ego, and we are disconnected from our higher selves. Each of these actions occurs because the ego deeply believes that it is separate from everything else in the universe.

Because the ego believes it is separate from everything else, it often feels the need to justify its importance to itself and “others.” The ego is secretly afraid that what makes it different from everyone else might indeed make it “wrong.” This is why an out of control ego can be aggressive and hostile-it wants to prove that it is valid and “right.”

The higher self will not feel the need to defend or justify itself. It focuses on the inter connectedness between all of us, rather than the separation that appears to be “real” in this physical reality. As a result, a person who is highly connected will make choices based on compassion, patience and love, because it realizes that we are all one. It knows that to help another is simply to help oneself.

For those looking to have a healthier relationship with their egos, daily meditation is a great treatment. During meditation, one becomes aligned with their higher self, and can start to observe the ego’s thoughts from the higher perspective.

Meditation is all about quieting outside thoughts to connect more deeply with the oneness. When one becomes skilled in meditation, it becomes easier to see the ego as a mask over the true self. In time, much of the destructive chatter from the ego will lift, and the individual will be able to easily identify when he or she is making ego-based choices.

To be clear, the ego is not a “bad” thing. In order to experience ourselves as individuals, we must have egos that can perceive the separation between us. However, it is our interconnectedness that brings love, happiness and prosperity, so it’s important that we maintain a strong connection with our higher selves.

The point is not try to get rid of the ego or to punish it, but simply to give the ego less responsibility. To allow the ego to do its job of perceiving the world, but release it from the responsibility of making decisions on how we should think and act. By handing over the responsibility of the decision-making to the higher self, we make higher vibrational decisions that lead to more happiness, healthiness, and prosperity.

So, with meditation we can connect back to the “oneness” and our inner guidance. Then, we can begin to make choices and decisions based on the idea that we are all in this together. We can see others as extensions of ourselves and treat others as we would want to be treated. This is how we tame an out of control ego, and let the higher self shine through the mask.

About the Author: Andrea Schulman is a former high school psychology teacher and the creator of Raise Your Vibration Today, which offers daily Law of Attraction advice.  To learn more about Andrea or Raise Your Vibration Today please follow her blog, Facebook page, Twitter (@Vibration1111) or Instagram (@andrea.11.11)
Read more at http://expandedconsciousness.com/2015/03/05/7-signs-ego-might-control-tame/#rcAIAqIb3eCpv2FT.99

Original Post at : http://expandedconsciousness.com/2015/03/05/7-signs-ego-might-control-tame/

Beautiful Bhajan :))

Happy HOli . !!

Excerpts from Guruji's talk on Holi

Life should be full of colors! And each color is meant to be seen and enjoyed separately, for if seen all mixed together, they will appear all black. All the colors like red, yellow, green, etc. should exist side by side and simultaneously be enjoyed together. Similarly, in life, different roles played by the same person should exist peacefully and distinctly inside him. For example, when a father continues to play his role of a 'father' in office, things are bound to go for a toss. In our country, a politician is sometimes a father first and a leader later!

In which ever situation we are in, we should play the corresponding role to the hilt and then life is bound to become colorful! This concept was called 'Varnashram' in ancient India. This meant - everyone, be it a doctor, teacher, father, whoever or whatever, is expected to play their roles with full enthusiasm. Mixing professions will always be counter productive. If a doctor wants to do business, he should run a business separately and secondary to his profession and not make business out of medicine. Keeping these 'containers' of the mind separate and distinct is the secret of a happy life and this is what HOLI teaches.

All colors emanate from white, and when mixed again, they become black. When your mind is white and consciousness - pure, peaceful, happy and meditative, different colors and roles emerge. We get the strength to play various roles with full sincerity against the background. We have to dip into our consciousness time and again. If we only look inwards and play around with colors outside of us, we are bound to find blackness all over again. Between roles we have to take deep rests, in order to play each role sincerely. Now, the biggest impediment to deep rest is desire. Desire means stress. Even petty desires cause high stress - the higher goals give relatively less botheration! Desire tortures the mind at times.

So what does one do?

The only way out is to focus attention on the desire and surrender it. This act of focusing awareness or sight on desire or Kama is called 'kamakshi'. With awareness, desire loses its grip and surrender happens and then nectar flows out from within. The goddess, Kamakshi, holds a sugarcane stem in one hand and a flower in the other. The sugar-cane stem is so hard and has to be squeezed in order to obtain sweetness, while the flower is soft and collecting nectar from it is so easy. This truly represents life, which indeed has a little of both! It is far easier to obtain this bliss from the inside than it is to try to extract pleasure from the outside world - which needs a lot more effort.

Lift Your Spirit with Joy of Color - By Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

There is a famous story associated with the festival:

The word purana comes from the Sanskrit word 'pura nava', which means 'that which is new in the city'. It is a new way of presenting things. Puranas are full of colorful illustrations and stories. On the surface they may appear to be mere fantasy, but actually they contain subtle truths.

An asura king, Hiranyakashyap, wanted everyone to worship him. But his son Prahalad was a devotee of Lord Narayana, the king's sworn enemy. Angry, the king wanted Holika, his sister to get rid of Prahalad. Empowered to withstand fire; Holika sat on a burning pyre holding Prahalad on her lap. But it was Holika who was burnt, Prahalad came out unharmed.

Hiranyakashyap symbolizes one who is gross. Prahalad embodies innocence, faith and bliss/joy. The spirit cannot be confined to love material only. Hiranyakashyap wanted all the joy to come from the material world. It did not happen that way. The individual jivatma cannot be bound to the material forever. It’s natural to eventually move towards Narayana, one's higher self.

Holika stands for the past burdens that try to burn Prahalad's innocence. But Prahlad, so deeply rooted in Narayana Bhakthi could burn all past impressions (sanskaras) and joy springs up with new colors. Life becomes a celebration. Burning the past, you gear up for a new beginning. Your emotions, like fire, burn you. But when there is a fountain of colors, they add charm to your life. In ignorance, emotions are a bother; in knowledge, the same emotions add colors

Each emotion is associated with a color- Anger with red, jealousy with green, vibrancy and happiness with yellow, love with pink, vastness with blue, peace with white, sacrifice with saffron and knowledge with violet.

Knowing the essence of the festival, enjoy the day with Wisdom.

Interview with God

I dreamt I had an Interview with GOD.

"So you would like to interview me?”, GOD asked.

“If you have the time.”, I said.

...

God smiled, “My time is eternity. What questions do you have in mind for me?”

“What surprises you most about humankind?”, I asked.

God answered...

"They get bored with childhood. They rush to grow up and then long to be children again.

That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health.

That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither in the present nor in the future.

That they live as if they will never die, and die as if they had never lived.”

God’s hand took mine and we were silent for awhile and then I asked...

"As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons you want your children to learn?"

God replied with a smile...

To learn they cannot make anyone love them, what they can do is let themselves be loved.

To learn that there are persons who love them dearly, but simply do not know how to express or show their feelings.

To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others.

To learn that a rich person is not one who has the most, but is one who needs the least.

To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love and it takes many years to heal them.

To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.

To learn that it is not always enough that they be forgiven by others, but that they must forgive themselves.

And to learn that I am here... "ALWAYS”....

Satsang Is The Shelter !

Why do people need homes? Can they live like animals in the forest without shelter?
Even intelligent animals make their homes. Man needs protection from changing nature. So he builds a shelter for physical comforts. In the same way, for spiritual and mental comfort - Satsang is the shelter.

One who does not do Satsang is like a wild animal. Satsang alone makes one civilized. Satsang is the shelter from the changing times and its harsh influence on life.

Satsang is the nest in which you can rest.

If you are a taker of happiness, you get misery.

If you are a giver of happiness, you get joy and love.

(( Sri Sri ))

|| Jai Guru Dev || :)

Guruji In the Kitchen :))

Lovely Video :) .. So True ! :)

♥ Sri Sri ♥