Dignity And Ego – In Gita Verse 2.33 If, however, you do not perform your religious duty of fighting, then you will certainly incur sins for neglecting your duties and thus lose your reputation as a fighter.
Krishna himself is a fighter, he knew when to fight and when to run away from the battlefield. Having that distinction, he is telling Arjuna to fight in this war. He is not provoking him to fight, but directing him towards his assignment of the universe.
To direct him towards his assignment Krishna even say that like little bit of threatening so that Arjuna can wake up to his consciousness, he says that because if you will not perform your religious duty of fighting, then you will be certainly incur sin – as you are born in Kshatriya family your first duty is if someone wants to fight you have to accept that challenge. You have to fight with them. If you are neglecting your duties and thus lose your reputation as a fighter. Here Krishna’s meaning for reputation as a fighter means dignity.
Dignity and ego are totally different phenomena. Dignity is non comparative whereas ego is comparative. Dignity comes from the innermost experience of one’s being. Bringing out the difference between dignity and ego, “Dignity is a totally different phenomenon, it is self-respect. Ego is domination over others. Dignity is just standing on your own feet, independence, freedom; it is not domination over others. The moment you start thinking of dominating, you are falling into the trap of the ego.”
Dignity is very humble, very simple, very innocent; it belongs to the trees. When they blossom in spring, you just look and watch their pride, their dignity. Just watch when a peacock is dancing. Those psychedelic colors, and the beautiful dance … Do you think there is any ego? But there is certainly dignity.
Dignity is a totally different phenomenon, it is self-respect. Ego is domination over others. Dignity is just standing on your own feet, independence, freedom; it is not domination over others. The moment you start thinking of dominating, you are falling into the trap of the ego. And God is the greatest ego because he created everything, he dominates everything. He is present everywhere, he is all-powerful. And his reflection in the priests … The pope claims that he is infallible. Now this is ego.
A man of dignity, a man of self-respect will not say such things. Certainly he will walk straight with his head raised in dignity. He will not walk like a slave, surrendered, subdued. He will walk like a lion and roar like a lion. But that is your intrinsic energy, your intrinsic power.
The power that depends on others creates the ego. The power that comes from within your own sources of life creates dignity. Meditation brings tremendous dignity, a great grace, but not even a shadow of ego is found in it.
If you are capable of murdering unconsciousness, you will certainly be capable of murdering all images in you. In fact, the moment unconsciousness is no longer there, you will suddenly be surprised. Where has the ego gone? If the moon is not there, the reflection in the lake of the moon will disappear.
Egos are reflections of one moon in different ponds, in different lakes, in different oceans, in different rivers – millions of reflections. But just remove the moon and all the reflections are removed. You don’t have to remove every reflection. It will take millennia to remove all those reflections. And in fact, if the moon remains, you cannot remove the reflections.
Once unconsciousness is removed, you will simply find your ego is gone. It was the shadow, the reflection of unconsciousness. And then you will find a totally new phenomenon, a dignity which is not a domination over others, which is not superiority over others. It is simply the joy that existence loves you, that existence creates you, that existence needs you, that you are not accidental. This gives you dignity, this gives you honor, and it is not dependent on others. It comes from your own innermost experience of your being.
The moment you find yourself existential, that you belong to the whole cosmos, and the whole cosmos belongs to you, there arises a tremendous splendor in your being – Himalayan peaks of consciousness, Pacific depths of consciousness. That brings you the lion’s roar.
Once Arjuna is connected with himself immediately he will become existential, whole. He will regain his Dignity.
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