What Is Egotism

Yogic Philosophy

Ego, in the yogic philosophy, is a false identity created by the mind. Anytime you say, “I am something”, it is your ego speaking. The main role of ego is to create and maintain a sense of identification with something. The kinds of identifications are endless. For example, you can identify with a nation. If you really think about it, such identification is completely ridiculous. National borders have been created artificially and changed throughout history, and there is nothing inherently British or Argentinian or Zimbabwean in you that would have been there were you born in a different part of the world. Yet many people consider their nationality as something that defines them. This leads, in the good case scenario, to enthusiastic fans at international sports games, in the bad case scenario to extreme nationalism and xenophobia. It is nothing more than the ego taking over. Similarly, you can be identified with a religion, a profession or even a food diet.

In a different sense, you identify yourself with an idea or characteristics that the ego clings on to. For example, if someone says “you are beautiful” or “you are smart”, you might have a mental picture of yourself telling you that you are beautiful and smart. Similarly, if someone tells you – or even if you tell yourself – that you are ugly and a failure, your ego might identify with that. If you ever need to define yourself, these are the characteristics that will come to your mind.

The case against ego

So why is ego bad? In short, ego leads to a lot of suffering and negative emotions. There are three main problems with ego.

First, a person who has a strong need to identify with something is a person who doesn’t know themselves. They haven’t looked inside. They don’t know themselves, who they are, and therefore they cling on to external factors in order to define themselves. Without external identification, they would be lost. The problem is that any disturbance in the external world can cause internal turmoil.

Second, if you have a strong sense of “I am this”, your ego will get hurt in case somebody tells you otherwise. Why on earth would you get offended or have negative emotions when somebody says that you are stupid? It is the ego, believing that it is in fact not stupid and desperately wanting everyone else to recognise that. Similarly, if your ego believes that you are a failure and somebody compliments you, you will get defensive. If there was no ego, if you managed to get rid of it, you would have no emotional reaction to any of this. That doesn’t mean being arrogant. If somebody tells you that you are stupid – who knows, maybe they’re right! Maybe you have really done something silly. It is alright to consciously and rationally engage with that idea, think about it. But there is no need to get identified or get hurt.

Third (and this, in my opinion, is the worst consequence of ego), if your ego has a sense of who you are, you might actually identify with it so much that you become exactly that. All identifications are useless, but the negative ones are perhaps the most harmful. If you believe that you are a failure, you will eventually behave in your everyday life as if you really were a failure. You will react to situations in a certain manner, you will not seek out opportunities, you will be anxious, you will radiate a certain energy around you. Eventually, even if nobody in their core can be a failure, you will create such an environment where your illusion will be indistinguishable from reality.

For these reasons, ego doesn’t serve you very well. And according to yoga, if something doesn’t serve you, you should let it go.