Why do we have Ego?

Ego is a shell we have created out of fear.

Fears may be of different kinds, but fear is still fear.

All fears are there only because they are part of our life, our Ego (our body identification as us).

But the fear we are discussing is not specific; it is a primordial fear ingrained in our DNA for thousands of years.

One can logically deny the fear of death, but it is more of an acceptance of the inevitability of death; a negative approach.

But finding immortality, which knows no death, is the positivity that we all need to see, and it is within us.

Only by reaching our primordial self via meditation and then going beyond it to find our true self can we overcome this primordial fear.

Accepting death as an inevitability and KNOWING that there is no death are two statements fundamentally far apart from each other.

So, why and how did we develop this primordial fear?

We came into existence as humans among mighty wild animals. ( All predatory animals like lions, tigers, etc. )

We were and still are a weak animal.

A human baby, on its own, cannot protect itself until almost age 25 ( physically and mentally).

Besides being born among wild animals, another thing happened.

Our consciousness has developed far superior to that of other animals.

Animals exist, but they don’t know that they exist.

But we exist, and we also KNOW that we exist.

That was a groundbreaking shift of consciousness.

Because if we KNOW that we exist, we can also extrapolate that we MAY NOT exist someday.

So, this was the environment that instilled fear in our DNAs, right from the beginning.

Now, of course, we all live in a secure society, but we still carry that fear within us.

In fear, one wants to clutch something for support.

( A drowning man will even hold a straw to prevent himself from drowning – An Indian proverb. )

So, in fear, we grabbed our bodies as our identification to feel secure, not knowing that there is nothing safe in this world.

This gave birth to the Ego, and we have all been living in this false illusion ever since.

Fearful Ego wants to connect with others for mental support – ( social groups, religions, jingoism, communities, political ideologies, etc ), all are our efforts to avoid being left out alone.

Ego means identity.

Identity is necessary to maintain the belief that I am this body.

Others provide us with this support and identity by addressing us as the body.

And we spend our whole life in this illusion and fear.

All our inventions – binoculars to look far, planes to fly, knives, bombs, guns, etc, to attack others, etc- reflect only one thing – the fear within us.

Only a fearful person will keep the weapons.

The effect of this fatal mistake is disastrous.

As an Ego, we keep fighting wars with others (other Egos), resulting in big wars among different countries, all the way down to conflicts within our own communities (marital conflicts, religious conflicts, conflicts with neighbors, for example).

The Ego has mesmerized us en masse and made our lives miserable.

The world will always be at war (big or small); there will never be a utopian peace to be found anywhere, ever.

But by going within, we can transcend this illusion hidden within us, for ourselves.

By transcending the mind, we can transcend the belief that I am this body, discover the life-giving life (amratva—immortality), and live our lives in the sky of fearlessness (Egolessness).