Personal Effort, the Ego and the Nature of Selfishness

There is considerable confusion about the role of the ego and the nature of actions one undertakes. Many believe that charitable actions, altruistic or philanthropic actions by definition are unselfish acts and evidence the elimination of ego from the action. This, however, is not accurate. The ego remains active as long as the individual identifies himself with a specific person or personality. It is the development of the ego that is a necessary transitional step from the more amorphous consciousness of the vital and rudimentary mental levels. At the point where a seeker becomes self-aware and determines to align with the development of the next evolutionary phase, which implies transcendence of the ego, and a shift of standpoint away from the individual to the universal, he begins to explore the methodology for achieving this consequential step. Charity, philanthropy, good deeds not directly benefiting the person himself represent a start of this process, but do not actually, in and of themselves, eliminate the ego-consciousness. In fact, in many cases, these things are used to build up the ego, through achieving less tangible, but nevertheless important goals of the ego-personality, such as increasing fame or adulation, enhancing business prospects, or aiding in the development of the larger collectivities such as family, community, country or religion to which the specific individual belongs. These steps may be highly beneficial in a larger sense, and may represent stages in the further development of the seeker towards a more universal standpoint, depending on how they are experienced and understood internally.

The Mother notes: ”There may be an effort which is not at all selfish and is yet egoistic, because the moment it becomes personal it is egoistic — that means, it is based on the ego. But this does not mean that it is not generous, compassionate, unselfish nor that it is for narrow personal ends. It is not like that. It may be for a very unselfish work. But so long as an ego is there it is egoistic. And so long as the sense of one’s own personality is there, it is naturally something egoistic; it is founded on the presence of the ego.”

“And this must last for a fairly long time, because it must last until the individuality is completely formed, until it has reached a certain state of individual perfection; then the presence of the ego is no longer necessary — but not before one has attained the maximum individual development.”

“It is not just a tiny little job. It asks for much time and much effort. And when one has attained the perfection of his own development, when one is an individual being who is truly personal, that is, who has all the characteristics of something different from all others — for in principle there are no two individualities exactly alike in the world — then, when one has succeeded in expressing the individuality one is, is exclusively, represents exclusively in the universal creation, then one is ready for the ego to disappear — but not before.”

“It asks for a certain length of time, not a little effort, a fairly complete education. But one may be quite unselfish long before being ready not to have the ego any longer. That is something else.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 6, Some Answers and Explanations, pp. 179-180