Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Let M-e-go

It is said that the portion of the psyche or the portion of the self that refers to itself or in simple words refers to 'I' is called as the ego. It was by chance that I got to read about ego, a word which is thrown around here and there in recent times describing certain behaviors which cannot be rationalized. To put it in plain layman terms Ego could be defined as 'who you think you are'. Makes a lot of sense if one takes out time just to analyse and reflect upon the past events occurred in which he/she was involved.
There was one particular mail which was forwarded by a very good friend of mine. The mail had a small but simple story which goes on something like this:
A group of 4-5 women were sitting in a restaurant and chit-chatting when all of a sudden a flying roach sits on one of the lady's hand. On seeing the roach the lady immediately freaked out and started to yell and jumped out of her skin bringing down the roof. The roach then went on to jump to the nearby lady who was just glad and willing to continue on the drama started by her friend. The nearby waiter who went to the rescue somehow got entangled and the roach finally jumped on him. The waiter remained unperturbed. Watched the movements of the roach for a few moments and calmly picked it up and threw it out.

The histrionic behavior of the ladies was elicited by the roach?
But then why was the waiter so unperturbed and calm. It was the same roach that jumped on him that jumped on the ladies as well. It was merely the inability of the ladies to react to such a situation that resulted in such a comical event. One should realize that most of the problems arises because of their inability to react to the situation.The stark realization of the fact that it is the individual's inability to react to any particular situation is what is more disturbing and hurtful than the situation itself. This is where the ego comes in. Rationalizing a situation and responding to it will always be the best course of action. The waiter in this case responded where as the ladies reacted. Reactions are instinctive where as response is always intellectual.
 The brief pause in thinking and responding to a situation more often than not leads to the elimination of ego. I may be sounding a little too philosophical or spiritual but more one lets go of the ego or more one lets go of 'I' the more peaceful the individual is from within.
 Bottom line of the story though - An intelligent person responds where as fools react.

P.S- No pun intended towards any of the characters described above. The article is actually written by a certain Deepak Shinde. I have just posted pretty much the same thing here. Though have managed to link it to ego.

2 comments:

nasha said...

how again is this related to ego??? :)

Karthik[:)] said...

lets just say that there arises certain situations when u react in a very stupid way because of your ego..u just have to pause for a moment to rationalize yr behaviour, swallow yr ego and not do the stupid thing but end up doing the right thing...sounds complicated ryt???
:P