By Sage ViGo
Table of Contents
Introduction: a world longing for change
Everyone wants a better world. But what we are collectively creating as a human society feels quite contradictory to what we all have inside of us.
Each and every one of us carries love, affection, compassion. These beautiful qualities are there in all of us. Still, when we look at what is being expressed outside, what we have created as a world, it is difficult to even call ourselves human. So many wars, so much destruction, in the name of religion, in the name of ruling others, in the name of development. Maybe we are still in the process of evolution, not yet fully humans, but still transitioning from animals to humans.
Why is this happening?
Because in the name of development, we are only considering the outer world. There is no space for the inner world. The contribution of the inner world towards the outer is not being recognised. What we have inside, love, affection, compassion, there is no space to bring it out, no space for the expression of the Self. The space is fully occupied by this outer mess.
To bring about real change, this imbalance has to shift. The change the world needs is not just a change in politics, systems, or technology. It is a shift from the outer to the inner. A shift from the ego to the Self. From mind to wisdom. From judgment to love. From comparison to contentment.
This blog brings together three key aspects that need to be looked into deeply:
- Ego and false identification
- An outward-only way of living
- Comparison and judgment shaped by conditioning
Ego: the root of misunderstanding
What is ego? Why is it so difficult to drop it? These are questions that trouble many people.
Ego is nothing but your own faith or belief system. It is to believe in something as “I” which is not truly “I.” For example, believing your car is you, your office is you, your relationship is you, these are all beliefs that something which is not you is you.
This confusion arises from conditionings of the mind. Due to a lack of wisdom, one starts identifying with these external things. But can you really be your car? Your job? Your relationships? No. You are you. That’s it.
Still, most people on this planet are believing something as true, as their life, based on what someone else has written or said. People live their lives confined by a book, a theory, a philosophy put forth by someone else for some other purpose. But life, this magnificent, undefinable phenomenon, cannot be confined to any such thing.
To be free from ego means to break these chains. And that is not easy.
Why? Because dropping ego means losing a belief system. And when belief is lost, what remains feels like emptiness, a vacuum. That vacuum is hard to face.
But why should being nothing be a problem? Life is not about becoming something or nothing. Life is just life. Ego is simply an attempt to define what cannot be defined. And once we stop all such attempts, through regular observation of our daily life and seeing through all our belief systems, we begin to dissolve ego.
What happens then? You smile for no reason. You’re happy for no reason. You love for no reason. You become the love itself.
This can be achieved through the practice of Yoga, because Yoga makes the real Self reveal itself.
A life oriented only outside
To understand why Yoga is essential, we need to understand what life really is.
Stop for a moment and look at life, your life as an individual, and life as a society. No matter where we live, we are collectively creating the human experience. So the question is: why are we, as a collective, like this?
Even though we have love, compassion, and so many beautiful things inside us, what we have expressed outside is full of contradictions. Wars, conflicts, destruction, despite having such richness within, this is what we’ve created.
Why? Because we are developing only the outer. The inner is neglected.
Today’s model of life is based on a factory-like system: capitalism, competition, education, all based on the mind. The mind, in turn, is formed through sense perception, which perceives through difference. So it becomes natural for the mind to express life through ego.
That’s what’s happening. We are living from the ground of the mind, from the ground of ego. If we want real change, the shift must be from mind to wisdom, from ego to love.
Yoga touches that real Self. It reveals what is covered by the mind and brings out the wisdom already present in all of us.
Comparison and judgment: born from conditioning
Comparison and judgment arise when we don’t understand the purpose of life.
Someone has a small house, someone else a big house. Someone can touch their forehead to their knee in a forward bend, another cannot. These become grounds for judgment. But the real question is: what is life?
If we say life is about building a palace, even that palace will one day become dust. The person who built it will also become dust. Everything in the material world is temporary.
Comparison and judgment always happen in reference to matter. And matter is not a permanent truth. Concepts that seem important today may change tomorrow.
If there’s clarity about life, comparison disappears. What is needed in life? Life itself. That’s all.
For a dying person, the most important thing is not a palace, not food, but life. Life is the most precious thing. And when we realise that we already have it, contentment arises.
True contentment is expressed in every limb of Yoga. Meditation is contentment. Pranayama is contentment. Even Yama and Niyama are expressions of contentment. Everywhere you are expressing the contentment because you have life. Life is nothing but contentment.
When you understand that all judgment and comparison come from conditioning, you begin to dissolve it. These conditionings were absorbed from the outside. But life is not meant to be lived from conditioning. Life should be lived fearlessly, completely, unconditionally.
Fearlessness, presence, completeness, these make you a flower in each moment.
From the angle of pure love, everything is lovable: completeness and incompleteness, good and bad performance, winning and losing, birth and death. Love dissolves judgment.
From whichever angle you look, love, fearlessness, unconditionality, if you grow into it, you dissolve limitations.
Let us live a life free of ego, full of contentment, rooted in love. Let us express the beauty already within us and create a world that truly reflects who we are. Let us practise Yoga, and live the life of egolessness.
A gentle invitation
The world doesn’t need more noise, more speed, or more solutions piled upon old patterns. It needs space, space for the Self to emerge. This space is what Yoga offers. Not as something to do, but as a way to be.
When we begin to live from presence rather than pattern, from clarity rather than confusion, we stop adding to the chaos. We begin to contribute something else, something true, something whole. Even a single life lived from this ground makes a difference. That is the power of Yoga.
The world is waiting for you!
"Evolve The Self,
Better The World, Love All"
