“The Bible also tells us, “With humility comes wisdom.” Every day I realize I’m just a sinner like everyone else, and I have been forgiven only because of God’s grace. God gave us our gifts and abilities. He blessed our efforts. If we start thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to, it takes away from our proper worship of God. Pride blinds us to our own faults.”
– Billy Graham
Kabir – The couplet
???? ??? ??? ?????, ????? ??? ???? ????? |
????? ??? ??? ?????, ????? ??? ?????? ||
transliterated:
timir gaya ravi dekhate, kumati gayi guru gyan |
sumati gayi ati lobhate, bhakti gayi abhiman ||
Translation:
Darkness disappears with the rising sun, ignorance by the Guru’s wisdom |
Good intellect is lost to greed, devotion is lost in the face of ego ||
My understanding:
One of the greatest gifts we receive is rationality, alongside the ability to understand, even when we disagree. However, this rationality and understanding are offset by ego, which we seem to treat as a compensating value?
If we apply the same rationality and understanding to our own ego, ego instantly loses, but flares up immediately in a different form – as that of conceit and belief in our own correctness. When we kill that, it again raises its head, in the guise of self-righteousness. This evolves to conceit, and keeps morphing, never going away. In the process, we tend to tire and succumb, sometimes early, sometimes late, but more often on the wrong side of the question.
The only way to beat this down is with learning, acquiring knowledge, finding and following the advice of a true Teacher, and being constantly on the vigil, for we die before ego does. And the only way to keep ego down is to be on the vigil at all times, same way as we always lock the door if we want to keep robbers out – not jst at night or during holidays….
Would you agree?