The Ego Is But The Shadow

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A man disturbed by his own shadow, in order to get rid of it, dug a pit and sought to bury it. He tried in vain by throwing mud into the pit, however the shadow was quick to make its appearance on the pilling up mud. At the completion of the job, he was thrown into utter disappointment to see the shadow on top of the pit.

The man then resorted to run away from the shadow. He did so by running away from the sun only to find his shadow, in full form running ahead of Him. In utter frustration, the man started running towards the sun. He was happy to have out-paced the shadow, however he had still not done away with it totally, as it was following him. The dejected man then lay down on the ground. He then turned to his left and right to find his shadow. To his relief the shadow had disappeared.

Swami Sivananda says that one's ego, or the sense of 'I am ness' with regards to one's body and mind, is in truth a mere shadow and not one's true self. It takes on innumerable forms throwing one into delusion. One cannot out do it by fleeing from it. However with one's attention turned to God, one can actually out-pace it. The best course to get rid of it totally is to surrender to God without reserve, which causes its ultimate destruction. The individual then gets established in eternal peace.