(Kadamba Kanana Swami, July 2011, Fruska Goranga, Serbia, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.16)
Question: How to deal with the notorious false ego?
You can buy a self-help sociology book. It is useful because it makes you more aware but your false ego will still be there. Carl Jung speaks of a swollen ego. We can try so many techniques and all may help a little bit.
But I think that the approach of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is nice. It is an approach where we just don’t pay attention to this false ego. It works through our mind, and constantly the mind comes up with endless rubbish.
The mind is like a spoiled child. If we want this child to stop crying, just ignore it. Cry until you are dry. Simple as that!
Not that we do it in the mood of just renouncing and being hard. We just get busy in devotional service. Too busy and then we can’t complain.
“Oh, I’m so busy. I have no time for anything else. I can hardly chant my rounds! Oh, I have never time to read! I have so much service.”
Good! Because if we would have time, we would just think of nonsense anyway and if we would have time, we would still not chant seriously. We would still chant, “Hare Krsna Hare Krsna… Oh, how are you today?”
So, if you have such a big, swollen false ego then the best remedy is to just become overloaded with service and that service will save us. Then later, after we have made sacrifice in service, then we will find that our hearing, chanting, remembering has grown deeper.
