Before you wish to become a victor and not a victim of life and before you wish to have a flight of celebration, ecstasy and joy, let’s understand the dynamics and mechanics of life and living.

The very reason for us being born again and again is due to the latent desire of the soul, which is to get free from the meshes and shackles of life. To be salvaged… to be liberated…

We subconsciously seek permanency in everything we do, achieve, and experience. The very phenomenon of a temporary world full of illusion, where the mind switches gears every nano second just wanting more and more, leaves us dissatisfied and disappointed. The speed of change builds stress.. The nature of change brings anxiety, hankering for fulfilment takes us in wrong directions. So our real yearning is for that which is constant. The bliss quotient can either be a conscious quest seeking the ultimate truth or it could be a calling from within.

Shut your eyes, withdraw your senses, disconnect with the outside and make yourself open and vulnerable for oneness with the existence, take a few deep breaths and breathe out equally deep. Now open your eyes and continue.. and the seeker become sought, as the famous sufi poet Rumi said, “I’ve been living on the lip of insanity, asking questions, knocking at the door… the door opens – I’ve been knocking from inside.”

To reach a point of total freedom breathing easy and relaxed, are you ready to fly? For starters, let us mingle with nature and its elements, like sitting by the sea and absorbing the energy of its waves; squatting in the garden and appreciating the creativity’s finest aesthetics; finding a quiet corner in a temple, and feeling connected within; lying down below the open sky and experience its vastness; listening to the chirping of the birds and tuning in with the rhythm of nature; inhaling the fragrance of fruits, flowers or mud and breathing out all the physiological, psychological and emotional toxins. Or simply shut your eyes in any quiet corner and start breathing in and out very slowly and smoothly in rhythm and harmony.

Breathing in the subtle and super energy and breathing out gross and subtle tensions and stress. You can do it for as long and as many times a day, till you completely blank out and empty yourselves, delving into your deepest recesses. Some call this meditation. These endeavours will release you gradually from the entrapments and you will be enslaved no more to life.. and your ticked to the primary flight is earned.

As much we need to be deeply relaxed in the state of restful awareness, we need to be extremely alert as well; which should be a perfect togetherness of dynamic stillness and profoundly passive alertness; to flow and cooperate with life and not react to it, respond and not giving resistance to it and not obstruct it. Then we become the co-creators of this existence, liberated with creative juices. This gives us extreme power of transformation alchemy. All transformations and transcendence happen in contrast of deepest relaxation and extreme alertness together; in this state one can experience immense sense of freedom, liberation of energy thoughts, words, deeds and infinite creativity making you the alchemist.

This gives you wings for a higher flight, a sense of freedom and a hope of never ending vastness which is the immeasurable potential of all that was, is, and will be. This is truly and simply, how great people become extraordinary quite simply, in the quest of simple truth!

Should you wish to have eternal wings to fly with ecstasy celebrating your own being and the being of existence cultivate these five points of inner beauty

Compassion
Be unconditionally and selflessly loving and love even those you don’t love you.

Benevolence
Be kind even to those who are not kind to you.

Philanthrophy
From love to empathy, from wealth to service, and from forgiving yourself to forgiving others be magnanimous

Grace
Accepting life as it is with grace and responding to it with simply grace

Creativity
From harmony to abundance, from bonding and creating joy of life to every aspect of life

This is a process and shall be achieved with the passage of time only if you attend to life in profound state of consciousness, witnessing it as it passes by without judging it. Difficult though, but certainly possible only if you will it.

If ego can erode brotherly ties between the world’s richest siblings, ruin careers and relationships, wipe away fortunes and futures, it surely is a greater  force than most of us give it credit for!

Come to think of it, ego is one of the two deadliest traps you could fall into – at work, or even in your relationships. The second of course is emotion. The two forces within that could conspire to ruin you with very little help from external enemies. The enemies within.

Ego that blinds you to all else but a perceived slight. And emotion that blinds you to the outcome of your resultant outburst. Ego that makes an entire clan believe their honor has been hurt by a young couple’s romantic liaison. And emotion that makes them kill their own child and the lover.

From the Gita to Osho to Bhuddhist teachings to modern Western analysis of the constructed nature of self, all religions and philosophies have attempted to define ego. Yet, ego remains almost as abused a word as “sexy!” “He has a huge ego;” “Don’t let ego ruin your relationship;” “Ego comes in the way of success” are oft-heard phrases. And yet, how many understand what the word means?

Here are few definitions, Ego is “a pseudo reflection of the soul” (Lord Krishna in The Gita); “a false sense of the self,” (Master Sheng yen, one of the world’s most respected Bhuddhist masters); “an emotional charged image of self” (Otto Kernberg, pioneering psychologist); “A false centre. The reflection of what others think” (Osho).

So then should one rid oneself of all ego and emotion as religious texts prescribe? Well, so long as you wish to live in the world and not take off to the mountains in the loin skin carrying a kavandal, the better deal surely is to learn to handle ego and emotion rather than give them up!

You can either make ego and emotions your strength or your greatest weakness by allowing someone else to handle them to their advantage. If someone who knows you mildly can play you like a musical instruments, eliciting the emotions and responses they want from you, that is your biggest Achilles’ heel. If your enemy knows what most angers you and so makes you lose control, undoubtedly he will be tempted to use his power over you.

In our everyday lives, we are bound to be faced with situations that hurt our ego or incite emotions. A hurt ego almost always responds emotionally. The emotion amy be one of sadness, anger, revenge or aggression. Give in to it and you have walked into a trap; to walk away is to transcend on to tanother plane and feel thrilled with your will power and control over yourself.

People take a catlike delight in playing with those trapped by their emotions. As Deepak Chopra says, managing others begins with managing yourself first. “Business leaders who don’t know themselves too well and cannot get a grip on their emotions and ego, fail miserably.”

The top performing companies are usually those who CEO’s names you wouldn’t know. They have none of the ego and arrogance associated with a CEO. That’s because “these people were not into themselves; their goal was not adulation or power, but to create a great company.” Their companies would do well even after they leave. Which is more than can be said for Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric. But can certainly be said for Infosys’ Narayanmurthy!

The aim should be to develop a high level of emotional intelligence, which enables you to think through your emotions intelligently. And to use your emotions to help you think more intelligently. It is important to stay in touch  with who you are as a human being, because that is who you will be in every sphere of life, be it work or relationship.

To that end, ego or an awareness of self is important. Who you think you are is an integral part of who you become.