EGO

"I suppose the ego came there first as a means of the outer consciousness individualizing itself in the flux of Nature and, secondly, as an incentive for tamasic animal man to act and get something done. Otherwise he might merely have contented himself with food and sleep and done nothing else. With the incentive of ego (possession, vanity, ambition, eagerness for power etc. etc.)he began doing all sorts of things he might never otherwise have done. But now that he has to go higher, this ego comes badly in the way."
Sri Aurobindo The Integral Yoga p.286
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"The right attitude is to see that as a seperate being, as an ego, one has no importance whatever and the insistence on one's own desires, pride, position etc. is an ignorance, but one matters only as a spirit, as a portion of the Divine, not more than others but as all souls matter to the Soul of all."
Sri Aurobindo The Integral Yoga p.289