Q&A How do we know if we are acting in Ego (Haumai)

It can be very difficult to know whether we are acting in ego or not. Sometimes even the good things we are doing we may be doing in Ego. In this video Baljit Singh clears this up and gives us some ways we can identify when we may be acting in ego.
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Vaheguru Simran in the Intro and Outro is how Sikhs chant Gods name. Its performed by Jagdeep Kaur of www.qi-rattan.com. You can download it for free from www.thekdp.com (Jam 2, track 6 = Waheguru Simran).
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[@TheHarmandeepsingh10]

Waheguru ji ka Khalsa Waheguru ji ki Fateh

[@radicalkills123]

Beautiful as always

[@SharonBhara]

Satnaam waheguru

[@karamsingh-yu7ou]

Will you come to India again?? Please come 🙏🙏

[@fastanffurious]

What does it mean to be a Lubana? Like i know thats what my family caste is but like what does it mean?

[@ForzaDallaParadiso]

Sikhs don't care about caste. We don't indulge too much in our ancestral differences.

[@sumitsingh5114]

When tmr u coming to surrey Vancouver

[@basicsofsikhi]

+sumit singh IN End of July 2016

[@ben_s73]

Is the Sikhi point to eradicate ego completely or is it to balance ego with humility. Both ego and humility serve an important part of the human experience. Sikhism may promote the release of ego and this may have been an essential part of collective "RURAL" evolution in the farmlands of India but in other developed geographical hemispheres EGO plays an essential role in communication and the survival model within a level playing field. An example of this would be British politics or business where a certain level of ego and presence is required. Patriarchy also requires a certain level of ego. To deny ones ego in certain societies is to deny a full experience of life and test ones own commitment to its productive limit with one essential ingredient called ego.

[@vjagpal]

Brother, as per sikhi, ego can not be eradicated or denied. About Ego guru sahib says Hume deerag roog hai, daroo bhi is mahi (Ego is a chronic disease, but it contains its own cure as well) When a soul realize separateness from God caused by ego, it look for path to go back home. A Sikh should achieve spiritual level where ego should not be able to control ones actions. Using gurmat a Sikh should be able control ego to move ahead in spiritual path.

[@gwk8009]

I understand what you are saying, talking about self is an important part of communication and strength in many fields. Yet, language is such a superior tool that it helps you talk about the action performed for help through the Bhanda (the vessel) which you have been gifted with instead of talking about self. Communicating as a service to the industry you are in "it beings about a pleasure to do this right" can replace with "I wanted to do it right" Language, word is a great tool in eradicating Haumai while talking as well. And none of the above will work if we don't realise what exactly is Haumai and at what points for we have that. Seperation from God, would be thinking within us two things exist - God and I. Eliminating that is the aim. It takes practice

[@ben_s73]

​@@gwk8009 @V J With respect to your example "it brings about" or "I wanted to" emanates from the self and so a single core belief in oneself which promotes your self-expression/esteem/progress/belief in the arena of "personal" creative power we have all "INDIVIDUALLY" cultivated/recognised. Why do Sikhs choose different fields of pursuit and excellence if not to further their "personal" natural recognised ability? Why is it a common Sikh notion that G-d is a part of everything so a part of us ALWAYS so where is the separation?...only in the mind which is influenced by many factors and in turn directs and influences. If you are programmed and berated as I see in some Sikh families, wherein conversation you say "I did...I created" and forced by emotional/cultural blackmail with dominating corrections like "NO YOU didn't, DONT SAY I...G-d did this" how can this support self-esteem, pride in your accomplishments and self-belief to progress in DEVELOPED geo-hemispheres/societies? If you are afraid people/community will gossip/frown upon your "I" declaration then THEY the GOSSIPS/EGO-Police are the issues. This just sounds like a model to HIJACK peoples innate creative ability keep and them subjugated in order to pin the label of "Sikhism" on it should their ability gain social recognition in the wider arena of their profession/specialism/creativity. Isn't this another form of indirect EGO holding someones ability to ransom whilst threatening them with separation which is a contradiction in terms of belief where Sikhs again claim G-d is in all things.. My understanding is G-d gave us FREEWILL to exercise within an organically prescribed evolving set of constants and a rural undeveloped insulated community required this "EGO" suppression model to force everyone into a common level of operation giving Sikh elders and Granthis ultimate control via a subjugated congregation. In the wider competitive geographical hemisphere, this type of programming can be an unconscious hindrance suppressing your inclination to fight your corner in terms of personal productivity/achievement recognition.

[@kbains3955]

Hey bro this is a extremely difficult thing to talk about, hence in poetry its even harder to decipher and many people take gurbani in a wrong way. Ego is not I do or I want, ego is literally the entire I thought itself. To lose the belief that you are a entity that exists separate from the environment. Why do we believe something like an ant or a cell has no free will and just does things based off its nature/instincts when physics acts the exact same way in a human brain. Its scientifically impossible for a being which can freely choose independent of environmental/genetic factors to exist. Everything we do is governed by not physics itself but by what physics attempts to measure/explain, you can call it the environment or universe but there isn’t really a good word imo. Even the ego which creates the sense of doership is itself caused by this (not an actual brain structure, there is no “me” center in the brain, its an illusion, search it up for a better answer). So this is the point which is sort of paradoxical and hard to explain. Up until we lose the ego we believe it to be a real thing and that we can lose it, but when “get rid of the ego” you realize that there never actually was any ego it was a misconception. To better understand this think that you are being chased by a tiger and that your goal in life is to get rid of that danger. So you run and run and finally once you get enough courage you walk back towards it and see that it was a man in a mask chasing you this whole time. There never actually was any tiger! Imagine how freeing and how much peace that would bring after running for years!! So technically we are all liberated or free of ego all the time but we believe thoughts to be ours and to be refering to “me”, a me which is just a concept and never existed. This is sort of what caused the materialistic rat race of human society. When we have a “me” we want to keep bettering that image and getting more and more not just what we need. But you also bring up a good point that for a human an ego is sort of essential to be alive, without it how would we know we are separate from the snake that is about to bite us. When we separate from the ego we realize that we are not the human body, that we are something else indescribable and incomprehensible by a human(god/the infinite void). So the human body still has a structure that is able to tell itself apart from other things and may still keep some things that look very egotistical like getting mad or having lots of sex, theres no way a enlightened person should act, it ranges very widely. A better way to explain all of this is that once we see that the ego doesn’t actually exist and that we are not the human body/mind we reach god. Hopefully that helps man still a bunch of things I left out but this is a veryy complex topic and yet very simple in another sense.

[@ben_s73]

@@kbains3955 Thank you for the informed response. I understand the metaphor. Perhaps the real issue is having the context of ego management/pruning in Sikhism administered by unorthodox Sikhs who operate at different spectrums of interpretation, hierarchy or understanding which just becomes invasive and annoying as you witness them displaying other areas of outright ego whilst trying to comment/condemn you on your actions/language with an innate sense of "Sikh" pride. I would be inclined to say to them If you don't practice what you preach please don't condemn others privately or socially. I understand the droplet in the ocean too as an analogy in terms of being a sum of its parts where the super consciousness is concerned.

[@androidman2183]

please i have one Q why woman in the back covering her head but her hand she is not covering it ? what the point to cover her head then?

[@Ydidutakemyname]

everyone covers there head in sikhi, man or woman, and especially in front of maharaj

[@androidman2183]

+Ydidutakemyname this is not my Q mine is why she covering her head but not her hand ?

[@Ydidutakemyname]

+mustapha ali why would you need to cover hands?

[@user-yv8su2rq1p]

why would she need to cover her hands?

[@androidman2183]

the problem is in some cultures she needs to cover her head because prudery and if she did it for that purpose then she need to cover her hand too like Christian nun or Muslim woman if she didnt cover her head because prudery then she must not cover her head in any way because there is no logical reason for it