Is ego pride? What is enlightenment? || Acharya Prashant (2019)

Questioner (Q): Is ego pride? What is enlightenment?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Ego is the ‘I’-feeling that causes you suffering.

Pride causes you suffering, but it is not merely pride that causes you suffering: even the opposite of pride causes you suffering. Taking yourself as too big will cause suffering, but even taking yourself as too small will cause you suffering.

Now, that’s quite interesting. If you look at any ‘I’-statement that causes you suffering, you discover that even the opposite of that statement causes you suffering.

“I am hungry”—suffering.

“I am just too full”—suffering.

Any ‘I’-statement is, in its essence, suffering. That’s ego.

Do not associate it merely with pride, or power, or achievement. The one who says, “I am a big winner,” is exhibiting ego. The one who says, “I am a big loser,” is equally exhibiting ego.