Just as we cannot measure the waves in an ocean, we cannot also find out the various form of ego. They are innumerable.

An egoistic person cannot either identify his own faults or appreciate the virtues in others. He believes that every outcome is the result of his own efforts and thus boasts of his greatness. Downfall is certain for anybody who fails to control his anger. Indra is the biggest example in this case.

Once, a demon named Arunāsura occupied heaven by ousting Indra. Then, upon the plea of the demi-gods, Mother Goddess incarnated as Braamari, created crores of bees and killed him. Thus, Mother blessed Indra to regain his kingdom.

A long time after this, Indra along with his guardians, the rulers of the various directions, was wandering atop a mountain. All the Guardian-deities were extolling Indra and he too praised them back. All of them prided that they could win over the demons.

Meanwhile, they saw a Yakshini (fiend) within a short distance. She did not care for anybody around and was busy plucking the flowers. Indra wanted to know who she was. So, he sent the God of Fire to enquire. As soon as she saw the Fire-god approaching, she asked him to introduce himself and prove his might. Agni, the Fire-god replied haughtily that he absorbs everything into him and turns anything into ash within seconds. In a very threatening tone, he asked to introduce herself.

Instead of revealing her identity, the Yakshini threw a piece of straw towards him and asked him to burn it down. Fire God was annoyed but then decided to burn it down. He looked at the straw for a long while and used all his might, but failed to burn it down. Seeing this, Yakshini mocked him. Fire God came back humiliated.

This time, Indra sent Vāyu (Wind God) to commanded him to bring the Yakshini along with him. She asked Vayu to blow away the straw. He too put in great efforts. All the huge trees got uprooted but the straw could be moved at all! He returned humiliated.

The next time, Indra himself went to her along with his thunderbolt weapon, Vajrayudha. The Yakshini pretended to be scared of Indra and stepped backwards. Within no time, she chased Indra like a fierce radiant energy. Indra was now terrified and started to run away in fear. That energy chased Indra for a long time and it finally disappeared.

With this, Indra felt greatly humiliated in front of his subordinates. Unable to tolerate this, he was about to kill himself with his own weapon when he heard a strange voice – “O Indra! You could not identify me because of your inflated ego. You could not even recognise me when I took on the form of the fierce radiant energy. Gain wisdom at least now. Chant the Devi seed lettered hymn one lakh times to seek my blessings once again.”

Indra was the one who ran away unable to fight with demon Arunāsura. As soon as the demon was killed, he ignorantly felt that it was all because of his valor. Ego will drive any one downwards. This is an example to that.

There are many like this in the world. They pray to God fervently till their work gets done. Once, the work is done, they take total credit for having successfully accomplished it. They consider themselves to be great, smart and wise. Such people consider that there are no greater devotees than themselves. Thus, by accumulating their ego, they dig their downfall. Hence, we must be very careful. We must accept the truth that all the wealth and knowledge that we acquired is the gift of God. Those who pray God daily will never get ego.

Jai Guru Datta! Sri Guru Datta!