NEVER MISUNDERSTAND EGO AS WISDOM

Wisdom is not easy to attain, but the arrogance of the ego, which many a time is misunderstood as it comes easily and without much effort.   Wisdom is the death of the ego. When you are faced with egoism know well there is no wisdom in that person at all.  When wisdom comes, the ego goes.  And the more knowledgeable a man becomes, the more his ego deflates. Wisdom does not blot out the mystery of life, but it untangles it. When the secret of the universe and of the self is revealed, at the boiling point of wisdom the individual becomes empty and his ego perishes.  The ego was the source of ignorance and in the light of wisdom it dies. 

It is reported that Socrates said the following in his last days:  "When I was young I knew many things, and I used to think of myself as the wisest man in the world.  The more I grew, the more I became aware that I didn't know much.  And then the last thing happened - one day I suddenly realized that I knew nothing.” It is a paradox that on the same day, the Oracle at Delphi declared that Socrates was the wisest man in the world.  People who had heard the oracle came to him and told him that the Oracle has declared that he was the wisest man in the world.  Socrates looked shocked and he said, "There must have been some mistake, because just today I have realized that I don't know anything at all.  I am the most ignorant man in the world!  You please go and correct the oracle."  And they went and they told the oracle that Socrates himself says that he is the most ignorant man in the world.  The oracle said, "That's why I have declared him the wisest."

The signs of wisdom are prudence, humility and fearlessness. The Book of Proverbs (8:12) says “I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.”  Wisdom is:

Knowing the way things are.

Knowing the way the things work.

Knowing what to do about it fearlessly.