MY SYMBOLISM

Each one has his own symbolism which has a meaning only for himself. The egoism in yourself of which you speak belongs to the relation of one human being with another and is common to almost all men and women, it is extremely difficult to get rid of, but if one sees it clearly and determines not to have it, then it can first be brought under control and then dismissed from the nature.

There is a bigger kind of egoism which is not so common which can rise into a kind of megalomania, "I, I am the instrument - how great an instrument I am - through me all will be done," there are three or four who have had that in a distressingly acute form, secretly or openly, often it ends by their going away to do great things outside — great things which somehow do not get done.

What is meant by the magnified ego is that when the limits of the ordinary mind and vital are broken, one feels a far vaster and more powerful consciousness and unlimited possibilities, but if one ties all that to the tail of one's own ego, then one becomes a thousand times more egoistic than the ordinary man. The greatness of the Divine becomes an excuse and a support for one's own greatness and the big I swells itself to fill not only the earth but the heavens. That magnification of the ego is a thing to be guarded against with a watchful eye.