Many a days have I spent reading history books. Many a days have I spent being infuriated with some people at the atrocities perpetuated by them. This anger in me, and the atrocities perpetuated by them stems from the same ego. A religion or an ideology can take you to heaven or take you to the depths of hell. This hell or heaven can be on the earthly plane of existence or in many of the causal or subtle worlds.While I think it is a good thing to know what is happening in the world around you and to what happened to our ancestors in the past, it can be detrimental to oneself if one gets struck in the mire of negative emotions like anger, greed, jealousy etc etc. These contribute tremendously to stress. Someone told me something and it did not fit my image of myself. This naturally upsets me. This 'image' of myself is the ego. Most often, the person who makes the remark might have made it from this same ego centric plane and our response to it might come from the same plane. This certainly is the leading cause of all the conflicts in the world. A lot of our problems and stresses in life are self created. If these are not held in check they can certainly lead to physical ailments. In a way I guess ailments are bodily feedback mechanisms, telling you to stop doing whatever you are doing wrong. Focusing on negative emotions, finding faults with others and ourselves, not being in the present moment.
If on the contrary we can reach a stage called that of the "Sthithapragna" by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavat Gita, we can respond to any unpleasant situations from a higher plane which is the non-ego plane or the realm of the self (God). From here, all our actions will be more natural, more practical and logical. So contrary to what many people say, it is a good thing to go into your inner sanctum and stay there and draw the breath of God.
