There are two vastly contrasting ways to live life. One is living predominantly from the ego, the other is from the Divine self.
What’s the difference?
Living life purely from ego is what the majority of us do.
There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but it’s out of balance and it’s not usually a wholly peaceful existence.
We were never meant to live purely from ego. But 4,000 years of patriarchy seems to have set that firmly in place. Mind and intellect rule above all else. Intuition a mere afterthought or not considered at all.
I would describe a divinely inspired life as being led, not from our ego but from our higher self. Does it mean we banish all desires? No.
It means we don’t grasp on to them and spend every waking hour working hard to bring them into our reality.
Every one of us has a natural course for our life. When we can tune in to this inner GPS system, we can have less worries and we don’t have to micro-manage every aspect of our lives. Things get taken care of.
And that’s not to say that challenges won’t arise. We all have lessons to learn.
But what it does mean is that we allow a more natural flow into our lives.
When we live life predominantly from our ego, things can get out of control. We latch on to life needing to run a certain way, we do everything in our power to have it run this way and when it doesn’t we are severely disappointed. Our ego might then decide on the next shiny object to pursue and off we go again.
Is it difficult to live a divinely led life?
Heck yeah, it’s not for everyone. Not everyone will get it - and that’s okay. It requires trust. It requires surrender (that’s death to the ego). It requires faith and sometimes living in uncertainty.
This passage from the Katha Upanishads describes the difference well, with the analogy of a charioteer:
“Self rides in the chariot of the body, intellect the firm-footed charioteer, discursive mind the reins.
Senses are the horses, objects of desire the roads. When Self is joined to body, mind, sense, none but He enjoys.
When a man lacks steadiness, unable to control his mind, his senses are unmanageable horses”.
That for me sums up one of the main disadvantages of living purely from ego, purely from the thinking mind - and that’s that at some point our mind can become like “unmanageable horses”.
For example, trying to figure out the best course of action with an important decision, or when we face adversity and are trying to solve this problem (from our thinking mind) and even to make sense of it.
A healthy balance of both is what is required, I believe. Gaining self awareness and calming the mind so the protective layers step back enough to allow access to self energy. Then listening and trusting our intuitive knowing. Taking inspired action that feels right. Allowing the right assistance to arrive and letting the ego do what it does best - take care of the planning, organising, analysing and details.
Those are the ingredients for a balanced mix towards a happy existence.