To know what I am not is to know myself || Acharya Prashant, with youth (2013)

Shri Prashant: The question asked is why must one understand the ego?

So, what is the ego? What have you understood? Forget the rules.

Listener 1: Something which lets us develop ourselves. If we do not have ego, we cannot develop.

SP: Put it in very simple language, look at it directly. Ego is nothing but the foreign influences upon us. All the external influences upon us, they are called as ego, alright?

If I do not understand what is external, what will I also not understand? If I do not understand what is external, there is another thing that I would surely not understand, what is that?

Listener 2: Internal.

SP: Yes, internal. And what is that internal? That is me. If there’s a foreign influence, surely it is affecting somebody, you say ‘my ego’. So, there is an entity called ‘you,’ upon whom foreign influences act, right? The foreign influence is external, correct? To understand what is external is also to understand what is internal.