The measure of that would be the state of the world. How is that working for mass consciousness, who pay no heed to ego what so ever? We need but open our eyes to see what giving ego no attention hath wrought.

I liken ego tendencies to weeds in a garden. Unless you pull them the weeds will take over the garden. They don't go away by neglect. On the contrary they destroy the garden, just as the world, which is our gift from God is groaning under the burden of ego consciousness.

Is it possible to have a garden free of weeds, and free of the possibility of weeds ever coming back. Yes, but only if you put an impenetrable protective wall around the garden that keeps the wind from blowing unwanted seeds back into the garden.

Some would argue there are not unwanted seeds, but they show their ignorance, for any true gardener will tell you that a garden free of weeds would be heavenly. Only in pulling the weeds and being constantly vigilant are we assured of keeping a garden free of weeds.

The garden is the mind. It must be free of thoughts that produce negative results. The protective wall is spirit. Only when mind has merged with spirit, can we hope to free ourselves of the negative baser ego tendencies in the mind. Not only free ourselves, but prevent the negative from ever coming back. That is the spiritual journey. To remove the weeds of anger, jealousy, arrogance... but much more, to remove the source of those thoughts; to remove ego.

Sai Baba says, 'To overpower the ego is a well-nigh impossible task. People have conquered the six foes - lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride and hatred. But rare indeed is the hero who has overcome his ego.' But it starts with making that the objective.

Once free of ego, you are part of the solution to the worlds problems and only then. Until then even if you keep your garden free of weeds, which is a good thing, but not enough, you are not impacting the rest of the world in any way that will bring true hope to all mankind, for without the retaining wall of totally oneness with spirit, weeds still have a chance to come back. You thus have not attained enlightenment. Only when enlightened, only when free of ego, are you part of the solution.

God created our garden. When He created us, our garden was free of weeds. We invited ego into our garden (mind). We are responsible for the weeds, and for ego at large. To be restored to God's kingdom we must remove ego. The kingdom of God is within. Ego is also within. Ego cannot be ignored. It must be chosen against in order to restore ourselves and the world to the joy that God would have us claim as our true inheritance. That true joy can only be known together. Therefore we must individually relinquish ego in the service of the uplift of all fellowman.

Blessings and love,
Yaani