A south Korean who consulted me sought two clarifications against my observation on his chart: “Is being ambitious and dreaming a good future an illusion? You have talked about my inflated ego. Would it mean that I am groundless and an ungrateful brat?” There is nothing wrong in being ambitious and nursing dreams. In fact, dreams are necessary for reaching heights one is capable of, since they serve a focus to reach an objective. Since time immemorial the Moon fascinated and evoked man’s curiosity, seen every day – yet unknown. A longing to know and understand it led scientists to send man on the Moon. All creative persons are dreamers – Scientists, Philosophers, Poets, Artists, Writers. In fact, dreams drive their innovative ideas and creative spirit. It’s, however, equally important to note that not everybody’s dreams get fulfilled. Non-realization often brings in frustrating experiences. Would it mean that we are so helplessly fated? Not exactly. More often, it is an individual failure on various counts. External factors do also play spoiler at times. Blindly pursuing fanciful wild dreams, distanced from ground realities, will lead you nowhere. Only well-reasoned dreams can prove fruitful. It would be therefore, desirable to first discriminate whether the dreams nursed are worth pursuing, especially in view of one’s individual worthiness and ground realities. Second, one has to be well geared up to pursue the dreams in right earnest, as quality efforts need to be put in to successfully make it to the desired destination. Third, one should be alert enough to intelligently combat impending challenges posed by external factors. All these would need an orderly mind. The irony, however, is that blinded to dream perception, seldom does one remain conscious about addressing inherent infirmities beforehand. The result is obvious. Now coming to the question of ego, let me make it clear that no ordinary mortal could be ever devoid of ego. For, it is a necessary constituent of the mind that brings in the sense of ‘I’, and which holds the key to how we steer our lives. Any good or bad decision, it is ego’s call. But then ego doesn’t act on its own. It is prompted by thought feed parked within mind or the ones picked up from the external influences. Invariably, ego identifies itself with the inherent mind trends and then passionately pursue them as if that would be its end game. In the process, it doesn’t feel the necessity to invoke Buddhi (the faculty of discriminate intelligence) for due diligence. Often, those with inflated ego become vulnerable to get stuck to the callings of one’s preconditioned mind. Caught up in this hang seldom does one care to invoke Buddhi for a reality check before jumping into action. So, the probability of failure becomes higher. Evidently, if you look at life within the frame of such a restricted vision, you may also miss out better opportunities if any available. If, however, one remains conscious about invoking Buddhi, an exclusive human privilege before taking ...
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