Deny Oneself

`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Ozymandias—Shelley

Ego is defined in two ways—referring to self as different from the others and the world in general and as an exaggerated importance given to self, a sort of exaggerated self-esteem.

A revered hermit was there whose soothing words have given solace to many. The King of the country heard about the hermit and met him. He asked the hermit. “O! Revered one! I want to feel joy and remain bereft of worries and sorrow. Tell me what I should do?”

The hermit answered him, “Serve people.”

The King returned after a few months. “O! Revered one! I made all that are possible and expected of me by the people. I made my ministers to look into every problem my subjects face and ordered them to take action. But still I feel sorrow in here, I am not as happy as I wished,” so saying, he indicated his heart.

The hermit told him, “Give everything away.”

The king returned after a few months and told the Hermit, “O! Revered one! I have made all arrangements for all wealth to reach people. I don’t own a single thing. I have nothing except the clothes I stand in. But even now I feel a tinge of sorrow and am not happy.”

The hermit replied, “Deny yourself.”

He who has extinguished desire is one who has achieved joy on this planet. The one, who transcends the ‘I’, gets joy and reaches the eternal truth. To attain absolute joy which is synonymous of truth is attained through denying oneself.

‘Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.’ Matthew 16:24

Picture thanks to returnoninter