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The Ego-Viewpoint Provides Limited and Inaccurate Assessments of Events · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  If we review our lives through the lens of history, that is,
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  looking back over the events of our lives from where we are
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  today, we can see that things we thought at the time were
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  positive things were in some cases highly detrimental to us
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  over time. And similarly, things we found
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  distasteful or bad may turn out to have been very positive from
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  this view. On the same token, we try to
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  judge economic, political, sociological events in the world
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  we live in based on our immediate impressions.
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  But using the lens of history review, we frequently find that
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  things turned out badly in some cases that we thought were
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  positive and turned out positively in cases we were
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  deeply concerned about. These things illustrate for us
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  that trying to judge anything based on our narrow focus from
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  the standpoint of the ego, whether it is the individual ego
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  or the larger framed societal ego that we adopt with our
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  religion, our politics, our country, etcetera, is bound to
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  lead us to inaccurate and incomplete conclusions.
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  Another aspect to be considered is that the things we believe
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  are positive chances for us are in many cases at the expense of
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  others and thus in balance lead to more suffering than joy and
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  eventually can turn our own joy into sorrow.
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  For instance, we enjoy many of the amenities of our modern
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  lives, air conditioning, Internet, mobile phones,
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  etcetera, without considering the cost these things have both
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  in terms of resource utilization and waste by products, but also
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  in many cases on the long term quality of life we lead.
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  We also failed generally to take into account opportunity cost.
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  Choosing one line of development collapses numerous other
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  potential lines of development. We cannot, from our ego
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  standpoint, know in advance which one would actually turn
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  out best for our growth and development over the longer
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  term. Quantum mechanics takes up this
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  very question about the numerous, if not indeed infinite
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  choices available as latent possibilities and how they all
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  shrink down once an actual choice is made.
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  That does not imply we have made the best choice, simply that we
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  have moved in a particular direction and put aside other
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  options. A disciple inquires.
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  Quote. A happy chance may come from a
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  set of circumstances which harm nobody.
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  End Quote. The mother writes.
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  Quote. We do not see if harming anyone
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  or anything simply because we do not have sufficient data.
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  We cannot judge circumstances, for we do not know the world.
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  What do we know about it? Our vision is so short and so
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  limited. Just think, a man can never know
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  what lies beyond his 120 years at the maximum.
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  And I am putting a very big limit, and I count the first
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  years of his existence, though generally he does not remember
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  what has happened. Then what does one know about
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  the world in so short a time and about the consequences of
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  things? Nothing at all, and even
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  granting that one can remember sufficiently well to know the
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  result or antecedent of a so-called chance, it is
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  altogether a local knowledge. What does one know about what is
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  happening at the antipodes or in a million other places on the
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  earth at the same moment? We know nothing about it, and as
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  we know that all that happens is linked, that all things are
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  closely linked consciously, that there cannot be a vibration in
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  one place without there being its consequences in another, how
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  can we tell whether our chance is not harmful to someone though
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  it be favorable to us? I think it is impossible to form
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  a judgment. How shall I put it, a correct
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  judgment about things, For one does not know what is going on
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  in the world. We do not know the whole, we
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  know nothing of the play of forces, and we say that chance
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  is the result of a play of forces.
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  Only instead of being the expression of divine harmony, it
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  is the expression of conflicting wills.
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  These wills are not all necessarily bad or hostile, but
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  they are always ignorant. Each one tries to realize his
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  own will, and the victory is to the strongest.
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  The strongest is not necessarily the best In this field.
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  When one thing is realized, how many others could have been
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  realized which were not? Because this one was realized?
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  And all these things we do not know and quote reference.
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  Sri Auro Bindu and the Mother. The Hidden Forces of Life,
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  Chapter Eight Life A Mass of Vibrations, pages 178 to 179.