How do we differentiate between ego and self-confidence?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so how do you differentiate between ego and self confidence basically ego is largely connected with how we portray ourselves to the world and self confidence is connected with how we see ourselves so when it’s ego I want the whole world to think that I am very good at this but self confidence means I know that I can do this well so the two are related in the sense that who we are also shapes the world’s perception of who we are but when we are more concerned about the world’s perception of us than about who we really are that means we are less concerned about the substance of who we are and more concerned about the reputation that is when the ego becomes a problem that means that if I come into a room I want everyone to know who I am I have achieved this, I have done this if you don’t know you are ignorant I will enlighten you now I will enlighten you in my glories you may not be so brazen but when a person is egoistic basically they are very absorbed they are very consumed by themselves and they want to speak about themselves and let the whole world know how great they are but when a person has self confidence naturally even self confidence there can be material conception, there can be spiritual conception self confidence at a social level at a conventional, common, cultural level I know I have these abilities and therefore I can do this so the focus is not on how the world sees me the focus is on what I can do that is self confidence now in spiritual self confidence it is not just what I can do but it is Krishna’s arrangement that I have been given some gifts Krishna’s arrangement that certain opportunities have come for me and then I use those opportunities so we don’t see ourselves as independent sources of ability we see ourselves as channels for the ability which Krishna has given us and that spiritual self confidence is actually much more sustainable because when we see ourselves as sources of ability then suddenly the ability goes away you just feel devastated a person thinks, a cricketer thinks I am a very good batsman and suddenly the batsman goes out of form no batsman wants to go out of form but they go out of form, they don’t know what to do but they understand, it is my ability but it is actually not my ability I am not the owner of this ability I am simply the caretaker of this ability because God always gives me this ability and sometimes it may manifest to me, sometimes it may not manifest to me but that doesn’t mean, the world will praise me when I am playing well, the world will criticize me when I am not playing well but that doesn’t, but God doesn’t see me the way the world sees me so I am always connected with God I am always a part of God that becomes a resource of confidence so as a in today’s world to some extent we may have to portray ourselves in a particular way say if you are going through going to prepare a scene then basically you also have to expand your achievements so there is one devotee who just did a degree in IIM in Bangalore, he told me that if there is a water tap that is that is somebody has kept open you go and close the water tap he said you can go and add in your CV you have contributed to decreasing, to conserving water on planet earth laughter laughter laughter so sometimes as a circumstantial necessity you may have to we have to bloat up our accomplishments for preparing a CV or whatever but we don’t let that become our primary definition we just be who we are and our abilities will speak for themselves so in certain situations we may have to speak in general in normal conversations we don’t try to be self-centered on talking and we don’t just talk about our accomplishments we talk to people about what subjects are pertinent at that time and when there are certain things you are expected to do and which we know we can do, then expressing that I have this experience, I have done this, that’s self confidence if somebody thinks of it as ego, that’s their problem but if we are constantly talking about ourselves and accomplishments and we are more worried about our image in the world’s eyes than about our our own abilities, our substance, our connections then that’s when ego becomes a problem