Traits of the Ego - Reaction & Response Living the Teachings of Sai Baba

Namaste! We are here with Gautam ji for our next podcast, and we are continuing the series- traits of the ego. Gautam, thank you so much for your time as always. My pleasure Nik. And Gautam the response to the first episode was rather nice and very sincere. People asked some very meaningful questions. So I felt it would be nice if we can continue this series and cover all the aspects and traits of the ego and the mind so it can help devotees become very aware, like if they have a sort of framework to know what to look for, it can help them in their journey. Sure, because this is the journey of unraveling the ego and all its projections, defense mechanisms, how it tries to control others, dominate, and so on and so forth. So I'm very happy that the audience has responded well to the traits of the ego podcast, because it shows that there is a sincere effort being made to understand oneself and what life is about. So Gautam in today's episode, I felt we can theme it on the difference between a reaction and a response. Every human I feel will come under situations where I mean pretty much all day, every day, where you are challenged. I mean, the way life is, situations, people, places, things can be challenging, right? So I felt if we can talk about the various aspects, and maybe you can give some tips and some questions, maybe they can ask themselves that can help them differentiate. And we just cover all the aspects of this. Yes, Nik. And this is a very important point to have raised because most of us are reactive in nature, especially when our buttons get pressed, we just react like we have been doing in the past, you see. So irritation would arise, let's see, anger may arise and we keep repeating this pattern of a specific reaction, on and on and on. And what spiritual inquiry is about, what sincerely following a Master's teaching is about, is looking at these patterns, looking at our past behavior, why we do the things we do, why we say the things we say. And so this actually is really beautiful because any moment that we face brings forth, either a reaction or a response. You see, now let's go a bit deeper into it. All our reactions are based on our past conditioning- who we think we are how life has shaped us, you see. So supposing someone irritates us, that irritation is a reaction and that reaction is appearing within us. It really has nothing to do with the other person. You see, we think that someone says something, and I get irritated. But the fact is that person is just a trigger. This irritation is deep within oneself, you know, and it is waiting to come out. So in effect, we should be thankful for someone who irritates us, because they are giving us an opportunity for us to look at this reaction within us. You see, so let's say that a reaction happens in unawareness. It's like a knee jerk reaction. Something happens and I react, something else happens and I react and then life goes on and on in this mode of reactivity. So it is a life lived in unawareness. Hmm. Now, a response has a different quality and a different energy to it. You'll see that is an important distinction between a reaction and a response. A response is not knee jerk. It is not based on this accumulation of past conditioning and who I think I am and what the world has done to me. That is why we find that a sage will respond. The ordinary person reacts. You see, the sage is open to what the next moment brings which includes what someone may tell the sage. Okay? But the sage's response is not based on a doership, 'Someone is doing this to me'. He is viewing the person as an expression of consciousness and maybe the person says something, which the sage may not like, but the sage is not carrying this baggage, we are, this load of conditioning, hardwired conditioning. The sage accepts that whatever the person says they are entitled to say it is their right, whether or not we take delivery of it is up to us. Yes. You see. So, in that sense, you can