A king is poked by a thorn and orders that all of his land be covered with leather. He justifies it as compassion toward his subjects, not realizing that this is an act of his ego, not compassion.

We are seekers of happiness. Happiness is a state of inner harmony. We seek to modify our environment to find harmony, not realizing that the pursuit of happiness often become a pursuit of ego-satiation. What we need to do instead is to modify ourselves and cultivate acceptance and humility.

In The Road to Kedarnath, Krishna describes the idea of ego this way:

'Ego is the illusion that you are separate from the rest of nature. All living creatures aim to exist as part of nature. Only humans desire to conquer nature. Ego tells people that they are somehow disconnected from the beautiful mesh of interconnection that nature has organized itself into. When ego happens, in that moment we believe that we are separate from nature, we see nature as adversity to be overcome, rather than the shell that encompasses our being. What can be more painful and fearful than to be in constant battle against the ground we stand on and the very air we breathe? The more we know the more we seem to justify our separation from nature. This is the curse of intelligence. Is intelligence bad? Not at all. But the role of intelligence should be to bring us closer to nature not to separate ourselves from it.

As this year comes to an end, may we find our way out of ego and thus our suffering, and never ego for compassion!