Dealing with major negative attributes, First the "EGO"

The ego is a kind of absence. Because you don’t know yourself, hence the ego. The moment you know yourself, no ego is found. The ego is like darkness; darkness has no positive existence of its own; it is simply the absence of light. You cannot fight with darkness, or can you? You cannot throw darkness out of the room; you cannot take it out, you cannot take it in. You cannot do anything with darkness directly. If you want to do anything with darkness, you will have to do something with light. If you put the light on, there is no darkness. try to see where the ego is. Look deep into it; try to locate it, where it exists, whether it exists at all or not. Before one can sacrifice anything one must be certain about its existence. Be alert, watchful. Watch the ways of the ego, how it functions, how it manages at all.  The word self-respect may create doubts in your mind because self-respect seems to again mean the ego. It is not so. You have to understand both words, self and respect; both are significant.

 

Self is that which you are born with. Ego is that which you accumulate; ego is your achievement.Self is a gift of existence to you. You have not done anything to earn it, you have not achieved it; hence nobody can take it away from you. That is impossible because it is your nature, your very being.

 

Ego is all that you go on accumulating through education, manners, civilization, culture, schools, colleges, universities… You go accumulating it. It is your effort, you have made it, and you have made it so big that you have completely forgotten your real self.To know the real self is enough: the ego falls flat on the ground without any effort to surrender it. Unless the ego falls on its own, without your effort, it is not going to leave you..The light comes in, the light goes out; it has positive existence. You can light a candle and there is no darkness; you can blow out the candle and there is darkness. To do anything with darkness, you will have to do something with light. The light of knowledge from masters  Especially a living Master. 

Osho

Guru Purnima its Importance

Guru poornima is the day to witness completeness of the Guru. The Guru gets his completeness or reaches his peak by spreading the messages and practices of his Guru and when Guru devotes his life completely for the spiritual upliftment of humanity, he himself also reaches his full potential. On this day we surrender to this completeness of the Guru. On this day , one must serve and convey gratitude to all such Gurus who are imparting knowledge and are trying to remove the ignorance.  This poornima is known as Vyas Poornima. Maharshi Vyas belongs to a lineage of great ascetics and from his own experience, he himself started Guru poojan so that common person also should get the same divine experience. This is a rich culture of India where we worship those who give us knowledge or help us to serve Divinity. On occasion of Guru poornima, the disciple must perform three duties. First, Guru darshan, spending the day with Guru, being in his company, meeting him physically. Second is Guru poojan. While doing Guru poojan, one must have maximum mental purity, love, and only thought of how can I spend more time with my Guru or hear his divine discourses. Rather than just seeing him from a distance, we should try and meet the Guru personally and spend some time in his presence. Serving Guru selflessly is considered greatest Guru worship. The disciples who await eagerly for this day, who are eager to touch Guru's feet with complete surrender and devotion receive immense benefit.

There are many benefits of Guru darshan, but there is much more benefit in listening to Guru upadesh and trying to follow it. This is the third duty that a disciple must perform on this day. This is the day to make the rule to implement Guru's teaching and how you can follow this rule all your life. 

Guru Parampara

A day to celebrate the beautiful relationship between a Guru and a Shishya. All other relationships are mere bonds of karma, roles in a play of life. Except the relationship between spiritual Guru and Shishya.Its divine love, its divine help, its divine guidance, its divine support and its purest of pure divine concern for all the souls living life of pain, suffering and ignorance.

Guru parampara is an ancient tradition in India. Its said that after creating the creation and humanity, when the divinity felt the need to guide humanity, the divine forces incarnated as Gurus to guide humans out of ignorance. Since coming of avatar to guide is not possible all the time, hence  not only the Incarnations of Divinity took role of Guru, but also accepted and surrendered to some or other Guru themselves, reinforcing the importance of a Guru for spiritual enlightenment. This divine tradition was started by none other than Lord Shiva himself. And since the entire Guru parampara started with Lord Shiva, it got the honour of Guru poojan. All those Gurus who belong to some parampara or lineage of Gurus should be considered as image of SHIVA Himself. Hence Gurus ANUGRAHA should be respected by holding it in very high regards. Many Avatars, siddhas and realized souls have kept this ancient tradition of guru Parampara alive.

Every real disciple actually belongs to some or other Guru Parampara through his/her link with a "Living Guru" there is nothimg like stand alone Guru. The Guru is actually an active divinity on planet and belongs to GuruTatva a specialized branch of Divinity. This Parampara is started by DIVINITY especially for those who have faith in divinity , have devotion, have inclination to sadhana or practice to improve themselves, have liking for worship, so that they get guidance, feel  relief,  feel assurance, and gain confidence. Those who do not accept Guru, do not have Guru, who do not worship or devout to Guru will struggle to get lasting peace, happiness or balance.

To accept or decline this help is completely matter of free will of a person,  the opportunities will come, the help will come in the form of a living Guru, to recognize a genuine Guru an then to surrender to him are two extremely difficult tests that a genuine seeker has to give. If you miss its completely your loss, if you delay its completely your own ignorance, if you land up with a crook its completely your bad choice.

Whatever the Guru Prescribes is Sadhana

Let me tell you in a nutshell what paramartha is. It is, in essence, going through worldly life without having a sense of attachment for any worldly thing or matter. We remain unaffected by pleasure and pain when we realize that what we call our prapancha really belongs to God, who gave it us. This can be easily achieved by constantly keeping on the lips the nama given to us by the sadguru.
That person alone can be called a sadguru who himself has and will lead us to, a permanent sense of contentment. This applies to all sadgurus in all places at all times. Do not attach value to his look and physique, but judge him by his teaching. The sadhana he prescribes should be carried out diligently. To do so is, indeed, paramartha. If you make an alteration in the prescribed thing, it will only mean that your ego still persists, and anything done egoistically is doomed to failure. So first bury your ego and place complete trust in the sadguru.
True paramartha does not consist in empty prattle or lofty preaching to others; it is for one’s own sake. In fact, the less known it is to others the better. Public esteem is of no use, actually harmful. To be misled into feeling false greatness is injurious to our purpose.
One person opens a confectionery shop, another may sell coal. What difference does it make, so long as the business is profitable? Similarly, worldly status is of no count; what matters is the advancement in paramartha.
Any worldly situation can be put to use in paramartha, so long as our approach is same and steady. Control of mind coupled with strong devotion is what is of real consequence.
Paramartha, in fact, is easy to achieve. The fun is that it is neglected, not seriously attempted, merely because of its very simplicity. Remember that prapancha is by no means an impediment to paramartha; it can, in fact, be turned into a good aid. All that a sadhaka has to do is to accept his duties as prarabdha and carry them out to the best of his ability, and apply the mind devotedly to God. Let Him be ever in your heart, His name on your lips, and the body employed in doing your duties in prapancha: this, is, in essence, paramartha.

Obey the Sadguru Implicitly

A pure motive is that which looks for neither return nor reward. That is what true devotion must be. Building temples, worshipping, and similar service, japa, and such other things, do not of themselves constitute true devotion if there is the least thought of any return. It should all be for its own sake. With most people devotional duties are merely routine, mechanical acts, carried out by practice, or because of tradition; they should spring from genuine, burning love for God. Action without genuine feeling is as useless as feeling not put into action. We try to carry out whatever is prescribed by the scriptures or the sadguru without imbibing the spirit of them. Such things, therefore, fail to wear out the ego; on the contrary, they feed and fatten it. We should, therefore, implicitly and honestly, carry out the sadhana prescribed by the sadguru. Merely doing something out of the way is of no avail.
Spiritualism does not mean giving up normalcy of conduct; it simply means not getting mentally or emotionally involved in worldly matters. What did Arjuna do? He took Lord Krishna not only as the chariot-driver, but as a guide and mentor; and wherever He took the chariot, Arjuna simply shot arrows at the target indicated. So, too, should we do; we should hand over the reins of our life and being to the sadguru, and thenceforward do nothing more than obey him.
Remember that one who expects nothing from the world, neither money nor recognition, will always stand distinguished from the rest. When we pick up a coin, we have both the obverse and the reverse in hand; so, when we take up prapancha, following paramartha becomes obligatory. Paramartha pre-supposes faith in God; this the sadguru grants and confirms by giving us nama. chant the name given by the sadguru. It is essential that we repeat this nama with perseverance and faith. Paramartha is brought to fruition by ceaseless nama-smarana; it gives contentment in prapancha, and fulfils the very purpose of human life.

True Service to the Guru

What after all, is the object of meditation, prayer, religious mortification, rules, sacrifices, etc. ? The attainment of God, or guru. If He Himself comes to you, where is the need for all the effort of sadhanas? Not only is all that not required but, if undertaken, it may only lead to pride of doership, which will actually injure the purpose. Now that you have submitted to guru, accept with gladness whatever happens, treating everything as his doing and will. See my hand in everything that happens, everything you do.
What do you think is real devotion to the guru? It does not consist only in bodily service, but, in implicit obedience to him. Of those who come to me, most have in their mind some worldly object –like financial betterment, a child, cure from illness, and so on. In effect, they come not to serve but to be served. You should come not for having a worldly desire fulfilled, but to seek the true fruition of human life. Occasionally I may grant a little of what a disciple desires, but it may be only like beguiling a child with candy to make it take a medicine.
That you ascribe omniscience to me is only superficial; if it were earnest, you would take care to do nothing underhand or sinful. Only he who has completely identified himself with me can really feel that I am truly omniscient. Surrendering yourself to the guru implies, nay, necessitates, that your mind completely merges with mine; if you achieve that you are in effect with me even if you are physically away, at a distance. I would like you to be free and frank with me, like a child with its mother. Open your heart to me. What trouble and expense you undergo to come here to meet me! And yet, when you return ‘home’, you go with empty hands; and it is this that pains me most. What you have really to pick up from me is love for God; and this is what you cannot obtain elsewhere.
Shri Gondawalekar maharaj

What the Sadguru Does for the Disciple as told by Gondawalekar Maharaj

What does the guru do in reality? He asks you to wipe the dust off the face of the mirror, to cleanse the mind; he makes us aware of our misconceptions and mistakes. If a man dreams that he is drowning in a tank, he shouts for help; he becomes quiet when he is woken. The guru wakes us up from our painful dream of ignorance and makes us aware of the Reality.

Only he can be said to have truly found a sadguru who feels that he has reached the end of his quest and that there is nothing more to be achieved. A man in good worldly circumstances may feel there is nothing more to be desired, but there is no real respite for a mind which continues to hover over and hanker after one worldly thing and another.
The guru, after all, is what the disciple thinks of him. If the disciple approaches him in unreserved surrender, he takes the disciple under his unreserved guidance and protection. The guru is, indeed, the divine name Incarnate. True sadhana consists in obeying him implicitly, literally.
No saint lives in the body for all time. What is important about a saint is his yearning for God. Many people do meet a saint, but derive no benefit because they fail to understand the importance of association with him. Duty performed selflessly leads eventually to complete annihilation of all expectation. The sadguru indicates to us what our duty is.
You may own a motor car, but, if it is without a proper driver, it may run into trouble. Even a simple bullock cart cannot be driven by a raw novice, even if he owns it. Man conducts his worldly affairs without proper guidance, and lands himself into trouble. If you place the sadguru at the helm, he steers you safely, clear of all obstructions. All you have to do is to keep yourself constantly absorbed in consciousness of God, and rest carefree with trust in the sadguru; then you will be protected by him from danger. You will come to realise that whatever you are destined to get will automatically come — no more, no less; and this will eventually destroy all desire to have or not to have. Thereby you will realise that everything happens by divine will and dispensation. This will give you complete contentment. But all this can only happen if you are pure at heart.

Gondawalekar Maharaj