Lack of simplicity is primarily due to selfishness and a
feeling of "I" and "mine". Is it possible to get rid of our
"I" and "mine"? Certainly it is not easy to give up this
"unripe ego" all of a sudden. Nor is it necessary to give up the ego.
Sri Ramakrishna advises us to cultivate instead the "ripe ego," which
says, "I am a servant of God" or "I am a child of God."
He further teaches how to live in the world as a maidservant
does in a rich man's house: "Do all your duties, but keep your mind on
God. Live with all-with wife and children, father and mother-and serve them.
Treat them as if they were very dear to you, but know in your heart of hearts
that they do not belong to you. A maidservant in the house of a rich man
performs all the household duties, but her thoughts are fixed on her own home
in her native village. She brings up her master's children as if they were her
own. She even speaks of them as 'my Rama' or 'my Hari'. But in her own mind she
knows very well that they do not belong to her at all."