TT Durai: The Prison of Egoism

The Anattalakkhana Sutta says:

"Thus, O Bhikkus, all of the 5 aggregates, whether past, present or future, internal or external, coarse or subtle, low or high, far or near, should be understood with the right knowledge and in its true nature - this is not mine, this is not me and this is not my Self."

We all know by now that the ex-NKF chief Durai has lost his position and became totally disgraced in the span of a few short days. He is but a victim of his own conceit.
In the Dhamma, there are 5 poisons that cage the Mind and bind us the to never-ending wheel of Samsara. These are namely, Craving, Anger, Ignorance, Egoism and Doubt. All of them are prisons that compels the Mind to create negative karma and increase the suffering that we experience. Of the 5 poisons, ignorance is the root and chief poison. All sentient beings are blinded by their own fundamental and fluctuating ignorance, and from there arises the other poisons. In Durai's case, ignorance cause him to believe the way he was running NKF and using its money are perfectly justified. Due to this wrong belief, egoistic conceit grew in his mind and cause him to think he was invincible. This unwholesome mental condition is not helped by the fact that he is backed by a supportive, but equally ignorant Board and continued donations from the public. Besides that, he had successfully sued fly weights in the past for exposing his erroneous deeds and made them pay damages. All these caused his mind to brim over with conceit, so much so that he foolishly challenged a heavy weight like SPH for doing the same thing. That was the beginning of Hell for Durai, and SPH's lawyer, Davinder Singh is his tormentor. Having abused the trust of the public and misused their donations for his own extravagances, the shame he suffers now is merely the least of the karmic fruits that he would bear as a result. Indeed, unless he repents and gives away all wealth that does not rightfully belong to him, his future existence lies in the animal realm. He would most probably be reborn as a buffalo or a horse, destined to slog his whole life until all the money he owes the people of Singapore is repaid. Such is the price to pay for conceited thought. We should thus learn from Durai's example and guard our minds from conceit, sadhu.