Today, the world is massively obsessed with porn. Because of a feeling of lack in one's heart, a feeling of meaninglessness in one's soul, a feeling of neediness and craving in one's mind, and anxiety in one's body, people turn to pornography for a fix—an instant gratification of the scopic drive, the drive to see an object of desire, to devour it with one's eyes, to fill the lack with a false sense of power and possession.

The urge to view pornography is heightened in a society that offers no higher culture, no more elevated images of beauty, no sublime sense of spiritual majesty and radiance. The lack of more exalted significance to our bodily form as transmitter of divine energies, of beauty as symbolic expression of spirit in action, of nobility of character, of incarnation of transcendent love and wisdom, leaves humans in a state of perilous lostness, in which they seek to make their bodies at least an object of profane desire and enjoyment; or make of others' bodies a feast of egoic delight.

The historic revolution that had its epicenter in Tahrir Square is an inspiration to all seekers of freedom. The proof that a peaceful revolution is still possible is a great victory not only for Egyptians, but also, on the subtle plane, for the yogic archetype of ahimsa (non-violence). The echoes of Gandhi’s satyagraha movement are clear and strong. But of course not everyone is cheering. Just as, during the French Revolution, the aristocrats plotted to waylay the movement toward liberty, and just as not everyone cheered the American Revolution—certainly not the Tories or the British Empire—today’s empire is also plotting to make sure that their power elite will control the final outcome of this transition to a new Egyptian government. To bring about real tahrir (liberation), not only in Egypt, but everywhere on Earth, the peace movement will have to overcome the very source of our oppression: the human ego.

It is because of our egocentric proclivities that it is inevitable that revolutionaries morph into counter-revolutionaries, and revolutionary societies degenerate into oppressive empires. If we do not want to be yet again disappointed in the results of our courageous efforts, we must go to the heart of Mordor, and throw into the sacred fire our most precious possession: the ego’s ring of power. Only when we have sacrificed our desire for domination and control over others, in our personal lives as well as our collective political ambitions, and have liberated ourselves from the psychic forces within us that drive us toward narcissistic grandiosity and paranoid aggressivity, will authentic liberation be possible. For this, we need a revolution of consciousness. It is time for Tahrir Squared!