How to see the hidden demons within?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Questioner (Q): There are certain things that we can observe very easily. But there are certain things that are not very obvious, that cannot be detected obviously.

I have noticed this very recently that when I get into discussions related to Spirituality, especially with my wife, it becomes more of a competition than discussion, and becomes a matter of ego.

There may be many more such hidden tendencies that I am unable to observe generally. Is there something else that can be done to dig them out?

Acharya Prashant (AP): Everything will show up in your behavior.

Behavior can remain externally defined, and disciplined, and regulated only as long as the conditions in which that behavior is being displayed remain pre-defined and pre-regulated.

If your meditation and spiritual practice have any worth, then your external conditions will change. And when your conditions change, you will no more be able to negotiate the new conditions with old behavioral patterns. So new behavior patterns will emerge. Those new behavior patterns are bound to tell you something about yourself.

Please understand this.

You are living a neatly adjusted life in which there were only a few people that you would meet on a daily basis. Even if there were variations, those variations were well-regulated variations. So when the external conditions are regulated, then your response to those conditions, which is your behavior, can also afford to remain regulated. Right?

(Referring to different participants of the camp) I very well know that in the course of my day I would either meet him, or him, or her, or her. And because these are the people I usually meet, and that too only in pre-defined contexts, so my behavior can safely be regulated and correct.

But if your Spiritual practice progresses, then you will break out of this environmental cocoon. You would step into new environments. And there you would meet new people, new situations, new contexts. So new behaviors would anyway come forth, and they will tell you who you are.