How to Overcome Ego?

The deep roots of Ego can be burnt by the fire of knowledge. Then you can quite easily get the wealth of Moksha. All tribulations, sorrows, miseries and afflictions will terminate now. Control of the Senses and Pranayama help to develop the Intellect.

You cannot, all at once, overcome Ego altogether. You can easily give up wife, children, money, anger. But it is extremely difficult to give up Ego. Try to minimize it little by little. Remove one twelfth of Ego within three months. Within three years, you will be able to root it out completely. You will have to remove it either by self-sacrifice through Yoga or self-surrender through Devotion or self-denial through Self Inquiry. All the Religions in the world teach us to lose our Ego by Self Surrender to GOD by means of complete devotion and prayers towards HIM. Through the Thoughts of Mind, Ego is generated. If the modification of the mind which leans to sensual pleasures is destroyed, the Soul, divested of its Ego, becomes the unnameable Supreme Reality.

Ego is like a thread. It connects or links all the Senses on itself. When the thread is broken, all the pearls fall down. Even so, when the thread of Ego is broken by self-surrender method by taking the instrument-in-the-hands-of-the-GOD attitude, all the Senses will be broken down or destroyed. The connection with Senses will be severed.

Even if you identify yourself with a subtle body inside, it will help you in your Self-realization. It is only the identification with the fleshy physical body that brings all sorts of troubles through gross Ego and 'mineness'. The physical 'I' is a very great menace. Whenever Ego asserts itself, raise a question within thyself, “What is the source of this little 'I'?”. Again and again, moot this question and inquire. When you remove layer after layer, the onion dwindles to nothing. When you analyze the little 'I', it becomes a non-entity; it will gradually vanish. It will dwindle into an airy nothing. Body is not 'I'. 'I' remains even after the leg is amputated. Give up human creation.

Within the time taken to pluck a flower, within the twinkling of an eye, this Ego can be easily eradicated by right spiritual practices.

Sattvic Ego

When you assert “I am Soul”, it is Sattvic (Pure) Ego. It is Moksha Ego. It will not bind you in any way. It will help you realize Self. The fire in a picture will not burn anything. A light in the presence of midday sun will not shine and shed its light. Even so, the Ego of a Pure person cannot do any harm to any person.

Reference

Mind – Its Mysteries and Control by Sri Swami Sivananda