How can we dissolve the false ego?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
How do we remove or dissolve the false ego? With respect, among the three subtle elements, the mind, intelligence and ego, among them the ego is used in two senses. Ego at one level is an objective thing, like the element.
There are eight elements, among them one is the ego. That is a thing. But along with that, ego is also a feeling.
When a person has a big ego, they are always talking about themselves, always boasting about themselves. So when we say we talk about dissolving the ego, the element ego itself will never be destroyed. That is a part of our subtle body.
The element ego will be there. But the feeling of self-centeredness that is caused by the ego, that can be dissolved. So when Krishna is saying ahankara as one of the elements, later on he says anahankara evacha.
So when he is saying anahankara evacha, that does not mean he is saying that somehow we find out in the subtle body where is the ego and find a bomb and destroy the ego. He is not talking about that. We cannot do that.
It is a part of our makeup. But what we can do is, we can, the feeling of self-centeredness that the ego fosters, that we can avoid or that we can minimize through the cultivation of spiritual knowledge. So when I cultivate spiritual knowledge, although by my ego I think I am a male, I am a female, I am this, I am that, but with spiritual knowledge I understand.
Actually, I am not a male or a female. I am a soul. Presently I am in a male body or a female body.
So through that philosophical understanding, we start distancing ourselves from the blinders created by the ego. And gradually as we keep practicing bhakti, we experience. When we experience, say, in chanting Hare Krishna or in Krishna consciousness, we experience some spiritual emotion, we experience some ecstasy.
We start realizing that actually this is something different from my body. So I may think I am a Bengali, I am an American or whatever, but here when we come to Krishna, I experience an ecstasy which is completely separate from whatever material designations I have. That way we get an experience that I have a transcendental side.
And then gradually we distance ourselves from it. So the practical ways that we do is we cultivate humility by offering obeisances and being respectful in our dealings with others. That is the practical way we cultivate humility.
But along with that, philosophically also if you understand that I have an identity which is beyond my body, beyond my mind, beyond my conditioning and we get that experience through the practice of bhakti that there is something higher. And gradually that also helps us to distance ourselves. So that way the ego can be decreased.
And especially if you associate with people who are far more advanced than us and still they are humble and feel oh these people have so many great things and still they don’t have pride. What do I have to be proud of? So the subjective feeling of ego we can decrease. But just like with respect to the mind also, the mind is not something which we can destroy.
But what we can do is the mind’s control on us, we can decrease that. So rather than the mind dictating what I should do, I tell the mind what I should do, what you should be doing. So like that the ego is always going to be there.
But as per Upasya there is false ego and there is true ego. So false ego means when the ego dictates to me who I am. The ego tells me I am a man, I am a woman, whatever.
But when true ego means I understand that I am a soul. I may have a male body, a female body. But these are meant for me to use in Krishna’s service.
So the more we cultivate spiritual knowledge and the more we get spiritual experiences, the more we can push back the ego.