Swamiji reads about & discusses transcending the ego, from several perspectives. Disc 140 track 5.

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It’s the ‘I’ when you identify yourself with Brahman. That’s almighty. A little ‘might’ of it can be removed from one place to the other.

Reads: Such is the power of faith when we have realised the divine within us, what can shake us? What? As long, however, as we identify ourselves with name, form and physical limitations, our power must be limited. And therefore, our vision of truth also, must be veiled. Because darkness and light cannot co-exist. And the sense of ‘I’ is the greatest darkness which can cover the soul.

The sages [Rishis] indeed have declared that there is no enemy greater or more potent, than the ego. Swj: Than the?…ego. There is no greater enemy. Don’t look for enemies outside. When someone is ‘ill-treating’ you, know that it’s a projection of your ego, working itself out. Instead of working itself within.

Reads: As long as we identify with this ego, or our lower nature, we can never transcend delusion or ignorance. Swj: Lower nature or the unripe ego [as Sri Ramakrishna referred to it]. You can never transcend delusion and ignorance.

Reads: Therefore we must subdue ourselves by surrendering it [the ego] to the higher self. Let that higher self or the God within, take the lead in everything. The true devotee says: Not I, not I, but Thou. I am nothing. What can I accomplish? The sooner I can resign myself to Thy will, the better.

The Jnani or philosopher declares, ‘I am not this body. I am not the senses. I am none of these things. I am Thee. I am that which is formless, deathless, eternal, unchangeable’. One is the dualistic [Dvaita – you and God are two separate entities] point of view, the other, the monistic [Advaita – only One universal Consciousness] but both lead to the same end. Swj: Not I, not I – Thou, Thou, Thou. The other one says ‘I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not the intellect. I am Brahman.’

Reads: Christ expressed the phases in two stages of His spiritual consciousness. When he said, ‘Not my will, but Thine be done, Thou art my Father, my Lord, I am Thy son, Thy servant’ [etc.], his attitude was that of a devotee. When on the other hand, he declared, ‘I and my Father are one’, he expressed the monistic attitude of a follower of the path of wisdom.

In one phase we look upon God as a separate being. He is the creator and preserver, the real father and we surrender to him, recognising the limitation of our lower self. With the other phase, we rise above the plains of the lower self and realise our identity with the supreme. In either case, whether we see the truth within ourselves or outside ourselves, we transcend human imperfection.  Swj: Wherever you see, you see this whole world as Brahman, you still transcend it. And if you say this whole world is illusion and I am Brahman, you still transcend human imperfection.

Reads: When we are convinced that God is the only doer, the only guide, that all the power which we possess comes from Him, and that we are merely instruments in his hands, we attain freedom even in this life, and nothing can overthrow us.

But the ego is very deluding. It is said that even the gods are deceived and fall under its sway. Swj: Indra [the chief of the gods] fell under its sway. Indra, now I’m talking about the deva – he fell under that sway. Agni [the god of fire]  also fell under the sway, all these gods and goddesses, even Hanumanji to a certain extent, fell under that sway. Even the gods were?… deluded. Swamiji refers to Hanumanji’s youthhood in which he annoyed people and the Rishis, Swamiji joking that he was definitely ‘deluded’, but then says Swamiji, spiritual maturity arrived and he came to know that he is Brahman himself. So, it deludes gods. Whether the god is a child or the god is an adult, it’s still a god. So it [even] deludes devas.

Swamiji reads the sentence again: It is said that even the gods are deceived and fall under its sway. In one of the Upanishads [Hindu scriptures] the story is told that once, the devas – the bright ones – [gods] achieved a great victory and being filled with pride they proclaimed, ‘This victory is ours!’ We ourselves have achieved it. And each one boasted of his power.

Suddenly they perceived a mysterious form, and they did not know what it was that they saw. So, one by one, they were sent to find out. First the fire God [Agni] approached the mysterious being who asked him what power he possessed. ‘I have power to burn the whole universe!’ said Agni. ‘Then try to burn this straw, said the figure. But Agni could not.

Then came the wind god [Vayu]. The figure asked him what power he possessed. His answer: I can blow this entire universe away! Then blow this straw which I place before you, said the figure. The wind god tried but could not. At last, Indra, the head of the gods went, and as he approached nearer, he realised that the mysterious form was none other than Brahman, the supreme Lord himself. To whom all glory and praise belong. That to him alone was due, their victory, and not to themselves.

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