How To Eradicate the Ego and get Self-realization
by Swami Sivananda
The deep roots of Ego (Ahankara) should be burnt by the fire of knowledge (Jnana Agni). Then you will quite easily get the wealth of Liberation ( Moksha). All tribulations, sorrows, miseries and afflictions will terminate now.
Control of the senses (indriyas) and Pranayama help to develop the intellect -Buddhi (Vikasa of Buddhi).
You cannot, all at once, eradicate ego (Ahankara) altogether. You can easily give up wife, children, money, anger. But it is extremely difficult to give up Ahankara. Try to minimise it little by little.
Remove one cent (Anna) of Ahankara within three months. Within four years,you will be able to root it out completely.
You will have to remove Ego (Ahankara) either by self-sacrifice through Karma Yoga or self-surrender through Bhakti or self-denial through Vedantic Atma-Vichara.
Through the Sankalpas of mind (Manas), Ego is generated. If the modification of the mind which leans to sensual pleasures is destroyed, the Atman, divested of its Ego (Ahankara), becomes the unnameable Brahmic Reality.
Ahankara is like a thread. It connects or links all the senses ( indriyas) on itself. When the thread is broken, all the pearls fall down. Even so, when the thread of Ahankara is broken by ‘Aham Brahma Asmi‘ Bhavana or witness attitude ( Sakshi Bhava) or self-surrender method by taking the instrument-in-the-hands-of-the-Lord attitude. (Nimitta Bhava), all the senses ( Indriyas) will be broken down or destroyed. The connection with senses (indriyas) will be severed.
Even if you identify yourself with a subtle body inside, it will help you in your Self-realisation. It is only the identification with the fleshy physical body that brings all sorts of troubles through gross Ego (Ahankara) 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 enquire. When you remove layer after layer, the onion dwindles to nothing. When you analyse 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 Jivasrishti.
Sattvic Ego (Ahankara)
When you assert ‘Aham Brahma Asmi’ (I am Brahman), it is Sattvic Ahankara. It is Ego tht makes for liberation (Moksha Ahankara. It will not bind you in any way. It will help you realise Brahman. The fire in a picture will not burn anything. A light in the presence of midday sun will not shine andshed its light. Even so, the Ego (Ahankara) of a Sattvic person cannot do any harm to any person.
Extract from the book MIND, ITS MYSTERIES AND CONTROL
https://www.dlshq.org/download/mind-its-mysteries-and-control/#_VPID_20