Reality of the ‘ego’ is unreal

Vedanta says there only Sat-Chit-Ananda (Absolute Truth) alone Is. In that substratum (adhishtâna) this mysterious offshoot ‘me’ with all its desires, ambitions, pretensions, assumptions and above all, a tremendous thirst to thrive as an individual, is born. This spurious offshoot is ‘jeeva’. It is the ego.

In fact the ego is a ghost. But it is not real. How do we believe that the ego is unreal? The ego is like a shadow of truth. When a man is walking on ground he sees his shadow moving along with him. Now if he assumes his shadow as his reality then it is very difficult for removing his illusion because now his total attention is drawn by his shadow. In order to remove this illusion one has to show the unreality of appearance but this stays as long as truth is exists. Here it looks like puzzle then how to separate the truth from untruth.

The only wise way to solve this mystery is to analyse, understand and experience the truth as it is without any projections. Here, shadow is real or unreal? at first one say it is real, because it is clearly visible but can we consider appearance is a real existence? Then many things in the creation becomes real which are mealy appearances such as mirage in desert. So, shadow is appearing but it is appearing due to true existence of a man. Hence, when there is no man there is no shadow, so shadow appearance is depends on actual existence of a man. In this case, true existence is man because his existence is not dependant on shadow but vice versa is not possible. Therefore, true existence of shadow can be negated. No weapon, modern or ancient, can kill this shadow. Stop having a tussle with this non-existing appearance

Similarly, all of us experience the ego but we never looked into it carefully and examined its true nature, if we do so then we certainly arrive at understanding of unreality or false existence of ego.

Peep through the ego–me; you will see that the ego is only a film which covers the light
behind. The effulgence behind this ego is the real Self, the atman. The ego or the egos move in front of this light and make the light pass through them as in a cinema projector. We mistake the names and forms shown by the film as real. Actually the effulgence alone is real. The effulgence is God, Brahman, atman, whatever name you may call. So look through the ‘me’ and see the infinite divine Self behind. Hold on to the real, the shadow will naturally disappear.

Thank you.