What Is Spiritual Ego? How To Avoid Mind's Last Trick?

The spiritual ego is the mind's final defense — its subtlest and most deceptive illusion. Just as awakening begins, the mind quietly claims it: "I am awakened. I am enlightened. I have arrived." And in that very claiming, the separation continues beneath a spiritual mask.
This discourse explores the profound irony of "individual enlightenment" — for if a self still remains to claim the awakening, has awakening truly happened? Waking up doesn't mean the individual becomes more conscious. It means waking up from the dream of individuality itself — from the illusion of separation — into the All that Is.
Like a drop merging with the ocean: it doesn't become a better drop. It becomes the ocean. The drop is gone.
This is the most seductive stage on the path. It can last years. Spiritual knowledge, practices, and experiences become the ego's new identity. Here, we look at it directly — how it feels, how it operates, and how simple, clear presence dissolves what no technique ever could.

Transcript

Namaskar This session is about what is spiritual ego, How to avoid it. And how to identify that mind is creating this trap of spiritual ego which becomes a hurdle, A blockage in the direct perception, Direct experience. First of all, Let's understand what is evil. Ego is basically mind's identification with the set of beliefs, Conditioning. Whatever mind identifies with, It can be related to nationality, Religion, It can be related to profession, Or your likes, Dislikes, Your concepts, Your ideas. So in other words, The whole conditioning of the mind, What mind believes in, That bunch of identifications in a way becomes your ego. Significance of people. Ego is important for daily functioning. For example, If you have studied medicine, You are a certified doctor. Then you have to play that role. You have to believe that you can do your job. That would help you do your task better. So identification plays a very important role in day-to-day life. In spiritual context, Why is it considered a blockage or hindrance? Because people get too attached, Too identified with their ego and whatever they perceive, That is through the lens of that ego, Those set of beliefs. The lens of conditioning. So when mind is too attached with any belief or ego, Then mind cannot perceive the things, The situations, The people. As they are so the perception becomes very blurry you cannot see the reality as it is you always see through your psychological drama psychological lens which we describe it as blurry vision With that limited understanding of the mind, You see things around. Because spiritual process, Truth-seeking, Is all about seeing the reality, Perceiving the reality the way it is, Without any contamination of your mind's ideas or concepts or beliefs. Clear vision of what it is. That's why it is considered as a hindrance. Does that mean that once you are really spiritual in real sense and you can see the reality the way it is, Does that mean the ego won't be there at all? You can still play with it. Suppose you are in any profession. Suppose you are a teacher or a doctor or a father or a mother or whatever role you're playing. You may still play that role. But now you are not too identified with that role. The character you're playing. It's like, You know, Actors in theater or cinema, You know, They play some roles. If they get too identified with it and offstage also they are behaving that way, Then it becomes a sickness. If they are really playing it as an actor, A professional actor, They won't continue the same characters offstage. So that's how it is in spiritual context. Ideally, It should be when you have to play a particular role, You're playing it and then you forgot about it. That's gone. But the problem with most people is that they get too identified with the role they are playing in the world, Or their set of beliefs, Their mental conditioning, And everything. They are taking their story too seriously. What is spiritual ego? When? We start taking interest in what is beyond the physical reality or reality which is perceived through body or mind. What is beyond that, That is considered as the truth. Spiritual aspect. The root of the word spirit is beyond physical, Beyond body-mind. Now in ancient context people used to call it differently, For example, In the Indian subcontinent, The word which was used was Adhyatma, Which means Adhyayan of the Atma, So study of the Atma. So the equivalent word you can say, Which is not the exact translation, Is soul. Study of the soul. That's not the exact translation because there is no equivalent word in English language for the word Atma because the word soul is quite misunderstood. In Sanskrit the word Atma means self and self is basically not individual. It's not about the individual self, It is about the cosmic self, Which is one, Which is common for all beings. Spiritual ego is developed by the mind as a trap when mind gets interested in these studies, In the inquiry, In the spiritual processes, Methods, Techniques, Meditation, Any process. And mind wants to believe that it has understood by reading books or listening to great masters or something. So mind assumes that it has understood. So there are many layers of spiritual ego also. It can be just reading some books and assuming that you have known, You have understood everything or the topic which was covered in the book. On the other end of the spectrum are people who assume that they have awakened. That's also spiritual ego. Because they want to claim. That now they are awakened. So they want to tell it to everyone, Which is kind of very contradictory because the real meaning of awakening is realizing that everything is one. If really that has become experiential, Not intellectual. It's not an intellectual understanding because. . . Intellectually you can assume that you have understood it, That everything is one. But intellect is not capable of really understanding it or perceiving it directly. Intellect is in you incapable of that. So mind cannot even imagine what it really means. It's like a drop can assume that it can understand the ocean because drop is part of ocean. But reality is this drop of water can never understand the nature of ocean. It can just become one with it. It can just drop in it, Surrender to it. That's it. And it's not even about surrendering because who will surrender into what? It's all water. It was always water. It was never anything other than water. It's just that because of a direct perception, It realized what it really was. Maybe there was some assumption. So this is a metaphor. Obviously, A drop cannot think like this. It can just merge with water. It can just merge with ocean. Similarly, Those who really get a direct perception. They would not want to claim it. Because they would not fall into this trap of mind which wants to say that I am special than others because there are no others. And how can one become special, One become higher and others lower? Others are not. It's not possible. If everything is one, That's what it is. That's the reason many great masters didn't claim anything. It's just people around them felt something which was special, Which used to make their mind calm and peaceful. All the characters are just projections and the one who is witnessing the dream is one. So these different characters, Different expressions of that one are not separate. We cannot be separate. There is only one. There is no place for the other. That's what is non-duality. So anything which mind assumes that it has understood or it has a better understanding than others and all that's a mind strap. That's what is spiritual ego and that is considered as a last hurdle wherein mind may want to claim that I am spiritual. And it has this wish of seeking freedom. That seeking itself becomes a hurdle in the end, At the last stage. Till that stage, Seeking is very important. It helps the mind to grow and become receptive. Gradually but at the last stage. The seeking itself has to go because mind itself disappears for some time. With mind the eel. Disappears. Because without mind, There is no ego. In deep sleep, There is no ego. Regardless if you are the richest man on earth or a king or whatever, Or you are a person sleeping on the street, In deep sleep, Everyone is one. All the mind's conditioning, The ego and memories, Everything is gone. So all kept aside temporarily. So everyone's deep sleep is same. Because that's where you are in your pure form without mind's conditioning. You do not feel your body at that time, You do not feel your mind at that time. No memories, No conditioning, No likes, No dislikes, No preferences, No desires, No fears, Just in your pure form. Some cases, Spiritual ego is utilized by masters to convince the students. That's also the case. There's no harm in it because that's what some people want. But ultimately, Even that has to go. Even the urge to become a teacher who is guiding others, Even that has to be dropped in the end. That's when you're free. Because in reality, There are no others. There is only one. Everything else is a deception. It's a trick of the mind. To keep the drama. Continue. Namaskar.