The other aspect of the ego is still more subtle. It is connected with your so-called inalienable identification with the body and mind. You feel that it is perfectly natural for you to say, “I am so-and-so. I see, I touch, I smell, I speak, I taste, I dream, I sleep, I am awake,” et cetera. To have the Real Experience, the false ego has to be transformed into the Real I.
This is not easy. In this process the false ego, with all its subtlety, wages guerrilla warfare. It tries to deceive one at every step. Keeping company of saints and Masters is the remedy. The hard shell of the ego becomes softer and softer in their company, and one becomes courageous enough to face one’s own weaknesses.
By leading a fearless and honest life, hypocrisy gradually gets weakened. When the heart becomes absolutely clean with honesty, hypocrisy is completely wiped off. This is a very long process, not only in terms of years but in terms of reincarnations [lifetimes]!
When the false ego is effaced, God manifests and plurality is merged in Unity forever.
-www.lordmeher.org, p4649
April, 1960; Guruprasad