An ego is a fictional creation of the mind which although is necessary for functioning in the society, is not a necessity for a human being to survive.

In fact, the ego could lead a human to commit a heinous crime even suicide.

Ego basically means a sense of identity (Who am I or What is me & mine).

In order to lower or erase the ego, one needs to understand this identity – what it is & how it is created.

Once we understand that, then we could understand how to diminish our ego & eventually extinguish it.

When we start questioning ‘who am I’ & ‘why’ to every answer that arrives, we would start realizing that most of what we think about our self, which is just an idea, which we have adopted & it has no real existence & this realization would then detach or disassociate that aspect from our self.

But to question or inquire is a difficult task for a lot of feelings, emotions & experiences arise in the process which we find difficult to observe & surpass.

This is where Meditation helps.

It helps us to stay anchored & just reflect on the ideas & thoughts without getting much affected by them.

It creates a space between the observer & the observed as otherwise the interference would prevent any introspection & thus realization.

Thus meditation & introspection is the key to eliminate the ego & attain self-realization.

There are other ways of experiencing it as well like surrender & devotion but it is difficult for today’s humans to do that for it requires immense trust & unwavering action.

I have worked on a few people on this but they are so scared of surrendering their ego that they do not gather the guts to do it and just give up which needs to be changed.

While history is laden with examples of such individuals who realized the ultimate just by pure unbridled devotion like the Sufi, Milarepa, Mira, etc.

Again, also of such masters like Gurdjieff, Kabir, Krishna & several Aghoris & Nagas as well.