When people talk about the ego, what does the ego refer to?

What is Ego?

Ego is the basic recognition you have of yourself in the world. People often misunderstand Ego to be a characteristic that demands self importance or self esteem; but really speaking, it is something that goes deeper. We have been living in the vast expanse of this world, experiencing everything with the five senses. But the world experienced with the five senses is only in the physical realm. Spiritual Science is needed to understand the inner components of Spirituality that is the cause for our worldly wandering life after life!

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, an Enlightened being, has made things really easy to understand about egoism. So, let’s dive in to know more about the ego and understand this term in its true meaning, with the help of this revolutionary spiritual science named ‘Akram Vignan’.
Scientifically, when two ete
al elements, matter and Soul, come together, a mistaken identity of one’s self crops up in one’s belief. That’s called Ego. Claiming our existence to be something which we are not, gives rise to ego. For example, when people name us say, ‘John (please insert your name here)’ and give us the knowledge that ‘You are John’, we naturally start believing, “I am John.” This wrong belief, owing to ignorance, gives rise to Ego.

After believing that I’m John, we believe, ‘I’m a doctor, I’m a husband, I’m a son’, and also believe ourselves to be the doer, ‘I practice, I earn, I serve, etc.’ All these are different kinds of egoism. Falsely laying our belief into something which we actually are not, is egoism. Egoism is due to our ignorance about not knowing our true Self, and this is the very foundation of all the worldly sufferings. Each and every living being has the awareness of ‘I am’, but the awareness of really ‘Who am I? and Who is the real doer?’ is lacking. This is the real cause for our wanderings of countless lifetimes, and it’s hindering our liberation.

The world is completely on the establishment of Egoism as it remains in the state of constant unawareness of their real Self. To come into the awareness of the Self, we need to get to the answer of the below two questions:
Who Am I?
Who is the Doer?

We get these answers when we attai
Self-Realization. Thereafter, all our doubts are debunked and liberation is felt right here, while being in this body.
Grace of The Enlightened One –
When the Enlightened One, through his grace, destroys our ego and makes us realize our real Self, one realizes ‘I am a Pure Soul’. As the wrong belief of ‘I am the body’ is destroyed, a firm inner conviction of ‘Who am I’ is established and the awareness of ‘I am a Pure Soul’ begins.

Thereafter, following the words of the Enlightened One, we are able to break all our remaining wrong beliefs one by one, by remaining in the awareness of the Self. And when not a single wrong belief remains, we get free from the vicious cycle of birth and death.

Moving away from the Soul gives rise to Ego and Moving close to Gnani helps destroy the ego completely.
We are blessed ones to have the presence of Akram Gnani between us. So come, let’s go to this Gnani and attai
Self-Realization so that there comes an end of our ego and the sufferings emerging therefrom.

To know more:https://www.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science/what-is-ego-egoism/