The understanding of the word ego is slightly different in our normal day-to-day usage as opposed to the word used in the spiritual context. The typical understanding of the word ego is conceit or self-importance. It often has a negative connotation. A person with huge ego is thought of as being full of himself.
The term ego or “Ahankara” in the spiritual sense has a slightly different and subtler meaning. The entity that takes ownership of all our actions (Kartrutva – कर्तृत्व) and that believes that it is entitled to enjoy the fruits of all its actions (Bhogtrutva – भोक्तृत्व) is ego. Both Doership (Kartrutva) and Enjoyership (Bhogtrutva) go hand in hand. When we talk about transcending the ego to realize the Self, it means one has to transcend Doership and Enjoyership. A true Karmayogi (one who is on the path of Selfless Action) is a perfect example of someone who has transcended the ego. She performs all her actions because they are the right things to do not because of any selfish motive. And she does not expect any fruits from the actions that she performs.
It is very easy to misinterpret the concept of transcending Doership and misunderstand it as not taking responsibility for your actions. That couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Another beautiful way of explaining the concept of ego in Vedanta is by comparing it to the reflection of Sun in a bucket full of water. The Sun signifies the Self (Atman/Brahman), the bucket signifies our body, the water signifies our mind/intellect and the reflection of the Sun is our ego. We incorrectly think of the reflection of the Sun as “me” where as the true “Me” is the Sun that is unaffected by what is happening to the bucket and water. If the water is muddy, the reflection is not clear but the Sun remains the same; if the water is disturbed, the reflection is shaky but the Sun still shines brightly. Similarly, the changes to our body (pain, discomfort), mind (emotions), and intellect (thoughts) clearly affect our ego but the Self is unaffected. It is only because we think of our ego as us, we feel that we are affected. If we correctly think that we are not our body, mind, intellect, and ego but are our true Self, we will never get affected.
Credit: This has been written by Milind Pradhan. He is a student of Vedanta and eastern philosophy. In his professional life he is a Professional Engineer and Board Certified Environmental Engineer (BCEE) and a principal in a leading Environmental Engineering firm.
Related:
The Golden Egg
The Golden Buddha