Acharya Prashant explains the nature of the ego and its role in liberation using an analogy. He states that the ego is something you are wearing upon yourself, like a garment. You are not comfortable in it, and it hurts you in all possible ways. However, because you have been wearing it for a long time, you want to improve it and do everything that would make you feel comfortable in it. This dress that you have donned has become your name, your existence, and your identity. Ultimately, a point must come when you have to realize that you do exist even without it. You are better off without the ego. If you have become the ego, then the statement takes an interesting form: the ego is better off without itself. Therefore, the ego must aim for its own annihilation because it is better off without itself. The speaker clarifies that the ego does survive without itself, just as you would survive without your garments. That which was within the ego, at its foundation, would surely still be left, just as the man is surely left even after he takes off his shirts and pajamas. The ego is described as an ill-fitting set of garments. When you are thoroughly encased inside these ill-fitting garments, nothing of you is visible to yourself. If you wear something from head to toe and stand in front of the mirror, you will see nothing but garments. It is possible that you start thinking that you are the garments because all you have ever seen is the garments. The mirror is supposed to show you to you, but instead, the mirror has shown your garments to you. The ego is an unnecessary thing over the True Self. Not only would you survive without it, you would actually be better off. Spirituality is the final disrobing, after which there is nothing left to take off.
