The text presents the ego, or “I”-thought, as a false identification that arises when pure consciousness takes itself to be the body, mind, and personal history. This “I”-thought is described as the primal modification of consciousness, the first thought from which all other thoughts and the perception of a separate world emerge. It is not an independently existing entity, but a transient knot in awareness that links the Self to the non-Self and thereby obscures one’s true nature as unconditioned consciousness. Because it is only a thought arising in awareness, its apparent reality is entirely dependent and has no enduring substance of its own.

A central insight is the contrast between the egoic “I” and the real “I.” The egoic “I” says “I am this body, I am this mind,” and appears only in waking and dream states, disappearing in deep sleep, which shows its intermittent and contingent character. By contrast, the real “I” is pure, unbroken awareness that persists through all states and does not come and go. The ego is thus portrayed as a superimposition on this ever-present Self, a misreading of the simple sense of being into a personal, limited identity.

The teachings emphasize that this egoic “I”-thought is the root of suffering, bondage, and the sense of separation. It generates the feeling of individual doership—“I am the one who acts, thinks, and experiences”—and thereby gives rise to fear, desire, and the entire network of dualistic experience. The ego also sustains itself by constantly identifying with the stream of thoughts and activities, reinforcing the illusion that this composite of body and mind is what one truly is. All other mental movements are said to depend on this primary misidentification.

Self-enquiry is presented as the direct means of addressing this situation. The question “Who am I?” is not aimed at defining the Self conceptually, but at turning attention back onto the very sense of “I” that claims to be the body-mind. When the “I”-thought is followed back to its source in the Heart, understood as the locus of the Self, it cannot be found as a real entity and therefore subsides. This dissolution of the ego is not the destruction of something truly existent, but the recognition that it never possessed independent reality. What then stands revealed is the true “I,” the Self, as pure, unlimited consciousness free from the limiting adjuncts that once seemed to define it.