Question: When you say the ego has to die, will that seem to us like dying because we identify so much with the ego?

Babaji:

Identification has to die. Dying doesn’t mean of the physical body but mental imagination. That is why, for a Yogi, it doesn’t hurt if someone is criticizing, or if someone is worshiping, it makes no difference, the “I” and imagination is not there.

When Ashtavakra came to the court of Janaka to teach, everyone laughed because he had eight deformations of the body. He couldn’t walk properly. He said, “You are such a great Emperor, all in your court should be great, learned people. But from all I can see they are all simply buffalo-brained ones. They are not at all learned. Everyone is an idiot.” Janaka asked, “Why do you think so?” Ashtavakra answered, “They think this body to be me and they are laughing at this body. They think they are laughing at me, but actually they don’t know who I am. They are idiots themselves”.