 I am the soul, no, you are not the soul because the very fact that you say that arises in the conceptual and that conceptual is a function of the body. So the body is saying, I'm the soul. It's a matter of surrender all over the world in the big cities where the I am movements are gaining ground over the last 20, 30 years. These are ego movements. Very afraid to surrender and to bend because for all my life I'm 50, almost 60. I learned that I am the ego. I am the body and the ego. So I also learned that, I mean, if you lose your ego, you become psychotic or if you go from ego to another place and come back then you are schizophrenic. So I'm really afraid because I don't know what will happen to me if I surrender. I mean, shall there be any criticism anymore? Shall I have to change my friends, my way of life, my beliefs, my routine, everything? I mean, what should it happen to me? I feel it's kind of like death. I had like Mooji that says that you have to be nothing but I cannot grasp this and I cannot understand it. I'm afraid. I want you to help me overcome if it's possible this fear because I think you know what you're saying. I mean, you're a guru. I mean, I trust you but I still am afraid. So you brought up actually the neo-Advaithan approach. These are a lot of concepts and most of the time nobody really knows what they're talking about. There are few that have some sort of dissolution of identity but then a little bit later down the road you see them actually emphasizing identity. So this neo-Advaithan take on Advaita Vedanta has no concept or very little actually of surrender. So most of these neo-Advaithan teachers are advocating on the one hand a sort of observing of what all this is and dissolving the ego that way. And the other thing that they advocate is a surrender to the guru or to the teacher. I don't want to be facetious or even to put down people like that but the problem I've seen over the years here in Rishikesh and Tiruvannamalai also in Europe is really a lot of people have taken this neo-Advaithan path but that path is devoid of a real teaching of samarpan or surrender. It's a cherry picking and it started already with Ramana Maharshi's western students. It's a western cherry picking approach and it just leads to confusion and nobody really understands what they're talking about. They just don't. That's how it is. And then they're 70 or 80 years old. They're walking around in Tiruvannamalai or Rishikesh and they haven't really grasped what the truth is. So anyone who's on that path will have to make an internal decision that they want to come back to what one calls sanity which is called here and now, present, eyes open, simplicity and surrender. In the context of your question and what you ask about ego and your fears it is much better to be afraid of the ego than to be afraid of what will happen if you bend to the truth. Why do I say that? Because this loud noise of the ego has been slapped onto you. It's like year after year after year you learn more and more and more constructs from your childhood up and these constructs most of them especially if you grow up in a so-called advanced society which is not advanced at all but thinks itself to be advanced. If you grow up in such a society, the ego gets slapped on. Desire this, want this, opinionate about this, yearn for this, long for this, be angry about this, be upset about this, don't like this, et cetera, et cetera. These are actually things slapped onto you, you know. That being, that is Kreton, becomes very complex with all these constructs. Will Kreton dissolve if you bend and surrender to the truth? Answer is no. And why not? Because the neo-advaitins, they all talk about dissolving the ego completely. That's what it's about. Here it's not about the ego at all. The discourse is you take an identity because if you don't take an identity, then you move into fear. Will this identity dissolve? What will be there? Will I have friends at all? Will I do anything in this world? You're asking all these questions because you're coming from a neo-advaitin perspective where the ego is dissolved and you awaken. But these are just concepts. They are conceptual constructs also. And what is being spoken about here is not a conceptual construct. It's a holistic approach because you take on the identity of Kreton. Kreton, what is your mother's name? Aliki. And where were you born? In Athens. So Kreton, son of Aliki from Athens, that is the identity you take. So however much you surrender and whatever happens, you're not going to lose that identity, but you're not going to increase that identity till it inflates into ego. So it's a simple thing. It's simplicity. It's keeping it very simple. So Kreton, son of Aliki from Athens, bends down to what? In surrender to what? To the soul, to the source, to the truth, to that cosmic binary impulse which is at the centre of his being. And he, through that bending process, learns to discriminate, to discern between, which is your name, between the truth and the loud noise of the ego. What does he do once he has figured out that he wants to go on a holiday to Japan? He asks, in that state of surrender, he actually asks the question, is it the right thing for this thing called Kreton to go to Japan? And in that state of surrender, he feels the impulse, the binary impulse of a yes or a no. It's a system that is either pushing or pulling you into action or away from it. So there's no talk about the ego because whenever the ego tries to interfere with its loud noise, you train even further in bending to the truth. So how are you going to lose Kreton if it is Kreton who's bending to the truth? That never happens in this process. The thing is that the dissolution of the identity, I don't exist anymore as a statement, is a conceptual statement. So without this body, there's no I, right? There's no Kreton anywhere. Once this body drops, when the prana is out, then there's no Kreton anyways. You understand what I'm saying? So that I, that you create and those concepts of dissolution of identity or even the concept of identification with the soul, I am the soul, no, you are not the soul because the very fact that you say that arises in the conceptual and that conceptual is a function of the body. So the body is saying I'm the soul. It is mental gymnastics of neo-Advaitin approach which result in all these complications. It's a simple thing. Living a spiritual life is a simple thing. It's a matter of surrender. Surrender again to what? To the truth of your being. The truth which is independent of society. It is independent of family. It is independent of country. It is independent of religion. It is independent of all the constructs that are created in the thinking by what you have learnt over your socialization process. So you don't have to be afraid at all. Kreton will be there. Yes, maybe the people surrounding you will change and you have to be open to change. Don't be afraid of change. Your mental approach will change. Perhaps you start to feel much more in your skin, much more solid, much more present, able to sense the other because when you're sensing yourself and you're going deep into the impulse of truth within you, you know, then you're also connecting with the impulse of truth within the other because it's the same material. It's like a drop of the cosmic soul of Paramatman which is within you, Antaratman inside, but not inside because it's not you. All these neo-Advaithin movements, all these new age movements are with some exceptions underscoring the ego's idea that it is the soul. It can't be the soul because the very act of thinking is a function of and an act of the body. So it's to sort of calm yourself down, I'm the soul, so I'm eternal. That's an ego statement because the ego wants to feel eternal. The only thing that the system can allow itself is surrender, deep, deep surrender, samarpan, samarpan, samarpan, samarpan, samarpan, samarpan. Surrender, surrender. What will happen if you talk to students who have been following this teaching for say 15 years, 20 years at the max? They seem to me to be quite normal some of them are sitting here. They go through the ups and downs of life, but there is a joyousness that carries them. There is something there which carries you through the rest of this very challenging thing called living and you're not somehow floating above the ground, not connected, I'm not this, I'm not that, I'm not that. So I can just be the way I want and whatever the body does, it does. No, that's neo-Advaithin nonsense. And there are so many people who have suffered so badly and that's why I am quite emphatic when I speak about it because I've seen a lot and you will see that also in Tiruvannamalai, in Rishikesh also and all over the world in the big cities where the I am movements are gaining ground over the last 20, 30 years. These are ego movements because surrender is not even brought up as a possibility there. You surrender to the suffering, you surrender to the pain, you surrender to everything you're not supposed to surrender to. How can you surrender to pain? How can you surrender to fear? That's like giving in, it's like laying down your weapons. So it's the other way around when you surrender you're actually picking up your weapons and you're defending your system against this growing, terrifying thing called the ego. One of your questions was about if the ego is entirely destroyed then what is left and what happens? Firstly, I don't think that's something anyone needs to worry about. The ego never gets entirely destroyed. It's quite healthy and strong even in self-realized beings and it's very well aware of how to handle itself. And even if it slowly starts walking to its own cremation it's going to take a long time. So that's not something you need to worry about. It's very simple. You just bend, you try to ask, you try to become conscious of what you're doing in this moment. Is it an action emerging from the truth or is it emerging from the ego and as much as possible you try to go with the truth without feeling guilty, you know, without having fear. And all the people around you, your family, your friends, all of these people the more you live in the truth, the more they live in the truth. And those who are very far away from the truth they will not be around you and you won't feel anything other than deepening joy. It's tough. It's a sadhana. It's a practice. It's not a wellness course. You know that. You're a seeker. It's tough. People who want to touch the truth with their fingertips are not going to touch it by going to a wellness course where the teacher is nicely pampering your ego. If that's what you want then that's a different approach. Perhaps that leads also to some kinds of realizations but it is not the past actual self-realization which demands you to surrender, to bend to the truth. It's a sadhana. It's a practice, you know. Okay. Thank you. And don't trust me. You said you trust me because I'm a guru. No. Don't trust me. That's religion. The moment you look at somebody and you look up to them and trust them and take their word for it, that's religion. Look at it as a spiritual seeker should. It's experimental. Spirituality is experimental. You take it up, you do the work and then you see what happens. If it's not your thing, you move to something else. So you don't have to take my word for it. You start today. You start now. When you leave the satsang hall, you stand there and ask yourself, the question is what I plan to do now, the thing for me to do. You'll get an answer. Even if it's the wrong answer, it's better than not to ask at all. Isn't it? So it's not as if Kreeton is observing Kreeton doing this and then there's a Kreeton observing the Kreeton, observing Kreeton, observing Kreeton and then it starts to go into insanity till you are standing in front of the pharmacy for confusion pills. It's not the way, this observing yourself way. That's not what Ramana Maharshi meant when he brought those teachings. They were in surrender, those disciples around him to whom he spoke. There was a whole process of deepening surrender and then you experience those things along the way. So in this sadhana, in this practice, you just deepen your Self-realization till the body drops. It's a quiet path of growing joy. It's not this explosion into enlightenment and things like that.