The effulgence of your soul (Atma) is obscured by ego. Therefore, when ego is destroyed, all troubles end, all discontents vanish, and bliss is attained. Just as the sun is obscured by mist, so also, the feeling of ego hides eternal bliss. Even if the eyes are open, a piece of cloth or cardboard can prevent vision from functioning effectively and usefully. So too, the screen of selfishness prevents one from seeing God, who is in fact nearer than anything else. Develop the characteristics of truth, kindness, love, patience, forbearance and gratefulness. Ego (ahamkara) cannot subsist wherever these qualities reside, just as darkness disappears with sunrise. Many a spiritual aspirant (sadhaka), recluse, and renunciant (sanyasin) has allowed all excellences won by long years of struggle and sacrifice to slip away through this attachment to the self. Power without the bliss of God-realisation is a wall without a basement.

- Prema Vahini, Ch 15.