Answer
False ego is illusory, not ultimately real. What remains is often not false ego itself, but the memory of false ego.
For example, suppose a person previously enjoyed sense gratification. The experience may be over, but its memory remains stored within the chitta. That memory can arise again in the future.
The chitta records the entire experience:
the enjoyer,
the object enjoyed,
the process of enjoyment,
and the feeling of enjoyment.
When those memories arise, they do not become false ego unless we identify with them.
An old memory is not the same thing as present identification.
A useful analogy is printed words on a page. The ink remains merely ink until someone reads it and gives it meaning. Similarly, false ego is like an idea waiting for our identification.
The real ego—the soul—is the one that actually thinks, feels, wills, and acts. False ego has no independent power; it functions like a parasite that borrows the energy of the real self.
Therefore, when an old enjoyer-identity arises, the devotee can simply refuse to identify with it:
“This is an old conditioned memory. It is not my real identity.”
Instead, the devotee offers his thinking, feeling, and willing to Krishna in the heart.
By consistently identifying with one’s true identity as Krishna’s eternal servant, the influence of false ego becomes weaker and weaker.
Thus, false ego is not an eternal substance that remains alongside spiritual identity. It is an illusion sustained by our identification with it. When we stop supplying it with our real consciousness, it loses its power.
