Ego is One in itself, but this Real Ego — the Real I — is now bound by the mind. And this mind which is made up of false impressions makes the Real I think itself false. Mind makes you think of birth, death, happiness, misery, et cetera, as real things, but nothing can be more false than this. You are now here, alive in the body, in your senses, and why? Because you always were.
Have you any impression of how you were born and how your birth took place? No. Because you were not born at all! Mind gives you this impression that you are here, there, and so forth. It is the mind which gives you the impression according to which you say: "She is my wife," or "He is my husband," and so forth.
Mind always keeps [you hopping] at a tap dance! If you knew that your wife, children, et cetera, are One, and if you knew that you never die, never suffer, you are then All in all. But the mind is there to baffle you! Mind says: "Beware, she is your wife; they are your children; these are your things," ad infinitum. Mind creates such types of impressions.
Therefore mind, which is made up of false impressions, makes the Real I think itself false. To think I am the body, I am young, old, I am a man, a woman, I am this or that — are all impressions created by the mind. It never makes itself feel "I am God." Mind might make you say "I am God," but it cannot make you feel "I am God."
So long as mind is there, ego cannot be transformed from its false attitude to its real state. Mind thus also makes you say that you are infinite, all-powerful, and so forth, but you do not feel it. Why? Because mind, which is made up of false impressions, makes you feel the I as small, limited I.
Now what has happened? If the false ego is to have its real, original state, the mind must go. As long as the mind is there, although its outlook is changed, the real "I-Am-God" state cannot be experienced.
In sound sleep, mind has temporarily gone. Ego is there, and the impressions again make the mind wake up, and mind again makes the ego feel false. And so, in innumerable lives and forms, the ego is there.