# Ego Death > *“Just as the sun can burn away the clouds that prevent one from seeing it, the Supreme Lord (and He alone) can remove the false ego that prevents one from seeing Him. There are some creatures, however, like owls, who are averse to seeing the sun. In the same way, those who are not interested in spiritual knowledge will never receive the privilege of seeing God.”* [(SB 12.4.33) ](https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/12/4/33/) This section of Srimad-Bhagavatam is all about annihilation. Krishna inegeniously designs the world in such a way that everything artificial and superfluous is eventually taken away. Nothing material can endure. Amongst our fears in life, the prospect of death is perhaps the most acute. As that fateful hour approaches, everything we worked so hard for is snatched away, throwing our entire sense of identity into question. On a subtle level, however, we may well be regularly subjecting ourselves to this disturbing experience. How so? The world teaches us to base our identity and self-worth on transitory, external and artificial considerations. When we identify with our abilities, facilities and positions of responsibility, then we set ourselves up for crisis. Why? Because the laws of nature dictate that all such things will always fade away over time. We pride ourselves in our ‘unique’ abilities but then we witness our own ineptitude, or discover someone far more qualified and competent who supersedes us. That’s painful. We find self-worth in karmic gifts like beauty, physique, learning and wealth, but the waves of time callously cause them to eventually crumble away. That’s painful. We feel valuable because of our reputation, influence and position in society, but everyone has ‘their day,’ after which we all have to make way. That’s painful. Constant change is the underlying theme of the material phantasmagoria – it’s unstoppable, unpredictable and uncontrollable. Thus, we suffer a subtle ego death every time we falsely identify with the temporary. Wisdom teachers, therefore, continually remind us to focus on our eternal, unchanging, essential identity. As spiritual beings, our true ego lies in being a selfless servant of God and other living beings. Everything we receive in the journey of life is simply a facility in pursuance of this, with any given situation always offering a unique opportunity for selfless service. In such spiritual consciousness, all anxiety, fear and dissatisfaction disappears. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://bhagavata.keshavaswami.com/canto-12/n.a.m.e/a-annihilation-4-7/ego-death.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.