Swami Mukundananda
What is the root cause of ego and pride?
Ego comes from body-identification
Ego is the antithesis of spiritual consciousness because it is based on the misplaced understanding of the self being the body. Pride in being beautiful, learned, rich or powerful comes from that.
This ego is the opposite of spiritual consciousness, because ego is all about self-consciousness, and that self-consciousness rests on the misplaced understanding of the self as the body: I am the body.