Excerpt from " Be as you are " Ramana Maharshi

Q: While the one aim is to realize the unconditioned, pure being of the Self, which is in no way dependent on the ego, how can enquiry pertaining to the ego in the form of aham-vritti be of any use?

Sri Ramana Maharshi :

From the functional point of view the ego has one
and only one characteristic.

The ego functions as the knot between the Self
which is pure consciousness and the physical body
which is inert and insentient.

The ego is therefore called the chit-jada-granthi
[the knot between consciousness and the inert body].

In your investigation into the source of aham-vritti,
you take the essential chit [consciousness] aspect of the ego.

For this reason the enquiry must lead to the realization of pure consciousness of the Self.

You must distinguish between the `I',
pure in itself, and the `I'-thought.
The latter, being merely a thought,
sees subject and object, sleeps, wakes up,
eats and thinks, dies and is reborn.

But the pure `I' is the pure being, eternal existence,
free from ignorance and thought-illusion.

If you stay as the `I', your being alone,
without thought, the `I'-thought will disappear and the delusion will vanish for ever.

In a cinema-show you can see pictures
only in a very dim light or in darkness.
But when all the lights are switched on, the pictures disappear.
So also in the floodlight of the supreme atman all objects disappear.

Q: That is the transcendental state.

Sri Ramana Maharshi:

No.
Transcending what, and by whom?
You alone exist.

~ From Be as you are book