Siddhanta -- Arriving at a conclusion
Siddhanta vakya shravana:  If you hear the words of a teacher and they make you concentrate upon something with the aim of reaching a conclusion regarding its reality, you marvelously make a shift from being a worldly person to a spiritual seeker.  You begin to inquire, "Is this really real?"  Your questioning is now based upon a sound philosophical basis.   Even making a wrong or incomplete conclusion is better than "sitting on the fence," where one never makes any headway.  In other words, stating a conclusion in front of those who can't make a conclusion will shake things up.  And even if it is not a mature conclusion, having stated it will cause any error in it to show up.  Then one can move forward.  So give up your pride and ego about always having to be right....

Death of an Ego
The ego death is so painful.  So don't have one.  Don't espouse an ego; if you can't do that, don't cling to the ego; if you can't do that, then go to work.  That will help wear it down.

There's one thing you can renounce -- the hollow self.  Should something that is empty be allowed to cause such suffering?

If you can't have a "no-death" of the Atman (Enlightenment), then at least have a death from self-surrender.

Speaking of authentic swamis, they have no ego death, for they have no actual investment in the world.

We have to dedicate ourselves if we are to live a spiritual life.  And if we can't give all of our life like the swamis do, then we will have to do it in terms of renouncing the ego.  This task is accomplished in the mind.

The characteristic of a ripe ego is self-surrender, humility, and detachment.

You don't have to get rid of ego, you have to ripen it.  When ego is refined it is full of Light -- the Cosmic Personality.