Ego consciousness is a disease in which consciousness is not flowing naturally as it should be. Something alien entered into consciousness, something that cannot be part pure consciousness, it is something that resist part of pure consciousness.
Ego is a morbidity, blocked state of consciousness, like a dirty pool going nowhere, stinking, drying out, evaporating and dying.
So in self-inquiry we have to differentiate between ego consciousness and pure consciousness. “I” thought is an idea of one’s separation from the existence. Through “I” thought we can breath in pure consciousness and breath out. But in ego consciousness we take the consciousness in but never give it out. It goes on accumulating and incapable of sharing. He goes on defining himself by making walls around him so that nobody can trespass. By and by it becomes a dead thing because life means sharing in relationship. So self is a dead thing, alive only in the name. So to be self conscious is to be unconscious. Ordinarily everybody is self conscious. Self-inquiry is best to understand and to go beyond self consciousness.