Bhagavan Sri Ramana used to say that all techniques of meditation and concentration presuppose the retention of the ego/mind. Bhagavan used to joke that employing the ego/mind to overcome the ego/mind is like hiring a thief, who is all dressed up as a policeman, to catch the thief. The policeman will pretend to make herculean efforts to catch the thief, give periodic reports of progress, but will fail each time (since the policeman is the thief!)

Can Self-Realization and Physical Immortality co-exist?

Many schools of yoga emphasize that through various practices of pranayama and kriyas, one can not only gain super natural and super conscious experiences but also make the body healthy and disease free. Some schools of yoga go one step further and say that the human body itself can be made to live so long that it is practically immortal.

The guru is pleased with him only who gives himself up entirely, who abandons his ego forever. Such a man is taken care of wherever he may be. He need not pray. God looks after him unasked. The frog lives by the side of the fragrant lotus, but it is the bee who gets the honey.”

Don’t be dead or asleep or awake.
Don’t be anything.
What you most want,
what you travel around wishing to find,
lose yourself as lovers lose themselves,
and you’ll be that.

He who would know the secret of both worlds
Will find that the secret of them both is Love.”