How was the ego born? How did it come into being?
The ego came into existence from limitation. The moment the soul enters into the physical consciousness or the physical world, it is in a strange, foreign world. In spite of being a flame of the Divine and, in essence, omnipotent, the soul in the beginning finds it very difficult to cope with the world. And even later, when the person grows older, most of the time the soul has to endure unpleasant experiences just in order to remain in the physical world and, more importantly, to establish the Divine here on earth.The ego each day gets the opportunity to function independently and gets stronger day by day, until it separates itself completely from the source of its absolute, divine fulfilment: the soul. The ego, which wants to starve and crush the Divine in man, is fed by the ignorance of the physical world. The Divine, too, initially feeds the ego, but later illumines and transforms it into a perfect instrument of the Supreme.
Sri Chinmoy, Yoga and the spiritual life. The journey of India's Soul., Tower Publications, Inc., New York, 1971