Based on the story of Pundalikrao, what is the connection between ego and spiritual progress according to Sai Baba's teachings?

The story of Pundalikrao, detailed in Chapter 51, provides a crucial lesson on the role of ego in the spiritual path. Pundalikrao was deeply distressed, and Sai Baba used the incident of a lost coconut as a pretext to provide guidance. The text explicitly states that through this advice, 'all that was a play of ego was made free from pride and guiltless.' The core teaching, or 'the essence of this story,' is that there is a direct inverse relationship between ego and spiritual authority. The more non-egoistic a person's state becomes, the more authority they gain in their spiritual practice, enabling them to 'easily cross the ocean of existence.'