At the risk of changing the direction of this thread I'd like to expand on the ego and pride part of the rawat equation. Recently while arguing with my mom about this I came to the same conclusion. I even told her how ironic it was that her ego, the thing she was supposed to have surrendered/discarded 30+ years ago, was the main thing keeping her clinging to her hopeless delusion.

Yep, ego and pride; that is the main trap of rawatism and it's ilk. Good call.