What is ahamkara?
Translated as ‘I-making’ is an aspect of us that takes ownership and doer ship, it attaches itself to people, ideas, objects, places, the body, etc. Everything revolves around ahamkara.
Sometimes ahamkara is roughly translated as the ego which means ‘I’ in Latin, but in modern usage, people consider its meaning as Arrogance, self-esteem, self-importance, etc; while this is one of the qualities of ahamkara but it is not limited to this. Here we want to explain the proper spiritual meaning so please don’t get confused.
The tendency of I-making is to form an identity around things. “If I am an Indian then I will form my identity around it, I will associate myself with it, people saying good things about India will make me feel great but it might make me sad or angry if someone says anything bad about it.”
This aspect of the ego can create suffering within us, it can sometimes make us happy if that identity gets validated but at other times it can make us sad or angry.
The three types of Ahamkara/ ego
Sattva (balance), tamas (inertia), and rajas (active) are the three states in which any of the particles can be found in nature at any point in time. Similarly, the ego can take these qualities and express them in different ways.
- Rajasic ego- It is the active form of the ego that gets into a conflict OUTSIDE. You can think of it as “how dare you to talk to me like this”. This ego can take you into the space of some conflicts, fights, hate, jealousy, and anger.
- Tamasic ego- The heavy, full of inertia ego which doesn’t want to get into any conflict and tends to take the blame. Eg. “I am a bad person”‘, “Why does it happen to me?”. This ego can take you into self-hate, fear, and depression.
- Sattvic ego- This is the balanced state of ego that can help you to control your emotions when both the rajasic and tamasic ego gets active. It can help you to try to accept your mistake and can help you to get out of your self-hate mode.
The five qualities of ahamkara/ ego
According to an old Sanskrit manuscript Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati, these are the five qualities of ahamkara.
- Abhimana (अभिमानं) – Pride, arrogance, self-esteem, haughtiness, conceit
- Madiya (मदीयं) – the feeling of mine (in terms of relation to people)
- Mama sukha (मम सुखं)– my happiness
- Mama dukha (मम दुःखं) – my sorrow
- Mamedam (ममेदं) – this is mine (in relation to the object and things)
