Ahamkara

The “I-maker” — the function of the antahkarana that takes a content of experience and says this is me.

Overview

Ahamkara is literally “I-making.” It is the psychological function that, given a body, a mind, a role, or a story, produces the claim this is what I am. It is one of the four components of the antahkarana and part of the subtle body. It is not the atman — it is one of the objects atman illumines — but it is precisely where ajnana takes hold, because the ahamkara’s normal operation is to identify atman with the not-self.

In Vedanta, ahamkara is what has to be seen through, not destroyed. The Kabir verse Swami Sarvapriyananda quotes in Ep 4 puts the practical point: “Very soon this body will pass away into dust — why walk around with so much ego?” The ahamkara is built to claim more and more; the practice is to recognize it as a function, not as what you are.

Related concepts

• antahkarana — the whole inner apparatus
• manas, buddhi, chitta — the other three functions
• anatman — the category ahamkara belongs to
• ajnana — the confusion the ahamkara perpetuates
• viveka — what disarms the ahamkara’s false claim

In the Gita

• 02-13-15 — part of what transmigrates with the embodied one
• 02-16 — the teaching that dissolves ahamkara’s claim to be sat

Lecture evidence

• Ep. 4 [09:20]: Ahamkara as one of the four inner instruments.
• Ep. 4 [50:53]: Kabir’s warning — the body will soon be dust, so why so much ego? The ahamkara’s overclaim shown against mortality.