Category Archives: ahankaaraha

Bhagavad Gita Verse 5, Chapter 17

25 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by in 17.5, ahankaaraha, ashaastravihitam, balaanvitaahaa, chapter 17 verse 5, dambhaha, ghoram, janaahaa, kaamaha, raagaha, samyuktaahaa, tapaha, tapyante

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ashaastravihitam ghoram tapyante ye tapo janaahaa |
dambhaahankaarasamyuktaahaa kaamaraagabalaanvitaahaa || 5 ||
 
Those people who perform horrible austerities that are shunned by laws of scripture, entrenched in ostentation and pride, possessed with the force of desire and attachment.
 
ashaastravihitam : shunned by laws of scripture
ghoram : horrible
tapyante : perform
ye : those who
tapaha : austerities
janaahaa : people
dambhaha : ostentation
ahankaaraha : pride
samyuktaahaa : entrenched
kaamaha : desire
raagaha : attachment
balaanvitaahaa : possessed with force
 
Let us imagine that you are attending a class on basic electronic circuits. It is your first day in the electronics lab. If you have a good teacher, chances are that they will not start day one of the class with the topic of electronics itself. They will probably talk about the dos and donts of handling electronics equipment. This is because they have your safety and the safety of other students in mind. Shri Krishna, teacher extraordinaire, uses this shloka and next to give us a warning before delving into the topic of analyzing the texture of our faith.
 
This warning is very simple. Any time we see people abuse and torture themselves or others in the name of devotion, physically or mentally, we need to stay away from such people. Or, in the rare chance that we have been misguided by someone to do such things, we should immediately stop. Such torture could be something as basic as denying oneself food and water to the detriment of one’s health, or could be as terrible as poking and prodding oneself with pins and needles. None of this is sanctioned by any scripture.
 
So why would someone perform such painful austerities? Shri Krishna says many of these people have some misguided pride about some body-oriented feat such as walking on hot charcoals. They want to put on a show so that they can satisfy the urge of ostentation, to show off their feats. Some others become so attached a worldly goal that they take on vows of incessant fasting without taking their health into consideration. Broadly speaking, such people do not gain their result, and end up harming themselves and others around them.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 5, Chapter 13

05 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by in 13.5, ahankaaraha, avyaktam, buddhihi, chapter 13 verse 5, dasha, ekam, eva, indriyaani, indriyagocharaahaa, mahaabhootaani, pancha

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mahaabhootaanyahankaaro buddhiravyaktameva cha |
indriyaani dashaikam cha pancha chendriyagocharaahaa || 5 ||
 
The great elements, the ego, the intellect, the unmanifest, and also the ten senses, and the one, and five objects of senses.
 
mahaabhootaani : great elements
ahankaaraha : ego
buddhihi : intellect
avyaktam : unmanifest
eva : also
cha : and
indriyaani : senses
dasha : ten
ekam : one
cha : and
pancha : five
cha : and
indriyagocharaahaa : objects of senses
 
Nowadays, most computers have the ability to go into sleep mode, where all the running programs are saved in a file on the disk in such a way that they are brought back to life as soon as the computer is switched on again. Similarly, when the universe comes into existence, its entire state is restored from avyaktam, the unmanifest “file” containing the sum total of every unfulfilled desire. We then begin to see faint outlines of the universe, just like the computer first draws the outlines of the windows on the screen. This state is known as buddhi. We finally see the universe in full colour, in all its glory, just like we see a fully painted screen on our computer. This state is known as ahankara. This fully painted screen is created by combining three colours – red, blue and green – in various ways.
 
Similarly, the entire universe is created by combining the five great elements – space, air, fire, water and earth – in various ways. As humans, we are also comprised of those same five great elements. But, each of us looks and behaves differently than the other due to the difference in our “programming” – the avyakta, also known as vaasanaas or unfulfilled desires. Also, there is something within us that give us the ability to think, feel and act, which we do not see in inert objects. This is the inner instrument or the antahakarana. It is comprised of the buddhi or intellect which plans and decides, the ahankaara or ego which creates a sense of agency or I-ness and the mind which thinks and feels, referred in the shloka as “ekam” or the one.
 
The mind receives stimuli from five sense organs – ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose which run after their objects – sound, touch, form, taste and smell, respectively. The mind also controls five organs of action – mouth, hands, legs, genitals and bowels. The five elements, the five sense organs, their five corresponding sense objects, the five organs of actions, the mind, the intellect, the ego and the unmanifest – these make up the twenty four categories of the universe mentioned in the Saamkhya school of philosophy.
 
In just one shloka, Shri Krishna has explained the entire process of cosmic creation and its building blocks, as well as the specific factors that enable humans to think, feel and act. Plants and animals are also made up of similar building blocks, although not as fully expressed as in humans. Whenever we develop anxiety or frustration that this world is becoming too complex to understand, we can refer to this shloka and understand that at its core, the world is quite simple. Also, whenever we develop the mistaken notion that we are independent and do not need anything from this world, this shloka shows us our oneness with the world. Now this shloka only provides a static view of the world. How do we account for all the dynamism, the movement, the give and take between one human being and the rest of the world? This is explained in the next shloka.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 4, Chapter 7

29 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by in 7.4, aapaha, ahankaaraha, analaha, ashtadhaa, bhinnaa, bhoomihi, buddhihi, cha, chapter 7 verse 4, eva, iti, iyam, kham, manaha, me, prakritihi, vayuhu

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bhoomiraaponalo vayuhu kham mano buddhireva cha |
ahankaara iteeyam me bhinnaa prakritirashtadhaa || 4 ||
 
Earth, water, fire, wind and space, along with mind, ego and intellect, in this manner, this is my eight-fold differentiated nature.
 
bhoomihi : earth
aapaha : water
analaha : fire
vayuhu : wind
kham : space
manaha : mind
buddhihi : intellect
eva : along with
cha : and
ahankaaraha : ego
iti : in this manner
iyam : this
me : my
bhinnaa : differentiated
prakritihi : nature
ashtadhaa : eight-fold
 
Shri Krishna, having promised Arjuna that he will reveal his true essence, begins to do so in this shloka. He says that five primordial elements, as well as mind, ego and intellect, comprise his prakriti or nature.
 
Earth, water, fire, wind and space here do not mean tangible physical elements that we can perceive through our senses. They refer to the qualities of the physical elements. For example, water here refers to the quality of liquids that enable them to flow. Fire refers to the quality of a flame to generate light and heat. When these elements combine with each other, they have the potential to create every object in this universe. In other words, Shri Krishna says that the building blocks of the universe are nothing but his manifestation.
 
What is the implication here? For many of us that have a set image of Ishvara as a certain deity, this is a whole new way of understanding. It means that Ishvara is within our grasp 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All of the objects, situations and people that we interact with are made up of these elements.
 
This means that if we realize that everything comes from Ishvara, then we should not have room for any negative emotions such as jealousy, anger etc. Why? When we know that everything is created and owned by Ishvara, we do not get agitated if our neighbour buys a bigger car or gets a better job. We see everything as ultimately belonging to Ishvara, so it does not matter who temporarily claims it as his or hers.
 
Now, having discussed the five elements, let us take up the other three through an illustration. In the morning, just before we are about to wake up, our mind is in an unmanifest state. We are not aware of anything. As we begin to get up, the first thought that comes to mind is subject awareness, i.e. “I am so-and-so”. Soon after, we begin thinking that “I am so-and-so in this bedroom and it is 7 am now”. The mind goes from unmanifest, to the ego (I am), to awareness of objects.
 
The creation of the universe per the Saamkhya school of philosphy follows these three stages as well. The universe originally lies in an unmanifest state. The first manifestation or transformation in this state is the ego-principle, which is also known as self-assertion or the “I-principle”. It creates the notion of the subject and object, or of the experiencer and experienced. Finally, this ego-principle learns how to manifest itself in terms of objects, which is known as the cosmic mind. These three states – unmanifest, ego-principle and cosmic mind are denoted in the shloka as mind, ego and intellect.
 
The cosmic mind then begins to manifest itself from the most intangible elements to the most tangible ones, step by step. The first element produced is space, which is invisible. Next is air, which we cannot see but can infer from its effects. Next is fire, which we can see but not touch. This is followed by water, which we can see and touch. Finally, earth is produced which is the most tangible element of all. If you reverse the order of elements given in this shloka, it exactly follows the doctrine of creation in Saamkhya.
 
So, if we take all of these 8 factors into account, we realize that all the material aspects of the universe is Ishvara. Ishvara has not created this world like a sculptor creates statues out of clay. He has created the world out of himself. It is like the spider that creates the web out of himself, like the Mundaka Upanishad says.
 
The entire world of experience is Ishvara. But what about the experiencer himself? This is taken up in the next shloka.