MenoSundays; Life Lived Lovingly

Last Sunday, you were introduced to the antaHkarana. The inner cause of how we operate in life. Now we shall proceed to assess the four aspects under this title.

Ahangkaara, ego-self. You will sometimes see this written in English as 'ahamkaara', which is not wrong. This is a compound word: aham = "I", and kaara="author/creator". In Sanskrit, though, conjunctions result in slightly different spelling and pronunciation.

Okay, now there will be a few among you who will be jumping to comparisons with Freud's id, ego and super-ego model. Unlike Jung, who most definitely had exposure to Sanskrit philosophy, Freud developed his theories entirely from his own observations. By comparison, this model is quite simplistic. Had he, in fact, been aware of Vedanta and particularly the antaHkarana, he may well have been able to bring out even more from his practice!

The id is the 'subconscious', instinctual part of our functioning, according to Freud. It contains all the 'drives' - motivational factors for action in the world. According to Freud, though, these are base, wild, requiring taming by the super-ego (which would equate somewhat to the buddhi part of the antaHkarana). That which Freud termed as ego, is actually the part which here we are going to call manas - mind. As brilliant as Freud undoubtedly was, he didn't have the full picture!

The ahangkaara is very much that part of our psyche which gives the full presentation of what we term 'personality'. The base drives/motivators are far more multifaceted in Vedanta. First, there is the physical survival stuff of 'fight/flight' which is driven chemically from the brain. We do have the ability to control this, but it is hard-wired into the body and would function even without antaHkarana. It is the 'animal' part of our existence. Then there is the external stimulus and input part through the senses (indriyaanis) which plant seeds of desire. Thirdly there are the parts of us brought in via the chitta section; inherent personality factors that seem to have no foundation on any current experience, upbringing, geography or whatever.

The ahangkaara is that bit of us which knows we exist but is inclined to relate only to the physical world and our interaction with it, via the three 'inputs'. Thus it is the 'author' of that which says "I" and means only the individual, attached to a physical sheath (gross body - shtuula shariira), which knows it has wants and needs, driven by sensory input and other more subtle factors from the inner sheath (subtle body - suukshma shariira).

The ego-self is also that part which - in other modalities - is referred to as the 'inner child'. It is the ego which gets sulky, stampy-footy, all the time concerned with 'what's in it for me?' It is the ego which attaches strongly and feels loss keenly. It is the ego which can be intensely introvert or ebulliently extrovert. It is the ego which carries fear and phobia. It is the ego which gives us the drive to survive. The ego would love to exist without being monitored so that it can indulge in all its fancies and lusts.

It comes first in the list of the four because it is the most prominent part of our psyche. Without the ahangkaara, we would be more akin to automatons.

The ahangkaara, however, is an illusion. A construct arising from the connection of the rest of the antaHkarana with the shtuula shariira. It cannot exist outside the physical sheath. It is dependent first on consciousness having enlivened the matter-envelope, then the functioning of the other components of the antaHkarana.

We all have an ego. How much we let it govern our lives depends on how much we are prepared to self-monitor.