Ego, Ahamkara, and the Open Secret (Part 2)
In this article series we are exploring the cosmological and transcendent nature of what we call ego/ahamkara and how they point to the conclusion that what we experience as “I” is the constant assertion of ultimate Existence, Awareness, and Bliss. Every time we say “I am” we assert our identity as pure Consciousness. However, every time we put something after that statement (I am sad/happy, or I am going somewhere), and believe what we are saying, we assume the limitations of insentient nature. So in the first part, we had just broached the topic of the Five Koshas. (please see attached chart) That paragraph is repeated here:
From the Upanisads, Vedanta philosophy culled the teaching of the Five Koshas, or coverings over the Atman, the true Self. These five are ahamkara/ego, intelligence, mind, vital energy, and body. Each sheath gets progressively more dense/limited until we come to the sheath of the physical body. Atman, free of time, space, and causation, and therefore infinite and indivisible, is first covered (apparently) by the Anandamaya Kosha, the sheath of Bliss. This sheath corresponds to the sense of “I.” When the ego is the cause of so much pain, why would it be associated with the Sheath of Bliss? The Anandamaya Kosha is the most subtle of all sheaths. It is the translucent veil separating the apparent individual from pure Existence, Awareness, and Freedom. But as a sugar cube can only be sugar but not taste itself, the Anandamaya Kosha provides the apparatus of separation that allows the Ineffable Self to taste Itself manifesting as both an individual and masquerading as all the objects of experience. Now, it is true that Vedantically speaking, we view this Kosha with caution, because it is still the final barrier to complete Freedom. But the denser koshas are where the deeper obstacles to freedom lie, and where the ahamkara/ego can become truly problematical.
The next most subtle sheath is the Vijnanamaya Kosha, or the sheath of Intelligence. This sheath, in combination with the Anandamaya Kosha, is the seat of agency and ownership. The sense of “me” and “mine” originates here. By itself, the Anandamaya Kosha does not identify with objects, for everything to come is in it already; it is simply a blissful sense of “I am.” In an earlier blog, it was presented that at the cosmic level, this is the Godhead, Ishvara/Ishvari.
The next sheath is the Manomaya Kosha, or sheath of dual mind. It is the seat of mental imaginings and broodings centered on seeking pleasure and shunning pain with regard to subtle and gross objects. Subtle objects are the objects we experience in dream or heavenly realms, as well as thought and emotion. Gross objects are those that we experience with our senses in the waking state. The manomaya kosha is the apparatus that combines the conceptualizing and desiring powers of mind (sankalpa/vikalpa) with the principles (tattvas) of senses and elements and projects them into the world(s) we experience, aided by the collectivity of beings similarly engaged.
The next most subtle sheath is the Pranamaya Kosha, the sheath of vital force, which connects the mental body and the physical body, so to speak. This is the seat wherein the interplay of psychic prana (mental force) and the fivefold prana (vital force) manifest the desires of the mind through the physical body, called the Annamaya Kosha, the sheath of food, and support its functioning as well. The Annamaya Kosha is the most dense of all five sheaths.
The Anandamaya Kosha, sheath of bliss or ego, permeates all five sheaths. The next subtler sheaths each permeate the grosser ones. Whether the Ahamkara/ego is a rascal causing havoc in one’s life or an aid to Self-realization depends on where it is identified and the quality of one’s consciousness. Those who are body bound, i.e. think the body is the seat of selfhood, will trap the ego in the body sheath with all desires focused there. “I” am the body is the natural result. Anger, fear, lust, jealousy, and greed will dominate. Those whose lives are dominated by emotional and social desires will bind the poor, maligned ego in the manomaya kosha. Others have their happiness in intellectual pursuits. If they identify themselves as the agent and owner of “their knowledge,” pride, arrogance, jealousy, anger, etc., will continue to haunt them. Those who have glimpsed that the body, mind, prana, intellect, and even the ego move by something Other, will ripen the ego through selfless works and spiritual practices aimed at dissolving the layers of limit and qualification.
This system of the 5 Koshas is a form of Atma Vichara, often expressed in the question “Who am I?” Whatever we identify “I” with – bodies, solid objects, conceptual objects, illness, health, worries, joys, knowledge, etc. – becomes a trigger for the spiritual aspirant to question the identification. The seers knew that the “I” belonged, ultimately, to a divine Reality, which in Vedanta we call Atman (with reference to the apparent individual) or Brahman (beyond such concepts of individual and cosmic). Thus, as soon as one says “I am happy,” one will have to reflect, that happiness is opposed by sorrow and both reside in the mind. The mind is only a covering of the Self. Or if the aspirant momentarily lapses and says “I am sick,” he or she will immediately remember that sickness belongs to the physical body. The teaching of the koshas teaches us this method.
A quote from my teacher, Babaji:
Examine your consciousness from all angles, for example: Doesn’t the Anandamayakosha contain all the other koshas? Therefore, all reflections exist in the ego. You have to know what you are not, before you can know who you are.
We will continue this topic in the next post.
