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Tattva 15 — The Ego-Maker (Ahaṃkāra)

The 'I-maker': the faculty that stamps experience as 'mine' and builds the sense of a separate ego.

Ahaṃkāra is the 'I-maker' — the faculty that takes the flow of experience and stamps it as 'I' and 'mine,' producing the feeling of being a distinct ego with its own stake in things. Evolving out of the intellect, it is the hinge of self-centeredness: it is what claims the body as 'me' and the world as 'for me.' From it, in the Sāṃkhya scheme, the mind and the senses further unfold.

How it traveled

  1. Bhagavad-gītā
    Kuru-Pañcāla region · -150
    applies
  2. Upadeśasāhasrī
    Kālaḍi (Kaladi) · 710
    explains
  3. Tantrasāra
    Śrīnagara (Srinagar), Kashmir · 1000
    explains
  4. Aṣṭāvakra-gītā
    Kāśī (Varanasi) · 1450
    explains

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