ahankara

[uh-huhng-kahr-uh]

noun

Hinduism, Buddhism.

1. the false identification of the purusha, or true inner self, with the body, the mind, or the outside world.

Word History and Origins

Origin of ahankara¹

< Sanskrit ahaṅkāra ego consciousness, equivalent to aham I + -kāra making or producing (a sound), saying, as in śītkāra making the sound śīt

Example Sentences

With original Prakriti, the seven beginning with Mahat and Ahankara and numbering the five Tanmatras.

Read more on Project Gutenberg

We will not now inquire whether the difference is one of states or of entities; whether the phenomenal or mind consciousness is merely the external condition of one indivisible Ego, or has its origin and nature in an altogether different principle; the Spirit, or immortal part of us, being of Divine birth, while the senses and understanding, with the consciousness—Ahankara—thereto appertaining, are from an Anima Mundi, or what in the Sankhya philosophy is called Prakriti.

Read more on Project Gutenberg

The seat of the manas is the root of the throat, of buddhi the face, of chitta the umbilicus, and of ahankara the breast.

Read more on Project Gutenberg

Ahankara also has three attributes, viz.,

Read more on Project Gutenberg

It depends on the 5th—Manas or Ahankara, the "I"—to thin the guna, "rope," into one thread—the sattwa; and thus by becoming one with the "unevolved evolver," win immortality or eternal conscious existence.

Read more on Project Gutenberg