# An Intimate Encounter with Your EGO: Ahankara in Advaita Vedanta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R6BTp_Ggko

[00:21] I'd like to introduce you to a character.
[00:27] who is very strange but surprisingly familiar a character that happens to be your own ego.
[00:31] not ego in the sense of pride or arrogance but in a more fundamental sense as your inborn sense of individuality.
[00:39] the word Eagle as you know is actually the Latin pronoun I and here it means your inner eye your feeling of highness.
[00:56] eagle is a thought that represents you.
[01:03] it's the I thought in your mind the simplest way to identify it is to notice what happens when your ego is not present.
[01:13] think about a time when you were enjoying your favorite kind of music and you found yourself getting lost in an enchanting tune becoming deeply absorbed in its delightful melodies.
[01:27] while you were lost in that sublime experience could you still hear the music yes of course because you were still there.
[01:38] so then who is it that got lost in the music it was your ego that got lost.
[01:52] your ego temporarily disappeared while you were absorbed in that powerful experience and in the absence of your ego you felt different.
[02:01] you weren't aware
[02:06] of your physical body you didn't feel your usual sense of being an individual person with a name a birthday and a lifelong history.
[02:16] your sense of personal identity had vanished for the time being.
[02:26] then when that state of blissful absorption faded away your ego returned to his usual dwelling place in your mind and you felt your personal identity returned.
[02:40] so ego is your sense of individuality your feeling of being an individual person.
[02:49] to make all this more clear let's hear from your ego itself.
[02:53] from its place of residence inside the vast expanse of your mind.
[03:06] [Music]
[03:32] allow me to introduce myself
[03:34] I am your eagle I am the voice in your mind that says I ancestor
[03:39] I am called a hunk otter which literally means I maker so technically speaking I am the particular activity in your mind that's responsible for your feeling of -
[03:43] your feeling of individuality mental activities like me don't have physical form shape or color so this image of me here is merely a product of Swami Todd Mohandas overactive imagination
[03:46] I'm stuck here inside your mind which is like an enormous chamber lining its walls are all the compartments where
[04:33] Your memories are stored.
[04:36] Everything you experience takes place in this vast space.
[04:40] Whatever you see, hear, smell, taste, or touch emerges in here.
[04:44] Has mental events called perceptions.
[04:48] For example, when you see something, your eyeballs capture the object's appearance.
[04:56] And then neurons in your brain produce images.
[04:59] Images that appear here inside your mind for you to experience.
[05:07] In the same way, any kind of noise you hear.
[05:12] Everything you perceive with your five senses emerges in your mind in the form of.
[05:35] mental events and as each mental event emerges
[05:39] it's immediately experienced by you
[05:43] you are aware or conscious of what's happening in every corner of your mind
[05:47] in every nook and cranny so to speak
[05:50] because your mind is permeated by awareness
[05:54] your mind is completely filled with conscious awareness like a room that's completely filled with light shining from a bright lamp
[06:05] in ancient India the Rishi's or sages discovered that the consciousness shining in your mind is your true self your essential nature the inner divinity
[06:24] they said consciousness is the unchanging light of awareness by which you know or experience all the
[06:37] changing activities in your mind and just like the Sun is utterly unaffected by all it shines upon in the same way consciousness is utterly unaffected by whatever it illumines the Rishi's boldly concluded because unchanging consciousness is your essential nature you are utterly unaffected by everything that happens in your mind this is one of the most powerful and consequential teachings of the ancient sages will return to this important point later right now let's hear more from your eagle now you might ask what is my rule in this complicated process of sense perception how am I your ego involved
[07:41] when you see hear smell taste or touch something.
[07:49] well when you see a flower you have the experience.
[07:53] I see the flower in the sentence there's an object flower and a subject I.
[08:00] these correspond to two different mental events here in your mind.
[08:07] one is the flower thought and the other is the subject the I thought.
[08:18] that I is me your ego.
[08:23] whenever you perceive something I am present in that experience has your sense of individuality.
[08:30] when the doorbell rings you have the experience.
[08:34] I an individual person hear the doorbell when
[08:44] You smell freshly baked bread.
[08:47] You have the experience by an individual person.
[08:51] Smell the bread in each case.
[08:56] Hi and present along with the objects you perceive.
[08:59] So your experience of an object has two parts.
[09:04] One consists of all the sensations produced by the object.
[09:09] And the other part is me, your ego, your feeling of being an individual person.
[09:29] Next, you might ask, is it possible to perceive something in my absence?
[09:33] Can you see a flower without me, your evil being, present in your mind?
[09:44] answer is yes but only under certain conditions
[09:52] suppose you were to become entranced by the exquisite beauty of this flower and you fell into a state of absorption
[10:03] like when you get deeply absorbed in your favorite music then you wouldn't have the experience I an individual person see the flower
[10:18] you would only experience flower whenever you get absorbed like that I your eagle temporarily fade away
[10:27] I do that from time to time after all I'm only a mental event and all mental events come and go
[10:39] you on the other hand are completely unlike all these transient mental events
[10:42] you don't come
[10:46] and go you constantly illumine whatever is happening in this vast mind of yours.
[10:54] even when you are deeply absorbed or sleeping soundly you know when I am present here as your sense or feeling of individuality and when you get absorbed you know when I fade away.
[11:10] you're aware of my presence and absence.
[11:17] you're aware of what's happening inside here Frank.
[11:20] now while you're awake and tonight when you're asleep you'll be aware of the absence of any activity inside here.
[11:31] consciousness never sleeps.
[11:35] your mind does.
[11:45] so far we've only discussed sense
[11:48] perception when things you see hear
[11:52] smell taste and touch emerge as mental
[11:55] events in your mind but in addition to
[11:59] these perceptions you also experience
[12:02] other kinds of mental events like
[12:06] cognitions and emotions those mental
[12:10] events are not produced by your five
[12:13] senses they're produced by your mind
[12:16] itself let's consider your cognitions
[12:20] first some cognitions are abstract and
[12:25] conceptual like when you ponder the
[12:28] meaning of life but others are detailed
[12:32] and practical like when you make a list
[12:36] of items to purchase at the market
[12:39] well those cognitions are coming and
[12:42] going in your mind your ego is also
[12:46] present while you ponder the meaning of
[12:49] life or while you're making up a shopping list you still feel like an individual person.
[12:57] you feel the sense of - because of the presence of your ego.
[13:06] now what about your emotions emotions emerge in your mind just like cognitions and perceptions.
[13:14] as soon as they emerge you become aware of them and while various emotions come and go in your mind your ego is constantly present along with them.
[13:28] when you say I am happy or I am sad the eye you're referring to is actually your eagle your eyes thought which is present as your sense of being an individual person who feels happier sad.
[13:55] the ancient Rishi's made the remarkable discovery that you in your essential nature don't really become happier sad.
[14:06] you are the awareness or consciousness that illumines everything in your mind including your emotions of happiness and sadness.
[14:22] as we discussed before just like the Sun is unaffected by all it illumines in the same way the consciousness illumining the activities in your mind remains unaffected by all those activities including your emotions.
[14:39] but then if you are truly unaffected by sadness then why do you feel so sad sometimes.
[14:48] the problem is one of
[14:53] confusion when you say I feel sad the eye you refer to is your ego your I.
[14:59] thought not consciousness you wrongly identify the I thought in your mind as being who you really are the unchanging light of awareness that illumines the changing activities of your mind.
[15:03] the truth is sadness belongs to your mind and the ego that dwells there.
[15:24] sadness doesn't belong to you the conscious being.
[15:30] when you thoroughly understand this fact you'll be able to experience sadness without feeling so sad without wanting the sadness to go away.
[15:34] really speaking sadness is not your
[15:53] enemy when you watch a sad movie you might leave the theater with tears streaming down your cheeks and say that's the best movie I seen in years.
[16:08] so sadness is not the problem the problem is concluding that sadness in your mind truly affects you.
[16:20] the changeless awareness that knows the presence of sadness and just like sadness is not your enemy your ego too is not your enemy.
[16:33] many people wrongly believe that to become enlightened or to gain liberation the ego must be destroyed but your ego is just a transient mental event like your perceptions and cognitions and emotions and none of these mental events.
[16:56] can truly affect you the unchanging consciousness that illumines them.
[17:05] not only that your ego has a crucial function in coordinating all your thoughts and behavior.
[17:15] in the absence of your ego like when you're deeply absorbed in music you really can't do anything at all.
[17:24] you can only passively enjoy the state of absorption.
[17:33] you need your ego to engage in worldly activities.
[17:37] it's a natural and vital part of your human nature and in the final analysis your ego is not to blame for your suffering.
[17:50] you suffer due to confusion due to ignorance due to the failure to recognize your own true nature as
[17:58] unchanging consciousness unborn eternal.
[18:03] thus full and complete.
[18:08] with the help of the powerful insights
[18:11] and teachings of their issues you can
[18:14] remove that ignorance and enjoy complete
[18:17] freedom from suffering even in the
[18:21] presence of sadness.
[18:32] [Music]