What is "Aham" (“I")?
I refer to not
self, including our body, mind, sense and intellect as all these are subject to
change and destruction. I cannot be
destroyed or changed. I witness even the
mind and intellect... .The Gita
The Aham is a Tatwam
(the philosophical analysis of the Paramatma ( Supreme Being within you) and it
denotes a stage in which the gross ideas of the ego (I) are entirely
destroyed and the Mahat- Tatwam above it points to a still higher stages of
perception resulting in the experience of the exact reflection of Brahman.
When the
elements, Indriyas, Manas and Buddhi belonging to man are converted into
‘Tatwams’ they are said to originate from the three divisions of Aham Tatwam.
This means that the
unphilosophical ‘I’ or ‘Thou’ as a selfish human being are transformed into
those of a purified Atma possessing only the Tatwams.
Whenever this
purified Jiva turns it perceives but Tatwams or the essence of Brahman.
The reflection
of Brahman is then experienced and the Aham or THWAM becomes ‘THAT’ from which
we get “that are though” THATHWAMASI.
AHAMKARA – THATHWAM is pitiably
misunderstood and misinterpreted by all
the Western scholars up to date and many of the Indian scholars and pundits as
referring to the foolish unphilosophical egoism of the mere worldly man. The ego (aham) is acceptable, but egoism is not acceptable. Ego is not egoism.
Tatwam means
that-ness or the nature of Brahman, and the Ahamkara as a Tatwam refers
to the religious (
to be read as Dharmic) meditation ‘I am Brahman itself
and nothing else’.
The purpose of my writing this article is to eliminate the
confusion between Ego and Egoism- Ahamkara is not Egoism as widely
misinterpreted but Ego.
For Example if
people asks do you have an Ego? Yes I do have an Ego. Every one has an Ego
because Ego is “I”. Second example if a person says he is egoistic, has an
egoism then its false pride, self boasting etc etc….. it is because people use
both these terms loosely and it leads to confusion.
HariOM
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