Plan 55. Selfishness (ahamkara)
Aham means "I" or "I am seven". Kara is "form". When the "I" takes form, it becomes ahamkara. If the center of activity in the player's personality becomes his "I", then his ahamkara becomes trapped by maya in the concepts of "me" and "mine". When ahamkara, which is really the highest aspect of reality, forgets about the need to identify with the whole and becomes a separate part, it; turns into selfishness.
When all the attention of the player is directed solely to the satisfaction of his desires, he becomes focused only on himself. The choice of means loses its significance. All means are good, whether honest or dishonest, that bring him closer to the goal. As long as he is filled with humility, delicacy, respect and love for other people, the choice of means will matter to him. He knows that his desires are not important enough to justify hurting another. But when the desire seizes the player's psyche to such an extent that he can no longer identify himself with love, humility, patience, respect and attentiveness, the player becomes an agnostic. He loses sight of all values, carried away by what is happening here and now, and is involved in activities aimed at asserting his individuality in the game.
Merging with the Cosmic Consciousness looks like the death of the ego. Old structures, ideas and ideas must disappear if the player is to achieve liberation.
But ahamkara does not want to die. The ego clings tightly to old self-identifications. And this resistance increases the more the closer the player comes to the Cosmic Consciousness.
The sages of the Hindu tradition believe that sound is the source of all creation. Sound is the most subtle of the gross forms in which energy existed prior to creation. There are 52 forms in which sound energy resides in a manifested form (akara), and as the human body develops, these sounds are localized in the endings of the subtle nerves of the psychic energy centers (chakras). The original sound is the simplest, a. The last sound is ha. Thus, all being flows from a to ha. The state of identification that connects a with ha is ahamkara, the sense of separateness of one's existence.
Yogis distinguish 4 main aspects or categories in the human mind: manas (mind), buddhi (intellect), chitta (being) and ahamkara (ego). All that is received as a result of sense perception is the mind. The understanding of sensory experience, its analysis and evaluation is buddhi. The emotional experience of sense perception is registered in the chitta. The aspect that thinks that it is he who perceives and enjoys the sense experience as a separate person is the ego or ahamkara. When the ego becomes "the one", everything else becomes a means for the player to satisfy himself. Thus, if ahamkara is not connected with the Cosmic Consciousness, it turns into egoism.
The ego is a direct consequence of the sense of self, the chitta. In order to take part in the game, this sense of self identifies itself with the object on the playing board, which moves from cell to cell, either going up the arrows, or falling down the snakes. When a player fully identifies himself with this chip, he becomes delighted when the arrow lifts him higher, and despondent when, stung by a snake, he falls down. He became a victim of selfishness. He became too attached to the goal of the game and forgot his divine nature.
Ahamkara does not exist until the fifth chakra, as up to that point the player is still in the process of being born. The fifth chakra is the birth plane of a person where ahamkara comes on the scene. The ego passes through the fields of ignorance and right knowledge and learns to hear the voice of its consciousness when the player enters the sixth chakra. However, it is only in the seventh chakra that he really achieves identity with himself and begins to stabilize around the inner center. In the process of his development, the player must discover that he does not exist as a separate reality, he is a manifestation of energy and must merge with his source at some stage of his development. Here the ego comes face to face with the danger of death and can turn into selfishness.
The seventh chakra is the highest plane in the player's microcosm. Here he reaches a peak and gets everything he aspired to. Now that he has reached the top, there are only two possible paths: to rise above and, having reunited with pure vibrations, leave all forms, or fall back down. If ahamkara conquers the stream of sudharma, anger is the inevitable result. This brings the player's energy back down to the first chakra, where they must again begin their ascent to the top.
Ego becomes egotism if the player is too self-centered. In Indian mythology (Puranas) there are many examples of such selfishness, which has always been achieved after severe asceticism and austerities. After the applicant sought the reward of power or power, but became a victim of selfishness, he proclaimed himself God. Because of this false identification, he always fell down to the first chakra with its inherent anger, greed, delusion, vanity and greed. The whole planet was in disarray. In one of these cases, the Earth, taking the form of a cow, appeared before Vishnu and asked him to free her from the burden of selfishness. At that moment, as described in the epic, Vishnu, the great protector of life, took form and was born on Earth. In Leela, God comes out to kill the dragon of selfishness in the player, for selfishness is contrary to the conservation principle. Ahamkara is the food of Vishnu, and the Cosmic Consciousness is his dwelling place.