ahamkAra, its origin and products

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Bhagavatam, Canto 3, Chapter 26, Verses 19-34.

Kapila Muni is instructing His mother, Devahuti,

in the science of Sankhya Yoga.

 

 

After the Supreme Personality of Godhead impregnates

material nature with His internal potency, material nature

delivers the sum total of the cosmic intelligence, which

is known as Hiranmaya. This takes place in material

nature when she is agitated by the destinations of the

conditioned souls.

 

Thus, after manifesting variegatedness, the effulgent

mahat-tattva, which contains all the universes within

itself, which is the root of all cosmic manifestations

and which is not destroyed at the time of annihilation,

swallows the darkness that covered the effulgence

at the time of dissolution.

 

The mode of goodness, which is the clear, sober

status of understanding the Personality of Godhead

and which is generally called vAsudeva, or

consciousness, becomes manifest in the mahat-tattva.

 

After the manifestation of the mahat-tattva, these

features appear simultaneously. As waster in its

natural state, before coming in contact with earth,

is clear, sweet and unruffled, so the characteristic

traits of pure consciousness are complete serinity,

clarity, and freedom from distraction.

 

The material ego springs up from the mahat-tattva,

which evolved from the Lord's onwn energy. The

material ego is endowed predominantly with active

power of three kinds -- good, passionate, and ignorant.

It is from these three types of material ego that the

mind, the senses of perception, the organs of action,

and the gross elements evolve.

 

The threefold shankara, the source of the gross

elements, the senses, and the mind, is identical

with them because it is their cause. It is known

by the name of Sankarshana, who is directly

Lord Ananta with a thousand heads.

 

This false ego is characterized as the doer, as

an instrument and as an effect. It is further

characterized as serene, active or dull according

to how it is influenced by the modes of goodness,

passion and ignorance.

 

From the false ego of goodness, another

transformation takes place. From this evolves

the mind, whose thoughts and reflections give rise

to desire.

 

The mind of the living entity is known by the name of

Lord Aniruddha, the supreme ruler of the senses. He

possesses a bluish-black form resembling a lotus

flower growing in the autumn. He is found slowly

by the yogis.

 

By transformation of the false ego in passion,

intelligence takes birth, O virtuous lady. The functions

of intelligence are to help in ascertaining the nature of

objects when they come into view and to help the senses.

 

Doubt, misapprehension, correct apprehension,

memory and sleep, as determined by their different

functions, are said to be the disctinct characteristics

of intelligence.

 

Egoism in the mode of passion produces two kinds

of senses -- the senses for acquiring knowledge

and the senses of action. The senses of action

depend on the vital energy, and the senses for

acquiring knowledge depend on the intelligence.

 

When egoism in ignorance is agitated by the

sex energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead,

the subtle element sound is manifested, and from

sound come the ethereal sky and the sense of hearing.

 

Persons who are learned and who have true knowledge

define sound as that which conveys the idea of an object,

incicates the presence of a speaker screened from view

and constitutes the subtle form of ether.

 

The activities and characteristics of the ethereal element

can be observed as accommodation for the room for the

external and internel existences of all living entities,

namely the field of activities of the vital air, the senses

and the mind.

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