Ahaṃkāra

Ahaṃkāra (devanāgarī: अहंकार) is a Sanskrit term derived from aham ("ego", "I") and kara ("maker", "doer", from the verbal root kri, "to do"). It is the sense of “I-am-ness” the individual ego, which feels itself to be a distinct, separate entity. It provides identity to our functioning, but ahamkāra also creates our feelings of separation, pain, and alienation as well. In its lower aspect, the egoistical and mayavi principle, born of avidya (ignorance), which produces the notion of the personal ego as being different from the universal self. ahańkāra is one of the four parts of the antahkarana ("inner conscience" or "the manifest mind") and the other three parts are buddhi (the intellect), chitta (the memory) and manas (the mind).