Start with Ahankaar 

November 11, 2025

By K SIVA PRASAD

The Bhagavad Gita is a seven hundred verse conversation between Lord Krishna and the warrior Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

In the final moments before the war, Arjuna felt that the war would kill many of his friends and relatives. He concluded that this hasmany harmful and undesirable effects.

Arjuna’s dilemma emanated from his presumption that ‘I am doer’ (aham-karta).This is also known as ahankaar. While the reality is that we are a part of the same oneness, ahankaar keeps convincing us that we are separate from others. Though ego is usually taken as the meaning of ahankaar, but ego can be taken as one of the many manifestations of ahankaar.

The entire conversation is about ahankaar, be it directly or indirectly and Krishna gives various paths, milestones and yardsticks to get rid of it.

If we take the Kurukshetra war as a metaphor, all of us enter into situations similar to that of Arjuna in our daily lives. It may be in the family, workplace and in terms of health, wealth, relationships etc. As long as we live, such dilemmas persistuntilahankaar is understood.

The Gita is all about our being, not about our knowing or doing. No amount of theory can enable us ride a bicycle or swim. Similarly, no amount of philosophy can help us unless we experience life with awareness. The guiding principles of the Gita would help us reach the final destination of the eternal state of our inner selfwhich is free of ahankaar.

From the surface, it appears that times have changed since the Gita was given to Arjuna by Lord Krishna. Certainly, there is a lot of change brought about by developments in science in the past couple of centuries. But in reality, from an evolutionary standpoint, humans didn’t evolve any further. The internal side of the dilemma remains the same. In essence, the external appearances might look different but the inner foundation is the same oneness.

(The writer K. SIVA PRASAD is a senior IAS officer in the Punjab Government.)