Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c16.153

c16.153

This self-appropriation (*abhimāna*) is the function of *Ahaṁkāra*. Vāchaspatimiśra illustrates it as follows, putting the following words into the mouth of *Ahaṁkāra*: "It is I alone who presides over the object that is intuited by the sense-organ and is then definitely perceived by the mind. I wield power over all that is perceived and known, and all objects thus perceived are for my use. There is no other superior except '*I*'. *I am*."