Asmita (Yoga)

Here consciousness is identified with the vehicle through which consciousness is expressed. If pure consciousness is [asmi]

, pure awareness and self-existence, "I am", then in asmita pure consciousness gets involved in matter. The power of maya or illusion is such that the real nature of consciousness is lost, the "I am" becomes "I am this", where "this" may be the subtlest or the grossest vehicle of consciousness, even the physical body. The loss of awareness of the real nature of consciousness and identifying it with the vehicle of consciousness occur simultaneously. Thus asmita and [avidya]

(ignorance) work together. In the descent into ignorance, there is a progressive evolution as the thinnest veil of avidya and weak asmita gradually become thicker and stronger, and identification with the vehicle is stronger and grosser. The reverse path, on the way to transcendence, is marked by a progressive weakening of asmita as it becomes more subtle and the veil of avidya becomes thinner. The path is also progressively harder. Intellectually, one can see that one is not the body; it is less easy to see the mind as thought patterns the same as any other mind and that this is not "I". One's opinion is very important to one because one identifies with it. When the jivatma can leave a vehicle because he wills to do so, that experience strengthens the knowledge that "I am" not that vehicle even when he returns to it. One after another the vehicles of consciousness are left behind by the yogi, asmita is progressively destroyed and the veil of ignorance becomes progressively thinner.

One of the five afflictions or causes of misery in yoga.