Mamakāra
Mamakāra · mama-kāra, “the making of ‘mine'”
Grammar: masculine noun; a compound of mama (“mine”, “of me”) and kāra (making, the maker): “the making of ‘mine'”. It is the pair of ahaṅkāra, the making of “I”.
Meaning: the sense of “mine”; the notion “this is mine” laid on the body’s belongings, house, wealth, kin and kingdom, which binds the jīva in saṃsāra.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa teaches mamakāra in these places.
The knot of the heart. Ṛshabhadeva teaches his hundred sons at Brahmāvarta: “Man and woman join each other as a pair. The mahātmās say that this itself becomes a knot in their hearts. Because of it they hold the notion ‘this body is I’ in the body; and by this delusion they have mamakāra, the notion ‘this is mine’, in house, field, children, relatives and wealth.” The one who would be free should long to go beyond the “I” in the body and the “mine” in the house (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 5).
The jīva who thinks himself the doer. Nārada Maharshi, explaining the account of Purañjana to King Prācīnabarhis, says that the true nature of the jīva is the ātmā beyond the guṇas; but the jīva, with ahaṅkāra in the body and mamakāra in what belongs to the body, mistakes himself for the doer, does karmas for small desires and lives in the ajñāna that “the body is I”. As long as the liṅga deha of buddhi, manas, senses and their objects lasts, the notion “I” and “mine” does not leave a person (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 29).
The mind that feeds it. Jaḍabharata teaches King Rahūgaṇa that some count the “I” in the body (ahaṅkāra) and the “mine” (mamakāra) separately, and so speak of twelve vṛttis of the mind and twelve objects. “It is the mind that increases mamakāra in a man and creates an unbroken connection with grief, infatuation, anxiety, attachment, greed and enmity.” As long as the sādhaka does not inquire into the ātmā and know his own nature, he keeps wandering in saṃsāra (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 11).
The kings who said “mine”. Having told the lines of the kings, Śuka tells Parīkshit that they all made the earth their own and at the end of their bodies left it and went into the lap of death. The body of one who bears the name of king is called worms if buried, the droppings of birds if left out, and ash if burned; harming beings for the sake of such a body is the road to naraka. Foolish kings took the body of fire, water and earth as their self and the earth as “mine”, thinking it must pass to their son or grandson; at death they left both behind (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 2). In the Bhūmi-gīta, the song of the Earth, Pṛthivī says that quarrels arise even between father and son and between brothers whose hearts are bound by mamakāra for the kingdom. “They showed great mamakāra for me. But they too were of a nature to die,” and Kāla made of them ones of whom only the account remains. Śuka says he has told these accounts only to teach viveka and vairāgya (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 3).
Related terms: Ahaṅkāra · Abhimāna · Hṛdaya-granthi · Vairāgya · Viveka
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 29; Skandha 5, Chapters 5, 11; Skandha 12, Chapters 2–3