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Dadashri: The extended form of ego ahamkar is called pride maan and if it is associated with 'myness' mamata, then it is called abhimaan. When there is even the slightest of mamata, one will say things like, 'this is my car'. Why does he show people his car? It is because of his abhimaan. If he has good-looking children, he will say, 'Wait I will show you my four children.' that is mamata and abhimaan. So where there is abhimaan he will keep showing you these kinds of things. And pride maan is an extended form of the ego.
Questioner: Is abhimaan born out of maan?
Dadashri: No. When is abhimaan born? It is born when 'myness' mamata is present.
Ego ahamkar is a different state and abhimaan is a different state. People have no awareness of this whatsoever and yet they go around using inappropriate words; they say whatever comes to their mind. They will say, 'He is an abhimaani man, he is ahamkari man.' Every human being is ahamkari I am Chandulal, I am the doer.' There is not a single person who is not. Only a Gnani and his followers are not ahamkari; everyone else is.
What is ego? It is to claim to be something one are not. One does not know who one really is and claims to be what one is not. That is ego. So to whom does this statement apply? It applies to everyone; everyone is considered ahamkari. Ego implies independence. It does not depend on any other thing. What is his belief? He believes to be what he is not. The 'T',is not Chandulal but one believes 'I am Chandulal', and that is ego ahamkar! Therefore, if one is 'Shuddhatma', then there is no ego. There is ego in 'I am Chandulal'. Then, 'I am this lady's husband', is another ego. Then, 'I am this child's father', is a third ego. So how many different forms of ego are there? Then even if he does not have 'myness' of owning a home abhimaan people will still say that this is his ego.
It is not a fault or an error to have an ego. Ego is just to claim to be what one is not. That is the only error of the ego, nothing more.
Now what is maan pride? It is when one wears nice clothes but rolls up his sleeves so that people can see a three-thousand-rupee watch on his wrist. Then when some one asks, 'How are you sheth?' you can clearly see
