Five Evils - Is Haumai (Ego) The Worst Evil ?

Is Haumai (Ego) The Worst Evil ?

Although it is permissible to identify haumai with ahankar, the fact that haumai is not included in the evil pentad and yet comes in for the strongest censure in the Scripture would lead to the conclusion that it is regarded as a major evil in addition to those forming the pentad. It may be added that haumai or egoity, self-centredness, the personality system, the belief in one's individual existence, is the basis of all the other evils. From this standpoint, ahankar may be reckoned as an offshoot of haumai. The assertion or affirmation of 'I' runs counter to the affirmation of 'Thou'; the consciousness of 'self existence' or 'one's own existence' (sva-bhava or atma-bhava) is diametrically opposed to the consciousness of God's existence. In a system in which the sole reality of God (ik onkar) is the first principle, there can be no room for the reality of an individual existence or one's own existence apart from, or along with, the existence of God. To say that God alone is the reality means that there is no other reality that belongs to someone else, and that there is no someone else who can claim an independent reality of his own. The truth is that there is no truth in haumai.

Nevertheless, this unreal reality, this false truth apparently exists. It is unreal and false from the standpoint of God who is the only absolute Reality; it is real and true from the standpoint of the fettered creatures coursing in sansar. These creatures have assumed a reality of their own; every fettered being is seemingly convinced of its own existence; this conviction flourishes in its ignorance of God's reality. There can be no such thing as co-existence of God and not-God; Reality and falsity cannot co-exist as cannot light and darkness. Therefore, where there is awareness of God's reality there is absence of one's own reality, and vice versa; where there is awareness of one's own existence or haumai, there is absence of the awareness of God's existence. The Scripture says: "Haumai jai ta kant samai — God is realized only when one eradicates egoity" (GG, 750); literally, "(one) merges into (one's) Lord only when (her/his) egoity has disappeared".

The five evils, lust, wrath, greed, attachment and egoity, flourish on the soil of the belief in one's individualized existence. By destroying the doctrine of one's own existence or the belief in one's individual reality, the sages (sant, sadh) cancel in one stroke, as it were, the entire catalogue of evils. Desire, anger, avarice, infatuation, egoism, passion, jealousy, hypocrisy, pride, deception, falsehood, violence, doubt, and nescience and other forms of depravity listed in the Guru Granth Sahib do not affect him who has overcome his own self and found his essence in God's reality. Liberation (mukti) means the extinction of all the evils headed by haumai.

The Sikh canon also points to the way of extinguishing evils of all kinds. It is acknowledged that the five evils afflict all beings in sansar and that it is difficult to control them. Yet the possibility of conquering them is not ruled out in the theological framework of Sikhism; the moral training of a Sikh is in fact directed towards controlling the senses and eradicating the evils. The seeker of liberation has first to liberate himself of the yoke of the pentad. No headway can be made towards God-realization without discarding the cardinal evils. Kabir says, "He alone cherishes the Lord's feet who is rid of desire, wrath, greed and attachment—kamu krodhu lobhu mohu bibarjit haripadu chinai soi (GG, 1123).