False Ego (or ahankâra): the mistaken notion that one is the absolute master, the supreme owner and rightful enjoyer of all worldly pleasures, as a consequence of which the soul identifies with the material body. - The 'knot' binding together soul and body, and everything connected thereto (appearance, nationality, race, family, religious denomination, joy and grief etc.). - Identifying with the body, holding the body for the true self. - A symptom of bewilderment. - A source of being bound to matter. - Seat of fear and neurosis, viz. to have an ineffective spirit (see further ahankâra).