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Ahankar and the Dissolution Sought in Gurmukh

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Ahankar and the Dissolution Sought in Gurmukh

Sikh theology names the person who has substantially overcome ahankar and haumai a gurmukh, one oriented toward the Guru, contrasted directly with a manmukh, one oriented toward and governed by their own mind and ego, a pairing of terms that runs throughout the Guru Granth Sahib as its basic anthropology of spiritual progress, the entire path understood as a movement from the second condition toward the first rather than as the acquisition of isolated virtues one at a time.

W.H. McLeod's account of Sikh doctrine treats this gurmukh and manmukh distinction as more fundamental to Sikh ethical teaching than the five thieves considered individually, since overcoming ahankar specifically is presented as functionally equivalent to becoming gurmukh, the two descriptions of the same transformation viewed from its negative and positive sides respectively.

The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism notes that Sikh practice does not treat this dissolution of ego as requiring withdrawal from ordinary identity or social role, a Sikh serves as spouse, parent, worker and community member throughout, but as a reorientation of the sense of ownership and authorship a person attaches to their actions and achievements, crediting Waheguru rather than claiming credit as isolated personal accomplishment, the practical, lived form ahankar's dissolution is understood to take.

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