‘WHO AM I’

My question to you - Do you exist? I’m sure, your answer would be, a big ‘Yes’, that ‘I do’. This is for the simple reason that, your existence is beyond all questions, beyond all disputes and beyond all doubts. Though, the existence of everything else, including that of the god and world, can be denied, can be debated, can be questioned or doubted but the fact, that you exist here, can never be denied. Now, this fundamental question, as ‘Who Am I’ is nothing but just a quest to find, the real ‘I’, meaning, finding that, which is the basis of your saying that ‘I do exist’. 

Now, if you just take and accept, what you see as ‘I’ i.e. your body as ‘I’, which is the case with most of us, because you can see the body, then you are deluding yourself. This illusion i.e. bhram is what is known as ego because, illusion is a belief, an assumption and a belief or an assumption, is of the mind and exits in the mind only. A belief or an assumption has no reality. Ego, thus, is an assumed identity, which exists only in your imagination and not in reality. Dictionary defines delusion as ‘a false belief or judgment about external reality, held despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary’. Thus, delusion or illusion is simply a false belief which, we also know as Maya i.e. something which appears to exist but in reality does not. Thus, taking body as ‘I’ is ego or a false belief because body though appears to be real but is not. Body is not the real ‘I’. Body is false ‘I’ and we create, this falsity, in our mind and this is how the ego or false identity, is born. 

Now, most of the human beings live under this false identity i.e. taking body as real ‘I’ and never try to find out that, which is the real ‘I’. Finding the real ‘I’ is knowing the truth or knowing that which IS, which we also know as the Self. Now, let me tell you that, the approach to finding the real ‘I’ is very simple, which is that you begin with what you know or what is in front of you, so as to reach to the unknown. This is for the simple reason, that you can’t know the real ‘I’ directly because you have no idea, no clue about that. So, something about which you have no idea, how can you find or where you will find that? 

Hence, the approach is to begin with, what you know. Now, you know this body which you falsely believe to be ‘I’ but we all know that, body is not the ‘I’. So, the approach to know the unknown is to be, always, in denial mode, which is that keep denying or rejecting this false ‘I’ which you have falsely believed or assumed to be true. Because this belief or assumption of ‘I’ is created in the mind and hence, your mind, fundamentally, represents the false ‘I’. So, all what you need to do, is to deny the mind, as and when, it arises within, because this mind or false ‘I’ is not the real ‘I’. 

Now, if you follow this approach i.e. you don’t recognize your mind but just keep on denying its existence, by distancing from it, then one day the mind will fall off or disappear completely. This constant denial of mind, will end your false identification with this body/mind and with that, the real Self or the real “I”, will come to the fore which so far, was hidden and covered by this false identity. After total disappearance of the mind, what remains is the real ‘I’ or the truth which we know, as awareness. Awareness is the real ‘I’ and basis of your existence or basis of your claim to your existence. 

Please remember that, this awareness is not there in your deep sleep and that’s why in deep sleep, you never know, if you exist or not. But in your waking, you have a bit of awareness and you thus, know that you exist. Now, experientially knowing and realizing this truth or fundamental reality, in your waking state, is knowing the ‘I’ or the Self, which is the basis and underlying of all, in this existence. Experientially knowing the true ‘I’ is what realizing the Self is, which we commonly know, as 'Self-realization', too. This approach i.e. beginning with the known to reach the unknown, is also known, as Knowledge (gyan) or meditation marga. This is lord Mahavira’s n Goutama the Buddha’s way. May, you know the knower – the one who knows all!