Who am I?
What is one’s reality?
What is the Universal Truth, the Unchanging one?
Why does one keep focusing on sensual pleasures rather than finding the truth?
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचि, नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूय:|
अजो नित्य: शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो, न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे ||
More often when humans are exacerbated, flustered, anxious, with people, with situations, with circumstances, and especially, when unfavorable ones (scenario) appear, arise, or emerge on account of words, acts, or doings of near and dear ones, one asks!
One asks out of anger, one asks out of acrimony, one asks out of exasperation
Who am I?
Once the anger subsides, cajoling occurs, the pragmatic world overtakes the spiritual world, life moves on and question subtly vanishes.
The question fades out but remains unanswered.
Science knows about the physical body and the brain. But as per the Vedantic Philosophy, humans are much more than just body & brain.
This can be found in Taittiriya Upanishad, embedded in one of the four Vedas — the Yajurveda. Five layers on an individual human life.
a. Annamaya kosha (the food sheath) — The outermost kosha, refers to the physical body which needs food and nourishment to thrive and includes bones, tissues, muscles, organs, etc.
Anna means food. The layer of the body that is nourished or enriched by food. The physical body that can be seen, that can be felt, and that is made of Panchabhoota (earth, water, fire, air, and space).
b. Pranamaya kosha (the energy sheath)– This is the second layer of human life, that is composed of Prana (life force energy) and is influenced by breathing.
This Prana or energy keeps the human going. Without Prana, life ceases to exist. It is the prana or life force energy that makes the blood flow and carries nerve impulses from the body to the brain and back.
c. Manomaya kosha — (the mental or psychological sheath) — The third layer is the one, that governs the perception of the world.
Mana means mind. This layer consists of emotions, mind, thoughts, and feelings.
d. Vijnanamaya kosha — (the subtle knowledge sheath) — Vijnana means subtle knowledge or wisdom.
This layer is the seat of intuition, connected to inner wisdom and deeper states of consciousness.
e. Anandamaya kosha (the bliss in perpetuity sheath) — Ananda means bliss in perpetuity. This layer is connected to the unconscious or superconscious mind, representing unity with universal consciousness. This state or layer is revealed to oneself in a state of deep sleep.
Are these five layers in human life, represent “I”. The answer is no.
“I” am aware of my physical body, my breathing, my mind, my intellect or wisdom, and a deep state of super consciousness.
But it’s not who I am. I am aware of it but not one or many or all of these.
Can it be proven further?
There are three states of consciousness one can be present in.
a. The Waking state (Jagrat Awastha) — In this state, one is aware of the outside world, the physical body, the emotions, the thoughts, and the mind.
b. The Dream State (Svapna Awastha) — In this state, the mind remains active with the latent impressions of the past life or near past, and where the mind creates a whole new world with the physical body not being aware of the same.
c. The Deep — Sleep State — (Sushupti Awastha) — There is no mind, no body, no memories, and one is ignorant of one’s existence.
One can decipher from the above that One is neither the body, as one’s body is absent in the Dream state, and one can’t be mind, as one’s mind is absent in a deep sleep state.
Then Who am I?
I am nothing but the Soul. The soul, that is beyond the limitations of the body, limitations of the mind, limitations of intellect as well as beyond life and death, beyond time, beyond space.
As stated at the start of the note, taken from Chapter 2, Verse 20 of Shreemad Bhagwad Gita –
Na jāyate mriyate vā kadāchin, Nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
Ajo nityaḥ śhāśhvato ’yaṁ purāṇo, Na hanyate hanyamāne śharīre
Meaning: The soul is neither born nor does it ever die, nor having once existed, does it ever cease to be. The soul is without birth, eternal, immortal, and ageless. It is not destroyed when the body is destroyed.
If Soul always existed, what is the state of the Soul? Does it feel, happiness, sadness, anger, lust, etc.?
The Soul is always in a state of SAT — CHIT — ANANDA
Sat means the truth, the complete truth, the unchanging truth of the soul that exists in perpetuity.
Chit means awareness or consciousness or knowledge that one is not the layers or the koshas or the states but one is just the Drashta (the observer).
Both these truths and awareness of the truth lead to a state of Ananda (a bliss in perpetuity).
Atma or the soul means Apnoti Sarvam Iti Atma — the boundless all-pervading one.
As one realized that one is the Soul and one’s soul is part of all-pervading Param-Atma, (the Supreme almighty residing in every soul, present in every life form beyond human), one stops Kama (desire), Krodha (anger), Lobha (greed), Mada (arrogance), Moha (delusion, attachment), and Matsarya (jealousy) and pursues the path of Dharma.
Learnings from Tattva Bodha written by Adi Shankaracharya and Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta — the wisdom of words & conversations between Lord Shree Krishna and Arjuna.
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