Who am I?
Everyone tell their name if asked who are they. If "I" was
the name then for any marriage or events I can send a note with my name on
it instead of going there, isn’t it? Therefore its clear that I am not a
name. My body responds to the calling of my name.After I go out of the
body, my body does not move, it cannot feel the sense of touch, it
does not respond if called. So, I am not this body.
As I am inside the
body of a human I call myself as a human. An animal calls itself an
animal. The difference between a human and animal is that a human body
grows upwards whereas the animal's body grows sideways. Even if I
present as human, devata or animal, I am not a body. Where was I
before birth?Me, my mother or father do not know. We were born from
mother's womb. We will disappear one day. After I leave this body, it is
not going to function anymore, even if it is called by name. Then who
made me function in this body?
In our practical life, we might have
seen this. Someone got a diseased body and was taken to the hospital.
But, he had passed away. When the person was being taken to the hospital,
the people say, "He was taken". But, after He has died and brought
back, they say,"the body was brought". From this point, we can see that
this body functions as long as "I" am present. When "I" am not present,
this is only dead corpse.
If I beat or burn my mother or father, I
would be punished or placed in jail. Whereas if I burn their bodies after
they passaway, I will be appreciated for doing my duty. The government
also sanctions this matter. But, if I burn them alive, I will end up in
jail.
I say like this: I am a baby when I am born and then I am a
child and then a young boy and then a youth and then an adult and then an
old man. Body changes, but I don’t change. I am that which does not
change.
We shall see this in another angle: I am a son to my
parents, I am a brother to brother, I am husband to my wife and a wife
to my husband, I am a parent to my child and I am a grandparent to my
grandchildren and so on..."I" am not anything mentioned here. These
relations are related to my body only. "I" refer to something different
than"mine". For instance, I received a flower garland;I will say it is my
garland. I only received the garland and it does not mean that the
garland and me are same.
Similarly I call mother, father, brother,
husband, wife, son, daughter as my relatives and not that "I" am the
relative. It is clear that I am not different to this. Also I tell it’s
my eye,ears, nose, hands, leg and body and I do not tell that "I" am
eyes or ears and so on.. All these are mine but I am not them.
No
one says, I am a head or I am a mouth or body. We only say it is my head
and my nose and my mouth. We say, 'My head is paining', but we don't
say 'I am headache'.
Next, I am not mind or intelligence. If mind
and intelligence come from the brain, then after my passing away from
this body, why does the brain no respond to a call or hit? Therefore I
am not mind also. Brain does not have intelligence or knowledge. Only
when I am present in the body, it appears that the brain is intelligent.
From childhood, we go to school to get worldly knowledge. But in
schools or colleges, we are not getting to know 'who we are'. It appears
none has got complete knowledge even through education from childhood.
The above-mentioned points have not yet told who are we or what
we' re supposed to do. I am this body, I am a language, a relative in my
family, a person of this caste or a citizen of this country is all the
designations given by the worldly people. The body really is used to get
happiness. When I am not present in it, it does not experience
happiness or distress.
To know the real knowledge of myself, the 4
Vedas, 2 itihasas, 108 Upanishads, 18 puranas are the literatures
available. In that, the most holy Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam are
available in a detailed way to understand clearly. If we follow the
instructions given in these scriptures, we can get the topmost bliss.
Brief explanation on"Who am I":
Who am I, means a soul inside this body.
I am a soul, no one is learning or discussing who they are. Even after
many days of training, it is difficult to understand that we are souls.
But if we associate with pure devotees, we will soon realize that we are
individual spirit souls.
What is the soul? The living entity (soul) is above this material world, eternal, full of knowledge,in destructible,
unchangeable. Soul is full of knowledge and immortal. But, the body
takes birth, grows, gives by-products, lives for some time, dwindles and
dies. Therefore it undergoes six changes and hence it is dull
matter,without any knowledge and destructible.
The spirit soul
cannot be drowned in water, burned by fire, withered by wind or
destroyed by any kind of weapon. Many people may ask how the soul was
made. The soul cannot be realised by the material senses. Vedas proclaim
that the soul is atomic.That is the size of the soul is 1/10,000 part of
the tip of the hair. The nature of all souls and potencies are all same.
They depend on others for living. All souls are servants of God.
Vedas state:- “ Atma dasyam hare swamyam”
ALL SOULS ARE SERVANTS, HARI IS THE MASTER (supreme ).
CAITANYA CARITAMRTA-
“jivera swarupa hoya krsnera nitya dasa “
The real nature of all soulsis to be a servant of Krsna.
One in knowledge is called a jnani. And those who understand the truth that they are Krsna's servants are the jnanis.
Is it better to be a jnani (knowledgeable person) or a servant? The
knowledge for each individual living entity mayvary. But the nature
ofservitude will not change. Therefore to realize that we are servants
of Krsna isthe best and topmost realization.
Because of all false
ego, the soul is trapped in this prison like material world. Durga is in
charge of this prison (material world). In Sanskrit, Durga means
difficulty. The prime duty of Siva and Durga is to imprison the souls in
this material world who were envious of Krsna and wanted to live
whimsically.
Only after understanding his relation with Krsna
and knowing that he is the servant of Krsna, a soul becomes eligible to
enter spiritual worlds like VAIKUNTHA or GOLOKA VRINDAVANA. After
attaining that there is no possibility of returning to this material
world.Some examples are given to prove God is not formless in the
Judaist scriptures, Bible, Quran etc.. For example, Supreme Father in
the Spiritual World is called Jehovah in the Bibleand there are
similarities between Jehovah and Lord Vishnu. His form is described as
follows: He rides in a bird(Garuda), uses fire to destroy
evil(Sudarsanchakra), has a
stick and strong thick conch(club and flute), also wears a splendid
crown that represents incomprehensible reality. He appears like a
blazing fire and His voice will sound like thunder. It is said that the
Lord showedMoses his backsideand not his front side.
God definitely
has a form which is not material, but fully spiritual. To see God in
material vision, deity worship was established. This material world was
created by God when we, the souls wanted to live whimsically out of
false ego. Brahma Vaivarta purana and Padma purana describe these 14
planetary systems and 84 lakh species of life to be the God's creation
and as a material prison. There are 9 lakh species of livingentities in
water, 20 lakh species of flora, 11 lakh species of insects, 10 lakh
species of birds, 30 lakh species of animals and 4 lakh species of human
beings. Here, people who are fond of consuming meat are born as lions,
tigers; people who like to be naked are born as trees and people who are
lusty are born as dogs andhogs.
We get a birth in the 14 planetary
systems according to our pious and sinful activities. For our pious
activities, we geta birth in bhur, bhuva, svarga, mahar, Jana, Tapa and
Satya lokas or planets. And for sinful activities, we get birth in
atala, vitala, sutala, mahatala, rasatala, tasatalaand patala lokas
which are7 hellish planets. Above allthese 14 planetary systems is
Kailash, the abode of Shiva. And above all theseare the eternal,
blissful spiritual worlds. These spiritual worlds have innumerable forms
of Vishnu and therefore thereare innumerable vaikuntha planets here.
But, above all these is the Supreme Abode of Lord Krsna called Goloka
Vrindavana. By attaining these spiritualplanets, one does not need to
take birth again inthese miserable material worlds.
Satya yuga
extends for 1728000 years, treta yugalasts for 1296000 years, dwapara
yuga contains 864000 years andkali yuga has 432000 years. Totaling these
four yugas, there is 43,20,000 years. By multiplying theseyearsby 1000,
we get oneday of Brahma. The same duration is his night time. In this
way, Brahma lives for 100 years. From Brahma's point of view, we take
birth and die in a second as for us a bacteriaappears momentarily, grows
up, produces by-products, dwindles anddies. This is same for all living
beings.
In Kali Yuga, people are searching for happiness and peace
but without knowing the right path. Without controlling the mind and
senses there is no peace or happiness. To keep these under control, we
must chant the holy names of Krsna. If we follow Bhagavad Gita and
srimad Bhagavatam, then there is no need for separate endeavour to
escape from the dangers of kali yuga.
Especially, in kali yuga,
theMaha Mantra recommended is
"HARE KRSNA HARE KRSNA
KRSNA KRSNA HARE
HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE".
Chant this mantra 108
times daily.
The more we chant this mantra 108 times, the more peace and blissful we will feel.
The above given essay may contradict our personal thoughts and ideas
because we may have read many books other than bonafide scriptures and
that is the major cause of confusion and nothing else.
Hence,
by studying only the scriptures written by Srila Veda Vyasa we will soon
realize that we are Lord Krsna's eternal servants in the Sanatana
dharma.Sri Krsna says:''The renunciation
of work and work in devotion are both good for liberation. But, of the
two, work in devotional service is better than renunciation of work''-
Bhagavad Gita
