Who am I ?

June 15, 2008

Namaste, The Vedic philosophy and culture offer many avenues for understanding ourselves and life, as well as for attaining our highest potential. Yet, one ofthe most important and unique aspects is the spiritual knowledge it provides. This is one of the most profound characteristics of the Vedic tradition.So let us not forget this portion of the Vedic knowledge and remember our real spiritual identity. Here is a short summary of this rare knowledge. Hari Om and Hari bol, Stephen Knapp

The Vedic Description of the Soul

By Stephen Knapp

Who am I? What am I? Am I the body, mind or something more? These are the age old questions that every philosopher throughout the ages has triedto grasp and understand. After all, how will you know what to do in life if you do not even know who or what you are? However, the ancient Vedic literatureof India has provided the clearest answers that have been found anywhere to answer these questions.

For example, the Mundaka Upanishad (3.1.9) explains that the living being is the soul, and that: “The soul is atomic in size and can be perceivedby perfect intelligence. This atomic soul is situated within the heart, and spreads its influence all over the body of the embodied living entities. Whenthe soul is purified from the contamination of the five kinds of material air, its spiritual influence is exhibited.”

The Chandogya Upanishad (6.11.3) also states that although the body withers and dies when the self or soul leaves it, the living self does notdie. Further enlightenment is given in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (7.2.22) wherein it explains that the spirit soul has no death and is eternal and inexhaustible.He is completely different from the material body, but because of being misled by misuse of his slight independence, he is obliged to accept subtle andgross bodies created by the material energy and thus be subjected to so-called material happiness and distress.

The eternal nature of the self is also explained in Bhagavad-gita by Lord Sri Krishna where He specifically says that there was never a timewhen He did not exist, nor any of the living beings, including you. Nor shall any of us cease to be in the future. The embodied soul continually passesfrom boyhood to youth to old age in this body. Similarly the soul enters another body at the time of death. But for one who is self-realized, there isno bewilderment through such a change.

It is further explained that we should know that which pervades the entire body by consciousness is indestructible. No one is able to destroythe imperishable soul. Only the material body of the eternal living entity is subject to destruction. . . For the soul there is never birth nor death.Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, undying and eternal. He is not slain when the body dies or is killed. . . As a person putson new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.

Certainly this knowledge can relieve anyone from the anxiety that comes from thinking our existence is finished at death. Spiritually, we donot die; yet, the body is used until it is no longer fit to continue. At that time, it may appear that we die, but that is not the case. The soul continueson its journey to another body according to its destiny.

The indestructibility of the soul is also explained. The individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried.The soul is everlasting, unchangeable, and eternally the same. Knowing this, we should not grieve for the temporary body.

So, the body dwindles and dies but the soul does not die: it simply changes bodies. Therefore, the body is like a shirt or coat that we wearfor some time, and when it is worn out, we change it for a new one. Therefore, the Vedic literature, such as the Chandogya Upanishad (8.1.1), mentionsthat knowledge of the self within is what should be sought and understood by all. Realizing one’s spiritual identity solves the problems and mysteriesof life.

The more we realize our spiritual identity, the more we will see that we are beyond these temporary material bodies, and that our identity isnot simply being a white body, or black, or yellow, or fat, skinny, intelligent, dumb, old, young, strong, weak, blind, etc. Real blindness means not beingable to see through the temporary and superficial bodily conditions and into the real person within. Seeing reality means to recognize the spiritual natureof everyone.

The Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.28.35) explains that the soul is self-luminous, beyond birth and death, and unlimited by time or space and, therefore, beyondall change. The Bhagavatam (11.22.50) also points out that as one witnesses the birth and death of a tree and is separate from it, similarly the witnessof the birth, death, and various activities of the body is within but separate from it.

The size of the soul is also described in the Svetasvatara Upanishad (5.9): “When the upper point of a hair is divided into one hundred partsand again each of such parts is further divided into one hundred parts, each such part is the measurement of the dimension of the spirit soul.” So consideringthat the diameter of a typical hair is about three-thousandths of an inch wide, then to divide that into one hundreds parts, and then divide one of thoseparts again into one hundred parts means that it would be microscopic. And since it is spiritual and not made of material substance, to perceive the presenceof the soul is not so easy. It is invisible to our material vision.

The Katha Upanishad relates that within the body, higher than the senses and the sense objects, exists the mind. More subtle than the mind isthe intelligence, and higher and more subtle than the intellect is the self. That self is hidden in all beings and does not shine forth, but is seen bysubtle seers through their sharp intellect.

From this we can understand that within the gross physical body, composed of various material elements, such as earth, air, water, etc., thereis also the subtle body composed of the finer subtle elements of mind, intelligence and false ego. The psychic activities take place within the subtlebody. It is also within the subtle body wherein exist the memories of past lives, however deep they may be. Yet, the living being has his spiritual formthat is deeper than this subtlety, otherwise he could not have repeated births. A person actually sees his spiritual self as well as the presence of the Supreme Being when he perceives that both the gross and subtle bodies have nothing to do with the pure, spiritual self within. Therefore,it could be asked that since we are separate from the gross and subtle bodies, why do we so strongly identify with the material body? It is explained thatthough the material body is different from the soul, it is because of the ignorance due to material association that one falsely identifies oneself withthe high and low bodily conditions.

It is further elaborated that only because of the mind and ego that we experience material happiness and distress. Yet, in actuality, the spiritsoul is above such material existence and can never really be affected by material happiness and distress in any circumstance. A person who truly perceivesthis has nothing to fear from the material creation, or the appearance of births and deaths. Thus, he can attain real peace.

The Chandogya Upanishad (8.1.5-6) goes on to explain that the self is free from sin and old age, death and grief, hunger and thirst, lamentationand sadness, and all forms of bodily identification. It desires only what it ought to desire, and imagines nothing but what it ought to imagine. Thosewho depart from this life without having discovered the self and those true or spiritual desires have no freedom in all the worlds. But those who departfrom here after realizing one’s genuine spiritual identity and those spiritual inclinations have freedom in all the worlds.

So, to summarize, the soul is a particle of consciousness and bliss in its purified state of being. It is not material in any way. It is whatdeparts from the body at the time of death and, in the subtle body, carries its mental impressions, desires and tendencies, along with the karmic resultsof its activities from one body to another. To understand and perceive this self, which is our genuine spiritual identity, is the real goal of life. Sucha realization relieves one of further material existence. As it is explained, those who have purified their consciousness, becoming absorbed in spiritualknowledge and absolving any impurities in the mind, are liberated from karma that frees them from any future births. They are free from any more birthsin the material world and are delivered to the spiritual atmosphere. How to do this is the ultimate accomplishment of human existence.

[This topic is very deep and requires much more additional Vedic knowledge to understand the soul and our spiritual identity more completely.

Best Regards,K.s.Vishwanathan.Tel No: 022-28738192