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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 pass away, 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. Its 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 its 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 comes 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 are 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, made of knowledge, indestructible, unchangeable. Soul is full of knowledge and immortal. But, the body takes birth, grows, gives by-products, lives for sometime, 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 was soul 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.
CAITANYA CARITAMRTA-
“jivera swarupa hoya krsnera nitya dasa “
The real nature of all souls is 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 may vary. But the nature of servitude will not change. Therefore to realize that we are servants of Krsna is the 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 od 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.