Guest guest Posted November 22, 2008 Report Share Posted November 22, 2008 Respected Sadhakas Many times one comes across the question - Who you are ? How does one reply to that? Regards Anindya Ray ----------------------------- NEW POSTING " I a " ever certain. " I am what " never certain. Respects. Naga Narayana. ------------------------- " Who you are " perhaps no body can answer.If you try to answer it it will subject to the logical fallacy of " Reductio ad absurdum " and the fallacy of " ad infinitum " It's is like this. if some body is explaining that " you " then who is it that is explaining the " you " .? Continuing, who is it that is explaining about that you it goes on and on ad infinitum, which is a logical fallacy. Unless that " you " explains who it is by itself. others trying to do so will be absurd and meaning less. We say " I am " which means " I " have a " body " Who is the I and who the body. Can the body say who is this I? or does the " I " say I am so and so. No I does not speak or talk. It does not act as a witness. It does not say anything about its nature. All the description that is being given is the figment of a heated brain concoting nice stories. Realised souls who become that " I " do not speak from that exaulted state as there is no media to talk. It is body less. Therefore it simply exists as awareness, formless. Gurus tell you , " you must control the mind. Who is this " You " which can control the mind? If it can do so why does it allow the mind to go astray. It should check the mind intially itself. Therefore, it is clear there is no " You " which can control the mind and bridle it. The whole thing is mere existence. Just " be " and one day that undescribable state of Existence may over take " this body " . There will then be mere existence, pehaps, because no body with the body has gone into that stage to explain how it is or what it is.vIf some body tries to expalin that state, it is mere hallucination, because the indiviual does not exist there. Thanks, Homma. Ramchander Homma -------------------------------- Sri Hari The short answer is that you are awareness, in which the flow of experiences takes place. Saying that, this is your essential nature while your apparent nature is the person you appear to be. The best place to find the answer to this in the simplest form in today's day and age is from a book by Timothy Freke called Lucid Living. Time permitting, I will summarise the ideas in a few days but it makes Upanishads have so much meaning. Tim is a profound mystic philosopher of today and he's hit the nail on the head in today's age like no one else makeing Vedanta so much more accessible Om Guru Sri Chandraya namah Rishi Handa ----------------------------- i am occupant of this space...kshetram iti obhidiyote..this scene is known as this person.. Barin Chatterjee ----------------------------- Hari Om Beautiful question indeed. Brief questions have their own beauty, besides. It deserves first equally brief answer. " Who are you " is the question. .. Presuming your actual being - you are fragment of God and God only and of nothing else. You are God only. All the qualities of God are present in you- AS IT IS . Presuming you to be Jeeva- " You are that which you accept/assume yourself to be " .. To accept/to reject , in other words to associate/to disassociate, in still other words to connect/to disconnect, in still other words to assume/to negate - are the only powers which you in fact as an individual soul possess. This is the liberty ever available to you. It never ceases to exist in you. It is eternally available to you.. Rest all like doing/knowing/getting/giving etc are the powers which come to you after you exercise connection with inert/body/world. Hence if when you accept something, your role is exercised. After that nature/modes of nature/ svabhav/ prakriti takes over. In fact you became Jeeva only after accepting connection and association (affinity) with prakriti/ nature/body/inert/world . Therefore you can regain your actual being of Purusha only after rejecting your connection and association (affinity) with prakriti/body etc. As a Jeeva if you accept yourself to be happy , you are happy. If you accept yourself of the world or being the worldly you are so. Rich/poor/good/bad/godly/worldly/ father/mother/ student/sadhak/happy/sad all are based on your acceptance only. Jai Shree Krishna Vyas N B ------------------------------ GITA TALK GROUP GUIDELINES: 1. Purpose of the group is to help Sadhakas clarify their doubts related to Gitaji shalokas. Therefore, responses which further clarify the understanding of Gitaji, will only be posted. 2. Wherever possible, please quote Gitaji or other scriptures to substantiate your response. 3. Kindly limit personal feelings, opinions, beliefs etc. to the extent that they further help in understanding the Gita shlokas 4. Please be as concise and to the point as possible, respecting sadhaka's time. 5. Kindly focus your writing to the subject at hand only. 6. Please do not include links to the other sites or other organizations. 7. Kindly do not include your personal information such as phone number, address etc. 8. Please do not address the response to a particular individual since the message is going to the entire group. 9. Due to the large readership, all responses may not be posted. 10. Moderator at his discretion, may modify the posting, if content is unclear or not appropriate for distribution to the group. 11. Please respond taking into consideration the novices, youth, westerners, non-sectarian audience. Kindly limit the use to Sanskrit words only, rather provide the English word with Sanskrit bracketed wherever possible. MODERATOR Ram Ram ------------------------ Post message: Subscribe: - Un: - ------------------------ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 23, 2008 Report Share Posted November 23, 2008 Respected Sadhakas Many times one comes across the question - Who you are ? How does one reply to that? Regards Anindya Ray ----------------------------- NEW POSTING -Shree Hari- To answer the question: Who you are ? Maybe one should consider, what one is not. And with the heart of a true Seeker, and with Divine Grace that is there for all who love Bhagwan. Then one can experience illusion after illusion, being 'Reduced to Dust'. And even if one feels apprehension at such ego destruction, like falling into a dark unknown place, one should realize one is seeing the negative image through the eyes of the ego, in reality it is divine light one is seeing. Who you are ? I could honestly say, " Not what I thought I was " . B.G. 10:11 Out of compassion for them, I, Abiding in their hearts, destroy The darkness born of ignorance By the shining lamp of knowledge. With Respect and Divine Love, Mike Keenor ------------------------------ Shree Hari Ram Ram Dear Anindyaji, thanks for a very important question! So many good responses already been posted. In Valmiki Ramayana there is an incident, Lord Rama asks Hanumanji, Who are you? What is your relationship with Me? " Deha-bhudya tu daso-asmi jiva-budhya tva' amshka: Atma-bhudhya tvam-aham iti me nischita mati " From the stand point of the physical body I am your servant. From the stand point of Jiva (subbtle body) I am your part (ref: Gitaji 15-7) From the stand point of the Self I am You. This is my firm conviction. In Ram-Charit-Manas also, Goswami Tulsidasji (Uttara Kandha 116-1, 2) says - " Isvara amsa jiva abinashi, cetana amala sahaja sukha rashi so mayabasa bhayau gosai, badhyo kira markata ki nai Jara cetanahi gramthi pari gai jadapi mrisha chutata kathinai " The jiva (soul in the body) is a ray of Divine consciousness, immortal, pure conscious, untainted by Maya and blissful by nature. Such a soul, my Lord, has alloewd itself to be dominated (bound) by Maya and has been caught in its own trap like a parrot or a monkey*. Matter (body) Spirit (amsha) have been linked together with a knot which, though imaginary is difficult to untie. Since then the soul has taken to be worldly; it can have no happiness till the knot is untied. In next few chaupaies, Tulsidasji explains how to untie this knot. * The illusion is to two popular modes of catching parrots and monkeys. A stick with a bait at the end and a string attached to it is so set in the ground that it revolves from the weight of the parrot when it lights upon it; and the bird, confused by the motion, fancies that it is entangled in the string, though it is really loose and might fly away if it tried. For the monkey, a large jar with a narrow neck is set up on the ground full of grains. The monkey puts his both hands in the jar and clutches handful grains; he is unable to get his hands out of the jar because of narrow neck with both fists holding tight (full of grains), the monkey fancies himself caught by some ghost, though if he releases grains, he could get his hands out easily. Humble regards, Madan Kaura ------------------------------- Shree Hari Ram Ram IN ENGLISH You have asked " Who are You? " , the answer to that is " I am that same one, to whom you are asking " in other words, that which you understand to be me, that I am. So be it ! Vineet Sarvottam IN HINDI Aapne puchaa hai " Tum kaun ho? " Iskaa utter hai " Wahin hu jisse aapne puchaa hai " Arthaarth, jo aap mujhe hona samajh rahe hai, wahin mein hu. Astu, Vineet Sarvottam ---------------------------- Dear Sadhakas, Namaste! The answer to the question " who you are? " can be answered in the context of social interactions as I am so and so, son of... brother/sister of .... or friend of so and so etc etc. In other words, it is always relative to some thing or someone, where " I " is taken to mean the body-mind organism I call " I " . Thus It cannot stand on its own legs absolutely. That means someone or something must be true, then only I can be true. So it is clear that such worldly answers are relative and not Truth/Reality of " myself " . Second point is that whatever I perceive with senses and conceive with mind/memory/intellect etc I cannot be that. I am subject of those objects, Now all of the above answers regarding myself are perceived / conceived only so I cannot be any of those. At this stage, one has to be convinced beyond any shadow of doubt that whatever I may be but it is definitely not anything known/defined/thought of etc.. If one continues in the pursuit, then mind automatically opens up and becomes silent in surrender to receive the answer in terms of deep intuition(Direct perception, aparoksha anubhuti). This is because mind is satisfied that nothing it knows will help. One starts to act from this perspective as a result, " I am not this body, mind, nor am I " this " or " that " or so and so. It is not necessary to answer who am I, but If one has to answer then it is " i am just I am, the absolute Being-Existence-ISNESS(sat) that is at the same time Consciousness(chit). " Sat is chit and chit is sat has to be understood and is experiential even as we read these words! The real answer is only through the actions in life bringing peace, harmony, love and beauty. Namaskaras......Pratap Bhatt --------------------------- Dear sadaks, This question " Who are you?' many saint asked to their Guru, " Who am I? " The knowledge to know who are you-- Guru gives. You are surching for something divine, so the question comes. If someone asks this question, " Who are you? " answer them I am searching for the answer. The questioner will become silent. One who comes to know who he is, he becomes silent and not recogonisable to society until his death. After such person death, temple come up, ashrama come up. This we have seen in so many cases of realized souls. Besides these realized souls were treated harshly when they lived. Jai Sri Krishna baiya sathyanarayan ---------------------------- PRIOR POSTING " I a " ever certain. " I am what " never certain. Respects. Naga Narayana. ------------------------- " Who you are " perhaps no body can answer.If you try to answer it it will subject to the logical fallacy of " Reductio ad absurdum " and the fallacy of " ad infinitum " It's is like this. if some body is explaining that " you " then who is it that is explaining the " you " .? Continuing, who is it that is explaining about that you it goes on and on ad infinitum, which is a logical fallacy. Unless that " you " explains who it is by itself. others trying to do so will be absurd and meaning less. We say " I am " which means " I " have a " body " Who is the I and who the body. Can the body say who is this I? or does the " I " say I am so and so. No I does not speak or talk. It does not act as a witness. It does not say anything about its nature. All the description that is being given is the figment of a heated brain concoting nice stories. Realised souls who become that " I " do not speak from that exaulted state as there is no media to talk. It is body less. Therefore it simply exists as awareness, formless. Gurus tell you , " you must control the mind. Who is this " You " which can control the mind? If it can do so why does it allow the mind to go astray. It should check the mind intially itself. Therefore, it is clear there is no " You " which can control the mind and bridle it. The whole thing is mere existence. Just " be " and one day that undescribable state of Existence may over take " this body " . There will then be mere existence, pehaps, because no body with the body has gone into that stage to explain how it is or what it is.vIf some body tries to expalin that state, it is mere hallucination, because the indiviual does not exist there. Thanks, Homma. Ramchander Homma -------------------------------- Sri Hari The short answer is that you are awareness, in which the flow of experiences takes place. Saying that, this is your essential nature while your apparent nature is the person you appear to be. The best place to find the answer to this in the simplest form in today's day and age is from a book by Timothy Freke called Lucid Living. Time permitting, I will summarise the ideas in a few days but it makes Upanishads have so much meaning. Tim is a profound mystic philosopher of today and he's hit the nail on the head in today's age like no one else makeing Vedanta so much more accessible Om Guru Sri Chandraya namah Rishi Handa ----------------------------- i am occupant of this space...kshetram iti obhidiyote..this scene is known as this person.. Barin Chatterjee ----------------------------- Hari Om Beautiful question indeed. Brief questions have their own beauty, besides. It deserves first equally brief answer. " Who are you " is the question. .. Presuming your actual being - you are fragment of God and God only and of nothing else. You are God only. All the qualities of God are present in you- AS IT IS . Presuming you to be Jeeva- " You are that which you accept/assume yourself to be " .. To accept/to reject , in other words to associate/to disassociate, in still other words to connect/to disconnect, in still other words to assume/to negate - are the only powers which you in fact as an individual soul possess. This is the liberty ever available to you. It never ceases to exist in you. It is eternally available to you.. Rest all like doing/knowing/getting/giving etc are the powers which come to you after you exercise connection with inert/body/world. Hence if when you accept something, your role is exercised. After that nature/modes of nature/ svabhav/ prakriti takes over. In fact you became Jeeva only after accepting connection and association (affinity) with prakriti/ nature/body/inert/world . Therefore you can regain your actual being of Purusha only after rejecting your connection and association (affinity) with prakriti/body etc. As a Jeeva if you accept yourself to be happy , you are happy. If you accept yourself of the world or being the worldly you are so. Rich/poor/good/bad/godly/worldly/ father/mother/ student/sadhak/happy/sad all are based on your acceptance only. Jai Shree Krishna Vyas N B ------------------------------ GITA TALK GROUP GUIDELINES: 1. Purpose of the group is to help Sadhakas clarify their doubts related to Gitaji shalokas. Therefore, responses which further clarify the understanding of Gitaji, will only be posted. 2. Wherever possible, please quote Gitaji or other scriptures to substantiate your response. 3. Kindly limit personal feelings, opinions, beliefs etc. to the extent that they further help in understanding the Gita shlokas 4. Please be as concise and to the point as possible, respecting sadhaka's time. 5. Kindly focus your writing to the subject at hand only. 6. Please do not include links to the other sites or other organizations. 7. Kindly do not include your personal information such as phone number, address etc. 8. Please do not address the response to a particular individual since the message is going to the entire group. 9. Due to the large readership, all responses may not be posted. 10. Moderator at his discretion, may modify the posting, if content is unclear or not appropriate for distribution to the group. 11. Please respond taking into consideration the novices, youth, westerners, non-sectarian audience. Kindly limit the use to Sanskrit words only, rather provide the English word with Sanskrit bracketed wherever possible. MODERATOR Ram Ram ------------------------ Post message: Subscribe: - Un: - ------------------------ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 24, 2008 Report Share Posted November 24, 2008 Respected Sadhakas Many times one comes across the question - Who you are ? How does one reply to that? Regards Anindya Ray ----------------------------- NEW POSTING Our soul is the only reality about us. The rest is all illusion, including our bodies. It is our soul which gives us our identity. Bodies come and go but the soul has always existed and will always exist. Hari Shanker Deo -------------------------------- Madanji THANK YOU. What a wonderful recitation from Ramayana with apt examples! So enlightening!! Kash! We could realize that we are neither parrot nor monkey. Let us make ourselves worthy of the grace of Hanuman to enlighten us within for such realization. Thank YOU. Naga Narayana ----------------------------- PRIOR POSTING -Shree Hari- To answer the question: Who you are ? Maybe one should consider, what one is not. And with the heart of a true Seeker, and with Divine Grace that is there for all who love Bhagwan. Then one can experience illusion after illusion, being 'Reduced to Dust'. And even if one feels apprehension at such ego destruction, like falling into a dark unknown place, one should realize one is seeing the negative image through the eyes of the ego, in reality it is divine light one is seeing. Who you are ? I could honestly say, " Not what I thought I was " . B.G. 10:11 Out of compassion for them, I, Abiding in their hearts, destroy The darkness born of ignorance By the shining lamp of knowledge. With Respect and Divine Love, Mike Keenor ------------------------------ Shree Hari Ram Ram Dear Anindyaji, thanks for a very important question! So many good responses already been posted. In Valmiki Ramayana there is an incident, Lord Rama asks Hanumanji, Who are you? What is your relationship with Me? " Deha-bhudya tu daso-asmi jiva-budhya tva' amshka: Atma-bhudhya tvam-aham iti me nischita mati " From the stand point of the physical body I am your servant. From the stand point of Jiva (subbtle body) I am your part (ref: Gitaji 15-7) From the stand point of the Self I am You. This is my firm conviction. In Ram-Charit-Manas also, Goswami Tulsidasji (Uttara Kandha 116-1, 2) says - " Isvara amsa jiva abinashi, cetana amala sahaja sukha rashi so mayabasa bhayau gosai, badhyo kira markata ki nai Jara cetanahi gramthi pari gai jadapi mrisha chutata kathinai " The jiva (soul in the body) is a ray of Divine consciousness, immortal, pure conscious, untainted by Maya and blissful by nature. Such a soul, my Lord, has alloewd itself to be dominated (bound) by Maya and has been caught in its own trap like a parrot or a monkey*. Matter (body) Spirit (amsha) have been linked together with a knot which, though imaginary is difficult to untie. Since then the soul has taken to be worldly; it can have no happiness till the knot is untied. In next few chaupaies, Tulsidasji explains how to untie this knot. * The illusion is to two popular modes of catching parrots and monkeys. A stick with a bait at the end and a string attached to it is so set in the ground that it revolves from the weight of the parrot when it lights upon it; and the bird, confused by the motion, fancies that it is entangled in the string, though it is really loose and might fly away if it tried. For the monkey, a large jar with a narrow neck is set up on the ground full of grains. The monkey puts his both hands in the jar and clutches handful grains; he is unable to get his hands out of the jar because of narrow neck with both fists holding tight (full of grains), the monkey fancies himself caught by some ghost, though if he releases grains, he could get his hands out easily. Humble regards, Madan Kaura ------------------------------- Shree Hari Ram Ram IN ENGLISH You have asked " Who are You? " , the answer to that is " I am that same one, to whom you are asking " in other words, that which you understand to be me, that I am. So be it ! Vineet Sarvottam IN HINDI Aapne puchaa hai " Tum kaun ho? " Iskaa utter hai " Wahin hu jisse aapne puchaa hai " Arthaarth, jo aap mujhe hona samajh rahe hai, wahin mein hu. Astu, Vineet Sarvottam ---------------------------- Dear Sadhakas, Namaste! The answer to the question " who you are? " can be answered in the context of social interactions as I am so and so, son of... brother/sister of .... or friend of so and so etc etc. In other words, it is always relative to some thing or someone, where " I " is taken to mean the body-mind organism I call " I " . Thus It cannot stand on its own legs absolutely. That means someone or something must be true, then only I can be true. So it is clear that such worldly answers are relative and not Truth/Reality of " myself " . Second point is that whatever I perceive with senses and conceive with mind/memory/intellect etc I cannot be that. I am subject of those objects, Now all of the above answers regarding myself are perceived / conceived only so I cannot be any of those. At this stage, one has to be convinced beyond any shadow of doubt that whatever I may be but it is definitely not anything known / defined / thought of etc.. If one continues in the pursuit, then mind automatically opens up and becomes silent in surrender to receive the answer in terms of deep intuition(Direct perception, aparoksha anubhuti). This is because mind is satisfied that nothing it knows will help. One starts to act from this perspective as a result, " I am not this body, mind, nor am I " this " or " that " or so and so. It is not necessary to answer who am I, but If one has to answer then it is " i am just I am, the absolute Being-Existence-ISNESS(sat) that is at the same time Consciousness(chit). " Sat is chit and chit is sat has to be understood and is experiential even as we read these words! The real answer is only through the actions in life bringing peace, harmony, love and beauty. Namaskaras......Pratap Bhatt --------------------------- Dear sadaks, This question " Who are you?' many saint asked to their Guru, " Who am I? " The knowledge to know who are you-- Guru gives. You are surching for something divine, so the question comes. If someone asks this question, " Who are you? " answer them I am searching for the answer. The questioner will become silent. One who comes to know who he is, he becomes silent and not recogonisable to society until his death. After such person death, temple come up, ashrama come up. This we have seen in so many cases of realized souls. Besides these realized souls were treated harshly when they lived. Jai Sri Krishna baiya sathyanarayan ---------------------------- PRIOR POSTING " I a " ever certain. " I am what " never certain. Respects. Naga Narayana. ------------------------- " Who you are " perhaps no body can answer.If you try to answer it it will subject to the logical fallacy of " Reductio ad absurdum " and the fallacy of " ad infinitum " It's is like this. if some body is explaining that " you " then who is it that is explaining the " you " .? Continuing, who is it that is explaining about that you it goes on and on ad infinitum, which is a logical fallacy. Unless that " you " explains who it is by itself. others trying to do so will be absurd and meaning less. We say " I am " which means " I " have a " body " Who is the I and who the body. Can the body say who is this I? or does the " I " say I am so and so. No I does not speak or talk. It does not act as a witness. It does not say anything about its nature. All the description that is being given is the figment of a heated brain concoting nice stories. Realised souls who become that " I " do not speak from that exaulted state as there is no media to talk. It is body less. Therefore it simply exists as awareness, formless. Gurus tell you , " you must control the mind. Who is this " You " which can control the mind? If it can do so why does it allow the mind to go astray. It should check the mind intially itself. Therefore, it is clear there is no " You " which can control the mind and bridle it. The whole thing is mere existence. Just " be " and one day that undescribable state of Existence may over take " this body " . There will then be mere existence, pehaps, because no body with the body has gone into that stage to explain how it is or what it is.vIf some body tries to expalin that state, it is mere hallucination, because the indiviual does not exist there. Thanks, Homma. Ramchander Homma -------------------------------- Sri Hari The short answer is that you are awareness, in which the flow of experiences takes place. Saying that, this is your essential nature while your apparent nature is the person you appear to be. The best place to find the answer to this in the simplest form in today's day and age is from a book by Timothy Freke called Lucid Living. Time permitting, I will summarise the ideas in a few days but it makes Upanishads have so much meaning. Tim is a profound mystic philosopher of today and he's hit the nail on the head in today's age like no one else makeing Vedanta so much more accessible Om Guru Sri Chandraya namah Rishi Handa ----------------------------- i am occupant of this space...kshetram iti obhidiyote..this scene is known as this person.. Barin Chatterjee ----------------------------- Hari Om Beautiful question indeed. Brief questions have their own beauty, besides. It deserves first equally brief answer. " Who are you " is the question. .. Presuming your actual being - you are fragment of God and God only and of nothing else. You are God only. All the qualities of God are present in you- AS IT IS . Presuming you to be Jeeva- " You are that which you accept/assume yourself to be " .. To accept/to reject , in other words to associate/to disassociate, in still other words to connect/to disconnect, in still other words to assume/to negate - are the only powers which you in fact as an individual soul possess. This is the liberty ever available to you. It never ceases to exist in you. It is eternally available to you.. Rest all like doing/knowing/getting/giving etc are the powers which come to you after you exercise connection with inert/body/world. Hence if when you accept something, your role is exercised. After that nature/modes of nature/ svabhav/ prakriti takes over. In fact you became Jeeva only after accepting connection and association (affinity) with prakriti/ nature/body/inert/world . Therefore you can regain your actual being of Purusha only after rejecting your connection and association (affinity) with prakriti/body etc. As a Jeeva if you accept yourself to be happy , you are happy. If you accept yourself of the world or being the worldly you are so. Rich/poor/good/bad/godly/worldly/ father/mother/ student/sadhak/happy/sad all are based on your acceptance only. Jai Shree Krishna Vyas N B ------------------------------ GITA TALK GROUP GUIDELINES: 1. Purpose of the group is to help Sadhakas clarify their doubts related to Gitaji shalokas. Therefore, responses which further clarify the understanding of Gitaji, will only be posted. 2. Wherever possible, please quote Gitaji or other scriptures to substantiate your response. 3. Kindly limit personal feelings, opinions, beliefs etc. to the extent that they further help in understanding the Gita shlokas 4. Please be as concise and to the point as possible, respecting sadhaka's time. 5. Kindly focus your writing to the subject at hand only. 6. Please do not include links to the other sites or other organizations. 7. Kindly do not include your personal information such as phone number, address etc. 8. Please do not address the response to a particular individual since the message is going to the entire group. 9. Due to the large readership, all responses may not be posted. 10. Moderator at his discretion, may modify the posting, if content is unclear or not appropriate for distribution to the group. 11. Please respond taking into consideration the novices, youth, westerners, non-sectarian audience. Kindly limit the use to Sanskrit words only, rather provide the English word with Sanskrit bracketed wherever possible. MODERATOR Ram Ram ------------------------ Post message: Subscribe: - Un: - ------------------------ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 26, 2008 Report Share Posted November 26, 2008 Respected Sadhakas Many times one comes across the question - Who you are ? How does one reply to that? Regards Anindya Ray ----------------------------- NEW POSTING Dear sadaks, The question is, " Who are you? " To a sadak say Aham Bramasmi. To teacher say you are his disciple. To your wife say you are her husband. But if you say that you are Bramasmi she will laugh. To your father say you are his son. All this saying in worldly way without attachment. To GOD say you belong to HIM. To yourself say that you are one with God This two saying is SAT. Jai Sri Krishna baiya sathyanarayan ------------------------ Dear Sadhakas, Namaste! Another way to answer this question: Let us change the question to " what am I? " without changing the spirit of inquiry, but giving more possibilities to " I " to be anything or everything or no-thing! Now let us look at the question closely. See that implied in this question is already the assumption that " I am " , I just don't know what. Isn't it? In other words, " I " , whatever he/she/it may be, has to be already in existence before this question can be asked. There is no question if " I " is not (t)here to ask it. So " I " cannot be known by body-mind individual because " I " exists prior to the birth of the body-mind. Now " I " exists prior to all such body-mind individuals, so it cannot be personal " I " that we call ourselves, right? Nevertheless, " I " is the most certain aspect behind all our worldly experiences! Intuitively, then, one can say " I " has to be Existence(Absolute Being) that knows its own Existence in all beings even before the births, and by implication, after the deaths of such individual body- minds. It is, thus, purely the knowing experience(Knowingness or Consciousness) by which everything else becomes known. Knowingness realizing Itself in all knowledge, so to speak. Thus " I " of " what am I? " is truly an experience in terms " knowingness " of Pure Being. It cannot be the same I we use to indicate a person with name and relationships. How does one get this answer? When all attempts by mind drops to capture that which is beyond the capacity of it, mind becomes silent on its own, not made silent by a doer through any practice! Silence- God accesses such a mind and gives answer to it. Such a mind then communicates the experience of THAT wordless, unnamable, undescribable " what " in terms of words, names and descriptions. Such a mind remains dissolved into " I am " , the Absolute, except to answer a sincere quest of Sadhakas like us. Namaskar, Pratap Bhatt ------------------------------ Dear Sadhak, Sadhak Madanji beautifully explained it on all stand points-I am His (God)Bhakta, I am His Part, and I am That!!! We can write thesis on what is the taste of Mango but we cannot KNOW it unless we taste it, same way we can give thousands of answers but we cannot understand who am I unless we KNOW it. with lots of Love, A sadhika Sadhna Karigar ------------------------------ The basic Hindu tenet Tat Tvam Asi proclaims the reality of our Being; i.e., " That Thou Art. " The " That " is the fact that we are the Soul ( " Atmana " to the Hindus) with a body, thinking mind and emotions. The purpose of religion, in general, and Hinduism, specifically, is to realize the fact of our triune nature. For Hindus, we utilize the various Yogas to accomplish this goal. In this religious/spiritual process, it is important to not pretend that the outer bodies are illusory but rather to refine them. Swami Param ------------------------------- We are nothing but atma. the other way to look at it is atom. Think deeply and you will find that atma and atom mean the same. The world itself is an unending chain reaction of all physical and biological bodies with the sun as nucleus. If you can have an integrated look at the world and cosmos in your mind over the time scale extending between -infinity to + infinity, you can easily understand who you are? Bhuvangiri Badri Kishore ----------------------------- PRIOR POSTING Our soul is the only reality about us. The rest is all illusion, including our bodies. It is our soul which gives us our identity. Bodies come and go but the soul has always existed and will always exist. Hari Shanker Deo -------------------------------- Madanji THANK YOU. What a wonderful recitation from Ramayana with apt examples! So enlightening!! Kash! We could realize that we are neither parrot nor monkey. Let us make ourselves worthy of the grace of Hanuman to enlighten us within for such realization. Thank YOU. Naga Narayana ----------------------------- PRIOR POSTING -Shree Hari- To answer the question: Who you are ? Maybe one should consider, what one is not. And with the heart of a true Seeker, and with Divine Grace that is there for all who love Bhagwan. Then one can experience illusion after illusion, being 'Reduced to Dust'. And even if one feels apprehension at such ego destruction, like falling into a dark unknown place, one should realize one is seeing the negative image through the eyes of the ego, in reality it is divine light one is seeing. Who you are ? I could honestly say, " Not what I thought I was " . B.G. 10:11 Out of compassion for them, I, Abiding in their hearts, destroy The darkness born of ignorance By the shining lamp of knowledge. With Respect and Divine Love, Mike Keenor ------------------------------ Shree Hari Ram Ram Dear Anindyaji, thanks for a very important question! So many good responses already been posted. In Valmiki Ramayana there is an incident, Lord Rama asks Hanumanji, Who are you? What is your relationship with Me? " Deha-bhudya tu daso-asmi jiva-budhya tva' amshka: Atma-bhudhya tvam-aham iti me nischita mati " From the stand point of the physical body I am your servant. From the stand point of Jiva (subbtle body) I am your part (ref: Gitaji 15-7) From the stand point of the Self I am You. This is my firm conviction. In Ram-Charit-Manas also, Goswami Tulsidasji (Uttara Kandha 116-1, 2) says - " Isvara amsa jiva abinashi, cetana amala sahaja sukha rashi so mayabasa bhayau gosai, badhyo kira markata ki nai Jara cetanahi gramthi pari gai jadapi mrisha chutata kathinai " The jiva (soul in the body) is a ray of Divine consciousness, immortal, pure conscious, untainted by Maya and blissful by nature. Such a soul, my Lord, has alloewd itself to be dominated (bound) by Maya and has been caught in its own trap like a parrot or a monkey*. Matter (body) Spirit (amsha) have been linked together with a knot which, though imaginary is difficult to untie. Since then the soul has taken to be worldly; it can have no happiness till the knot is untied. In next few chaupaies, Tulsidasji explains how to untie this knot. * The illusion is to two popular modes of catching parrots and monkeys. A stick with a bait at the end and a string attached to it is so set in the ground that it revolves from the weight of the parrot when it lights upon it; and the bird, confused by the motion, fancies that it is entangled in the string, though it is really loose and might fly away if it tried. For the monkey, a large jar with a narrow neck is set up on the ground full of grains. The monkey puts his both hands in the jar and clutches handful grains; he is unable to get his hands out of the jar because of narrow neck with both fists holding tight (full of grains), the monkey fancies himself caught by some ghost, though if he releases grains, he could get his hands out easily. Humble regards, Madan Kaura ------------------------------- Shree Hari Ram Ram IN ENGLISH You have asked " Who are You? " , the answer to that is " I am that same one, to whom you are asking " in other words, that which you understand to be me, that I am. So be it ! Vineet Sarvottam IN HINDI Aapne puchaa hai " Tum kaun ho? " Iskaa utter hai " Wahin hu jisse aapne puchaa hai " Arthaarth, jo aap mujhe hona samajh rahe hai, wahin mein hu. Astu, Vineet Sarvottam ---------------------------- Dear Sadhakas, Namaste! The answer to the question " who you are? " can be answered in the context of social interactions as I am so and so, son of... brother/sister of .... or friend of so and so etc etc. In other words, it is always relative to some thing or someone, where " I " is taken to mean the body-mind organism I call " I " . Thus It cannot stand on its own legs absolutely. That means someone or something must be true, then only I can be true. So it is clear that such worldly answers are relative and not Truth/Reality of " myself " . Second point is that whatever I perceive with senses and conceive with mind/memory/intellect etc I cannot be that. I am subject of those objects, Now all of the above answers regarding myself are perceived / conceived only so I cannot be any of those. At this stage, one has to be convinced beyond any shadow of doubt that whatever I may be but it is definitely not anything known / defined / thought of etc.. If one continues in the pursuit, then mind automatically opens up and becomes silent in surrender to receive the answer in terms of deep intuition(Direct perception, aparoksha anubhuti). This is because mind is satisfied that nothing it knows will help. One starts to act from this perspective as a result, " I am not this body, mind, nor am I " this " or " that " or so and so. It is not necessary to answer who am I, but If one has to answer then it is " i am just I am, the absolute Being-Existence-ISNESS(sat) that is at the same time Consciousness(chit). " Sat is chit and chit is sat has to be understood and is experiential even as we read these words! The real answer is only through the actions in life bringing peace, harmony, love and beauty. Namaskaras......Pratap Bhatt --------------------------- Dear sadaks, This question " Who are you?' many saint asked to their Guru, " Who am I? " The knowledge to know who are you-- Guru gives. You are surching for something divine, so the question comes. If someone asks this question, " Who are you? " answer them I am searching for the answer. The questioner will become silent. One who comes to know who he is, he becomes silent and not recogonisable to society until his death. After such person death, temple come up, ashrama come up. This we have seen in so many cases of realized souls. Besides these realized souls were treated harshly when they lived. Jai Sri Krishna baiya sathyanarayan ---------------------------- PRIOR POSTING " I a " ever certain. " I am what " never certain. Respects. Naga Narayana. ------------------------- " Who you are " perhaps no body can answer.If you try to answer it it will subject to the logical fallacy of " Reductio ad absurdum " and the fallacy of " ad infinitum " It's is like this. if some body is explaining that " you " then who is it that is explaining the " you " .? Continuing, who is it that is explaining about that you it goes on and on ad infinitum, which is a logical fallacy. Unless that " you " explains who it is by itself. others trying to do so will be absurd and meaning less. We say " I am " which means " I " have a " body " Who is the I and who the body. Can the body say who is this I? or does the " I " say I am so and so. No I does not speak or talk. It does not act as a witness. It does not say anything about its nature. All the description that is being given is the figment of a heated brain concoting nice stories. Realised souls who become that " I " do not speak from that exaulted state as there is no media to talk. It is body less. Therefore it simply exists as awareness, formless. Gurus tell you , " you must control the mind. Who is this " You " which can control the mind? If it can do so why does it allow the mind to go astray. It should check the mind intially itself. Therefore, it is clear there is no " You " which can control the mind and bridle it. The whole thing is mere existence. Just " be " and one day that undescribable state of Existence may over take " this body " . There will then be mere existence, pehaps, because no body with the body has gone into that stage to explain how it is or what it is.vIf some body tries to expalin that state, it is mere hallucination, because the indiviual does not exist there. Thanks, Homma. Ramchander Homma -------------------------------- Sri Hari The short answer is that you are awareness, in which the flow of experiences takes place. Saying that, this is your essential nature while your apparent nature is the person you appear to be. The best place to find the answer to this in the simplest form in today's day and age is from a book by Timothy Freke called Lucid Living. Time permitting, I will summarise the ideas in a few days but it makes Upanishads have so much meaning. Tim is a profound mystic philosopher of today and he's hit the nail on the head in today's age like no one else makeing Vedanta so much more accessible Om Guru Sri Chandraya namah Rishi Handa ----------------------------- i am occupant of this space...kshetram iti obhidiyote..this scene is known as this person.. Barin Chatterjee ----------------------------- Hari Om Beautiful question indeed. Brief questions have their own beauty, besides. It deserves first equally brief answer. " Who are you " is the question. .. Presuming your actual being - you are fragment of God and God only and of nothing else. You are God only. All the qualities of God are present in you- AS IT IS . Presuming you to be Jeeva- " You are that which you accept/assume yourself to be " .. To accept/to reject , in other words to associate/to disassociate, in still other words to connect/to disconnect, in still other words to assume/to negate - are the only powers which you in fact as an individual soul possess. This is the liberty ever available to you. It never ceases to exist in you. It is eternally available to you.. Rest all like doing/knowing/getting/giving etc are the powers which come to you after you exercise connection with inert/body/world. Hence if when you accept something, your role is exercised. After that nature/modes of nature/ svabhav/ prakriti takes over. In fact you became Jeeva only after accepting connection and association (affinity) with prakriti/ nature/body/inert/world . Therefore you can regain your actual being of Purusha only after rejecting your connection and association (affinity) with prakriti/body etc. As a Jeeva if you accept yourself to be happy , you are happy. If you accept yourself of the world or being the worldly you are so. Rich/poor/good/bad/godly/worldly/ father/mother/ student/sadhak/happy/sad all are based on your acceptance only. Jai Shree Krishna Vyas N B ------------------------------ GITA TALK GROUP GUIDELINES: 1. Purpose of the group is to help Sadhakas clarify their doubts related to Gitaji shalokas. Therefore, responses which further clarify the understanding of Gitaji, will only be posted. 2. Wherever possible, please quote Gitaji or other scriptures to substantiate your response. 3. Kindly limit personal feelings, opinions, beliefs etc. to the extent that they further help in understanding the Gita shlokas 4. Please be as concise and to the point as possible, respecting sadhaka's time. 5. Kindly focus your writing to the subject at hand only. 6. Please do not include links to the other sites or other organizations. 7. Kindly do not include your personal information such as phone number, address etc. 8. Please do not address the response to a particular individual since the message is going to the entire group. 9. Due to the large readership, all responses may not be posted. 10. Moderator at his discretion, may modify the posting, if content is unclear or not appropriate for distribution to the group. 11. Please respond taking into consideration the novices, youth, westerners, non-sectarian audience. Kindly limit the use to Sanskrit words only, rather provide the English word with Sanskrit bracketed wherever possible. MODERATOR Ram Ram ------------------------ Post message: Subscribe: - Un: - ------------------------ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.