Who am I?

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The Self is not to be known through study of the scriptures,

nor through subtlety of the intellect,

nor through much learning.

But by him who longs for Him is he known.

Verily unto him does the Self reveal his true being.

 

Having known the Self, the sages are filled with joy.

Blessed are they, tranquil of mind, free from passion.

Realizing everywhere the all-pervading Brahman,

deeply absorbed in contemplation of his being,

they enter in to him, the Self of all.

 

When death overtakes the body,

the vital energy enters the cosmic force,

the senses dissolve in their cause,

and karmas and the individual soul are lost in Brahman,

the pure, the changeless, the infinite.

 

As rivers flow into the sea

and in so doing lose name and form,

even so the wise man, freed from name and form,

attains the Supreme Being,

the Self-Luminous,

the Infinite.

 

He who knows Brahman becomes Brahman.

He passes beyond all sorrow.

He overcomes evil.

Freed from the fetters of ignorance,

he becomes immortal.

 

-Mundaka Upanishad-