Ego

[Guest guest]

Jnana Marga -- the path of Knowledge.

 

Jnana Marga is for the enquiring person. Following the path of Ramana

Maharshi (ref.), let's examine the query " Who am I? "

 

This question is usually answered as: am the daughter of 'Mr. and

Mrs. ....', I am the mother/father of '....', I am blind, I am sick,

etc. Waht is it that is a daughter or son? It is the body. What is

sick or b lind? Again the body or part of the body is sick. All

the 'I's here refer to the body alone (gross or physical body) and

not the real 'I'. At another level, the same question can be answered

with -- I am Engineer, I am an intelligent person, I am a happy p

erson, etc. Here all the answers refer to the intellect or the mind

(also referred to as subtle body) and again not the real 'I'.

 

So am I the body, mind or intellect? If I am not the body, and I am

not the mind and I am not the intellect, then who am I?

 

Suppose I am the body -- the body was born out of food, lives on

food, and goes back to produce food. Also the body is constantly

changing from childhood to old age. The (gross) body goes through six

different types of changes. They are existence, birth, growth,

disease, decay and death. This implies that if " I am the body "

that 'I' is constantly changing and perishing. Given that every cell

of the body changes every seven years, do 'I' change every seven

years? When I see myself changing physically, then I am other than

the body -- only then can I see the change in my body. So obviously

the body is not the real 'I'. Suppose I say this is my body. Then

obviously 'I' am different from my body just as when I say this is my

book, I am different from my book. So who am I? I am not the body.

 

Contd...