Identity of a human being: Who am I?

The biggest question in life for any intelligent human mind is: ‘Who am I’? Mankind from its evolution has been pondering over this core question of life. But, strangely he has not been able to pinpoint what exactly who he/she is. Everyone desires to be rich, happy and successful. To be happy, one must know what makes you happy. Who is this ‘you’? This question triggers in us a thought process and many times since we are not able to solve this puzzle, we switch over to other questions to escape from the realty of this question. This question is simple as well as complex at the same time. Let us explore.

If you are to introduce yourself to someone, you will say that you are a male/female, Indian and a young/old and successful person doing this or that work. You are a son, father or a husband. You may say that you are a human-body or a human-being. You may say that you are a ‘personality’ with some attributes, traits and qualities which makes you distinct from the world. Is it you?

I have collected many things over the years and stored them in my cupboard, these are my things but can I say the things are me? Suppose, I am a businessman and I have earned reaches and wealth; and this reaches is manifested in my various assets like a high end car, a luxurious bungalow and many other physical things. These are my possessions and collection and not me. You are a business man but that is the skill you got or possess but you are not that. We confuse our possessions with our self.

Many think that we are born from physical world like the five elements of earth, water, fire, space and air; we are these five elements. Are we these five elements? They just make us and are decomposed when we leave the physical world. I may be composed or made up of these five elements but I am not these elements.

Many people say, we are mind and intellect. We have many thoughts, emotions and ideas. In the due course, these thoughts and emotions make your memory, intelligence and personality. You have five senses through which your mind collect ideas from the outside world and your mind sends it to your personality which ‘reacts’ to these ideas by either liking or disliking depending upon the predisposition of your personality or ego. These ideas are then filtered to the intellect which decides the course of action. This decision of the intellect is transmitted to the mind which gets the things manifested or executed through five organs of action.

All these thoughts and actions are our possessions and not us. We may have acquired many thoughts, isms, ideas etc, but we are not these ideas or thoughts even. Am I the mind? Since the manifestations of my moods, likes, dislikes etc are expressed through mind, I am mind. Am I? Mind is collection of thoughts and ideas which each one has different owing to different experience and its reactions to it. Everyone has a different set of mind or what we call mind. So, we cannot be mind. Are we a personality? What we call ‘this is me’? Our personality is the collection of likes and dislikes, good and bad feelings. This is a subjective thing. Neither, we are intellect.

If we are none of the above what we are? The ancient Indian knowledge says we are what we remain after we have negated all the above covering of body, mind and intellect. The three covers of body-mind-intellect change and are subject to time, space and decay, so they are not ‘I’.

We tend to identify and align ourselves with the covers of body-mind-intellect because we have forgotten our true nature and identity. We align with these covers since these are also the evolutes of the ‘I’. Like the unpeeling of the cover of the onion, we have to rediscover who am ‘I’. We are the ‘observer’. We are that permanent and ultimate truth which guides and controls all of us and which is living inside all of us. This is the only realty which is changeless and eternal. We are the extension of the larger universal soul. People call it by various names. The nature of this ‘I’ is Truth-Consciousness and Bliss which is a state of permanent bliss. This ‘I’ is inside all of us. The only purpose of life is discovering this ‘I’ by uncovering and undressing the false cover. Only then, we can be happy.

The author is an IRS officer and have written three books. Views are personal.

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