Who Am I ? Explained by Swami Mukundananda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA
Full Text 1 we always have this perception of the I, I am happy, I am sad, I am hungry, I am Full, I am feeling hot, I'm feeling cold, the experience of I always remains but what is this I, that is the question from which our spiritual quest begins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA&t=6 2 on the Temple of Apollo, at Delpha in Athens, are inscribed the Greek words “Know Thyself”, in the Gita Shri Krishna says to know the difference between the field of activities and the knower of that field of activities is the beginning of knowledge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA&t=42 3 it is said that the wise old man of Greece, Socrates was fond of asking people to think who are they? There is an anecdote about him that lost in deep thought he was walking through the marketplace when he collided into a policeman, the policeman got agitated and said, you careless fellow, you're not even looking where you're walking, “who are you”, Socrates responded I've been pondering over that question for the last 40 years, if you get to know, “who I am”, please inform me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA&t=76 4 so this question is important, science has its take upon it and the spiritual traditions of the world have their take upon it. Science does not accept the existence of a nonmaterial entity, the spiritual spark called the “soul” as the basis of life in the body, science says that this body consisting of matter is leading to consciousness (i.e., matter is creating consciousness) but matter does not possess consciousness, science says when matter becomes more complex, then it creates consciousness within itself, that is why this bunch of chemicals within the bag of the body is what you are. The problem with this is that if we are a bunch of chemicals and consciousness is originating from chemicals, then how do you explain the phenomenon of death, death then becomes a chemical reaction, a reaction has taken place in the body which has dismissed consciousness from it, however any chemical reaction is reversible, if sufficient conditions are provided to it and that is why if death is a mere chemical reaction all you need to do then is to reverse that reaction and bring the dead person back to life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA&t=122 5 there have been people who have had such faith in their scientific viewpoint that they believed in future, the science would bring dead people back to life, it is said of Walt Disney that his faith in science was such that he did not pass on his property to his children, rather he wrote In his will that his body should be put in the deep freeze and maybe 300 years later when science evolves to that point that they can make dead people alive then again he will continue with his life, Walt Disney was in the deep dreeze but his children were pretty annoyed about it but because they were not able to access the billions of their father, so one day people found that from the deep freeze, an awful stink was emanating, they inquired what had gone wrong, on opening it they found Walt Disney's body was stinking, somebody had pulled out the plug of the deep freeze, so that experiment could never be verified. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA&t=241 6 However IF it is a fact that we are a bunch of chemicals and consciousness is created from it, to prove it, let us create life in the laboratory BUT that has never been done. You may say, swami ji, have you not heard of invitro fertilization ? yes but in that invitro fertilization, you are starting with life itself, the sperm and the ovum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA&t=326 7 Begin with mere chemicals and from chemicals create life, forget about creating a human being just create a mosquito, if you cannot create even the slightest, the lowest kinds of life in the laboratory, then what right do we have of saying that it is scientific & that we are a bunch of chemicals without any proof for it ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA&t=355 8 One Nobel Prize winner Albert Giorgi said, in my search for life, I ended up with electrons, protons and neutrons, somewhere along the journey consciousness slipped out of my hands, now in my old age, I am retracing my steps to find the basis of consciousness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA&t=386 9 the spiritual traditions in the world inform us that there is a spiritual spark within us, non-material which is the soul, the spirit, the atman that is the source of consciousness, now you may say that why can I not detect that spiritual spark in medical experiments and research ? The reason is that since it is spiritual, it is beyond the perception of our material Instruments, like for example if an automobile engineer were to find out the source of motion in the car and go from the wheels backward, he would say that the wheels are moving because of the axle rod, the axle rod is moving because of the pistons in the engine, the pistons are moving because of the accelerator, the ignition switch, the steering wheel, so this is the source of all the motion in the car, however there is a driver behind all these who operates them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA&t=416 10 similarly a doctor may say the body is functioning because of the heart, the kidneys, the liver, the pancreas, the gall bladder etc., but the spiritual spark is energizing them all and hence they are working, the moment the soul leaves the body, the heart kidneys liver pancreas gallbladder are all there but activity has ceased because the basis of life is no longer there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA&t=500 11 so the soul cannot be perceived by physical instruments, however the symptom of the Soul consciousness can be perceived, the soul is the basis of life, wherever you find life, whether it is the plants, the animals, the birds, it means there is the soul within them, without the soul this is all dead matter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA&t=534 12 Information regarding the soul is more completely and precisely presented in the Vedic scriptures, what is the size of the soul ? The soul is tiny, how tiny ? Mundak Upanishad states, take the tip of a hair, cut it into 100 parts, take one of those parts and cut it further into 100 parts, that is impossible, nevertheless if you could do it, the size you would get is the size of the soul and this is also merely a literary expression because the soul is subtle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA&t=570 13 that tiny soul, how does it spread consciousness throughout the body ? The Brahma Sutra says the nature of the soul is like the nature of a source of light, there is a light on the ceiling, the light is 2 m away from me but its energy is reaching right here, the Brahma Sutra says in the same manner the soul is in the region of the heart and yet it is spreading consciousness throughout the body ; that is why if you poke a thorn into your finger, you will experience the pain - what happened ? it's paining, that means the finger has life, how come when the soul is in the heart the life has spread all the way till the finger, that is the nature of the soul, it spreads its consciousness throughout the body https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA&t=635 14 again one could ask that life is the quality of the soul, how come it was passed on to the body ? the answer is given again by Ved Vvas in the Brahma Sutra, he says for example there is fragrance in a flower but the flowers of the garden make the whole garden fragrant and when you enter a garden, you immediately perceive the fragrance, wow beautiful flowers, very aromatic in this garden, similarly the soul like the flowers spreads its fragrance or its consciousness into the body and how come it got passed through to the entire body, again Ved Vvas makes a sutra in the Brahma sutras, the aphorisms, he says look at the property of chandan or sandalwood paste, to cool your body, you do not need to apply sandalwood paste all over you, just apply it on the forehead and the property of sandalwood is that it cools the entire body, similarly the soul staying in one place makes this whole body conscious, that is why the Brahma Sutra says accept the existence of the soul, perceive your self as an eternal spiritual being https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA&t=705 15 Swami Vivekanand said “Thou Art Souls Immortal, Spirits, Blessed, Free and Eternal, matter is your servant and not you the servant of matter”, the moment you get this realization of your real self, your personality becomes centered, people will talk about how to center themselves, I respond it's the easiest of things, see yourself through shastra chakshu (eyes of shastras/scriptures) even though you may not as yet have had realization of your soul nature, see yourself through the eyes of the scriptures and the moment you bring this thought, this piece of knowledge into your intellect that I am the Eternal Soul, I am not body, I am not matter, I am a part of the Eternal God, you will be centered and you will be focused upon He of whom your soul is a part, this is the knowledge of the Soul https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKV11cTs7hA&t=813 Standby link (in case youtube link does not work): Who Am I Explained by Swami Mukundananda.mp4
