091. Who Am 'I'?

This is the basic discipline of Jnana Yoga. To discover that one is not the body, mind, or emotions but the Soul is a siddhi in the yoga of knowledge.

In society, man is not aware of what he is, what his rights are. An enlightened nation is one where the population is aware of their legal, human, and social rights. Self-awareness of the individual citizen is an index of the nation's social status or standing. He who knows who he is will be able to invoke the Spirit more readily and with greater effect. To comprehend that I am not my body or my mind and I am really my soul is not difficult for many to accept. At times of crisis, where life gives you half a minute to decide, we do readily decide and act. It may be an offer, as the offer of Prime Ministership to Shri Narasimha Rao or a robber who points his gun at you demanding the key to your vault. We know the decision was quickly made. Surely it was not made according to rational thoughts that we have cultivated over the years. Nor was it according to what is good or right for us. The decision was not taken consciously, but it was taken instantaneously.

He who took the decision is your own true Self.

It may not be the Spiritual Self, but it is the true self beyond the conscious thought or cherished emotions. One goes there by the extreme pressure of external development, mostly one of danger and occasionally one of luck. To go to that depth consciously in thought or meditation and then invoke the Spirit from there will be an effective invocation, as it is the True 'Me'. The greater the Truth of invocation, the greater will be the reality of the Spirit that emerges on the surface of our lives.