Realize Your True Self First. Without That, Everything Is Baseless

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom

If someone asks us about our introduction, we say, “I am XXX(name).” We don’t know why?

Maybe we’re taught that way. Let’s rewind our life and analyze the situation.

When we went to school, we responded to the same question with a different answer. In addition to our previous title, we replied, “I am a student at XXX school.”

But things changed fast. In social gatherings and family functions, we introduced ourselves as “I am the son/daughter of XXX(parents).”

Further, as time passed and after completing our studies, we used to render a different introduction like, “I am an Engineer/Writer/Painter/etc. (qualifications).”

Our answers kept changing with time, but the reason remained unknown to us. I thought to myself:

“If someone is a spectator of my life watching me giving different introductions on different occasions, then he would either mock me or get confused.”

This thought drowned me in anxiety all the time, and the desire to know my authentic self multiplied every time. I was curious all the time to understand my real identity.

“Who is the person behind these masks of attributes?” — a burning curiosity that made me read a thousand books.

When science, philosophy, psychology, and physiology failed to address my concerns, my journey advanced towards a new path, i.e., spirituality. When I learned spirituality, I discovered it to be an amalgamation of science, religion, and philosophy.

I found spirituality to be pragmatic and idealistic at the same time. Logical thinking and rational reasoning were the basis of spirituality. As a result, it can cater to anyone irrespective of the tenets of their religion

Moreover, free from prejudices, spirituality served as a uniting force bringing about synthesis in the truth of self. The rituals and traditions that were not proved or were followed aimlessly, the perplexity of the unsolved illogical scientific questions, made way for a streamlined flow of new proper knowledge.

As a consequence, I learned many new laws and concepts of metaphysics. That, later on, helped me connect the dots in my religious beliefs and modify my scientific temperaments.

I discovered the most precious jewel of knowledge, the relationship between the man and his creator. I found what is actually inside the flesh.

“I am a SOUL!”

How Was I Convinced to Consider Myself a Soul

We all know that our body comprises five elements — water, air, fire, sky, and earth. But a spiritually-minded person, even while engaged in actions, would think, “This body is nothing more than a complex assembly of organs by which I speak, hear, see, work and move, but I am different from it.”

Primarily, I learned that there is a conscious entity in the body that uses the word “I.” It is different from the body. If we are in pain, we exclaim, “My stomach is aching, my toe is hurting, etc..” If the body is expressing these feelings and if we believe ourselves to be the body, why do we sometimes describe the pain as “My body is weak, my body hurts, etc..”

Who is the one saying, “my body”?

Who is the owner of this body?

What is the difference between ‘I’ and ‘my’?

So, I discovered that I am an entity that is different from the body. I am not the ears, eyes, or the mouth, but I perceive through those sensory organs and that I am their master. I am the driver of this mortal coil.

A person driving a car has a different identity than a car — a soul is different from a body.

“I am a soul, eternal, and immortal. The body is mortal. I (the soul) do all the actions and experience the result of the actions. I am the doer and the experiencer.”

Secondly, when the soul leaves the body, the body is declared to be ‘dead.’ Then people cremate/bury the body because its valued owner, the soul, has left, and the body becomes useless. When the soul relinquishes the body, people often say, “The light has gone… the one that lived in it has departed,” and the life is declared to be completed.”

Myth: A soul resides in my body.

Truth: I, the soul reside in the body.

Raymond Moody, a famous philosopher, psychologist, physician, and author, has interviewed many people who had witnessed near-death experiences. He concluded in his book Life After Life (1975):

“After leaving the body, the soul (in the form of light) meets a golden light, the God with whom it decides its next birth.”

What Is A Soul

If we can settle upon the answer to our true identity (soul), we can embark further into the knowledge of this sentient being.

Yes, you read it right! The soul is also called a “sentient being” because it can think, reflect upon, and experience pleasure or pain.

If it weren’t true, why can’t the body think, feel or respond after death?

Many times, we separate the mind, intellect, and predispositions from the soul. But they all are part of the soul. Just as the senses and organs belong to the body, the mind, intellect, and predispositions(Sanskaras in the Hindi language)are part of the soul.

‘Mind’ is nothing but the soul’s own faculty or function of experiencing pleasure or pain or desiring and willing. Likewise, intellect is the name applied to the soul’s own ability to reason out things, make decisions, or cognize and know.

Similarly, predispositions (the Sanskaras) mean the effect produced on the soul by its own good or wrong actions(Karma) already done. We can also say that Sanskaras means the outlook, tendencies, or habits that the soul acquires due to its actions or attitude.

Because of the soul’s good or bad perceptions, there’s a saying:

“The soul is its own enemy.”

The law of Karma holds with only one belief: “I am a soul, and the actions I perform(good or bad) get recorded on me. As a result of which, I receive the fruits of my action either in this birth or the other.”

What Does the Soul Look Like

No one has ever been able to see a soul. The soul is a metaphysical entity that can't be seen through a physical lens—i.e., eyes.

But based on the scientific experiments conducted (past life regression and near-death experiences interviews), Raymond Moody concluded that a soul is a tiny bright star-like point of light.

The refulgent soul is very subtle, just like the tiniest atom. Just as the star shining in the sky appears to us to be a bright point, the soul, which is a self-luminous point, resides in the middle of the forehead.

As long as it is present in the body, the brain and other vital parts of the body function, and the man is said to be alive.

But the moment the soul leaves its perch, the place (i.e., body)becomes dead silent. All the stir and brain’s activity along with the sense-organs goes phut. Everything comes to a standstill.

The brain may be regarded as the soul’s principal instrument or the control room for manifesting the work done using the sense organs.

When the brain (the deliberative section and the information center) receives a lethal blow or suffers an untreatable loss and injury or, when the account of actions and their effects (the Karmic account)to be experienced in this life is run out, the soul, like a bird, leaves this cage of skin and bones. The soul then flies away, taking with it the sanskaras(predispositions). Since the result of the actions binds the soul, it takes another cage of flesh and bones to begin a new journey in the form of birth.

It is because of this reason; life is said to be a journey — the journey of multiple births.

Why Is It Necessary For Everyone to Consider Themselves to Be Souls

The knowledge of being a soul is very inevitable today because it can help us solve many problems in the world. When we believe ourselves to be souls, we envisage others as souls performing actions through the mortal coil, the body.

Moreover, when we imbibe this spiritual knowledge in us, we can create a sense of equality. Many crimes in society would disappear only through this understanding. Love and brotherhood would naturally flow in relationships because a higher consciousness of the soul has been created.

If we believe ourselves to be souls, we’ll be able to develop universal brotherhood under one fatherhood. Many religions also support the fact that God is one.

• Everywhere in India, images of Shiva have been formless. The Shivling stone is without any face or ears or feet or body, which signifies “an incorporeal being.”
• Outside India, in Mecca, there’s a formless idol. The followers of Islam call this image “Sang-e-Aswad.” Though the Muslims don’t worship any idols, they worship this formless idol, considering it sacred and pious.
• Jesus Christ also said, “God is Light.”
• Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, also sang the praise of God as “an incorporeal light.”

Besides, living with a soul-consciousness awareness, we’ll be able to shift our energies from tangible pleasures to elevated vibrations of peace.

“Without spiritual knowledge about ourselves, we are like a candle without the wick.”