“Who am I?”
The one answer: I am a compound of two: the mortal, perishable, gross body that you and I can see, which has got lots of labels. Labels like names, caste, cult, creed, religion, nationality, occupation, etc. So I’m a compound of two: one, the mortal, perishable, gross body made up of five elements, panch-tattva (five elements) - earth, water, fire, air, and ether (and the second thing: an eternal Divine soul).
This body is in three levels. One is this gross body that you and I can see and know. But there is the subtle body within this body, which is again panch-tattva (five elements), made up of the five elements, and it is also perishable. It doesn’t perish as fast as the gross body does. It stays with us for a long time, but once we get the aim of our lives, it will be gone. There will be no subtle body of the panch-tattva (five elements).
And we have got a third level of body, which is known as the causal body, kāraṇ sharīr (causal body). Even that is perishable, and that will also perish, be gone, once we attain the ultimate goal of life, which is God-realization or ānand-prāpti (attainment of Divine bliss). On ānand-prāpti (attainment of Divine bliss), attainment of our ultimate aim of perfect bliss, which is God, neither the gross body nor the subtle body nor the causal body would remain with us. We will get a Divine body.
Okay, I’m not going into detail about that Divine body, because maybe we will not even have any clue about it. Since we don’t have much clue about our subtle body and causal body, then what to say of the Divine body?
“So I am this mortal frame, this perishable body.”
Take the body on the three levels; name it as one. And then the second thing: an eternal soul, an eternal Divine soul; it’s eternal and Divine.
ममैवांशो जीवलोके जीवभूत: सनातन: |
Mamaivānśho jeev-loke jeev-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ- Gita 15.7
As Lord Krishna says about the soul, “It is sanātan (eternal).”
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचि नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूय: |
अजो नित्य: शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे ||
Na jāyate mriyate vā kadāchin nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ.
Ajo nityaḥ shāshvato ’yaṁ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamNāne śharīre.- Gita 2.17
“On the destruction of the body, the soul never gets destroyed.”
Why? Because it was never created. It was never given birth to. Aja (unborn) means no birth, no beginning. God is aja (unborn), eternal. So is one aja (unborn), the soul. And the other aja (unborn), maya (cosmic ignorance). The three eternal tattvas (principles): Brahma (Absolute), jeev (individual soul), maya (cosmic ignorance). No one gave birth to anyone; no one created anyone.
These three are eternal.
So the eternal ‘I’, “Who am I?”
If you want to come to one answer only,: “I am that eternal, Divine, individual soul.”
Nitya (constant), constantly it is the same. The soul never ever undergoes a change. Never think that the soul was given birth by someone - not even by God. So what to say of any parents, any material persons.
