It is not uncommon for a person to say who he or she is by speaking about their acquisitions, accomplishments, ambitions, contributions, heritage, philanthropy, status, or wealth.聽 Most of us want to leave a mark in this world; we want to be remembered.聽 Some of us spend an inordinate amount of time and effort in this endeavour.聽 (Modern technology has certainly made this quite within our grasp).聽 Do we ever answer the question of who we are by referencing our dark or destructive aspects?聽 (Some admittedly have done this by writing best-selling autobiographical books).聽 In this brief article, I wish to explore self identity from the Hindu perspective.
鈥淚 am a doctor, lawyer, architect, actor, author鈥�.聽 鈥淚 am the president, biggest donor, liberal, activist, founder, inventor鈥�.聽 鈥淚 am 91原创, British, French, American鈥�.聽 鈥淚 am a parent, grandparent, friend, caregiver鈥�.聽 鈥淚 am Man Booker prize winner, Olympian, member of the Order of Canada鈥�. 聽鈥淚 climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, experienced sunrise at Machu Pichu, lived in a Yurt for a month鈥�.聽 These are all necessary worldly identities.聽 I do not mean to diminish the validity of any of these attributes or accomplishments.聽 There are practical valid reasons for these identities to be expressed explicitly.聽 When I am sick, I want treatment by my doctor, not by my barber (as used to be the case a few centuries ago).聽 I want to belong to my community, and belong to my country.
But do they reveal your real spiritual identity?聽 As you go from child, to student, to professional, to parent, to grandparent, your worldly identity keeps changing.聽 The worldly identity is thus transient.聽 After death, most of these worldly identities cease to exist as well.
In Hinduism, we believe that the true spiritual identity of each person is the Atman (soul).聽 The sacred scripture Bhagavad Gita teaches us that each person鈥檚 atman is actually a fragment of Brahman, the Supreme Being.聽 The atman has taken on a body, acquired the senses, and incorporated a mind.聽 And it is this atman which is our true self, our unchanging identity.
Most of us wander through life unaware of this true nature of our self.聽 Even if we are made aware of this true identity by our spiritual teachers, we are skeptical, because we can not experience this atman through our senses, or through our mind.聽 Unless we have reached a stage of enlightenment.
In fact, most of us go through life without spiritual self awareness, mainly because we are engulfed in the 鈥渧eil of ignorance鈥� called maya.聽 This powerful maya makes us think and believe that we must strive for worldly pleasures, worldly happiness, as if those are everlasting, only to be jolted into realizing that they are transient, the realization staring us in the form of the pain, misery, and unhappiness that we experience.聽 The pain can be of the body or the mind.聽 There is also the ego which can bring us transient happiness, but can also bring pain, misery, and unhappiness.
How can we remove this 鈥渧eil of ignorance鈥� or maya?聽 And understand the true nature of our self.聽 But you may well ask, what is the purpose of this?聽 The purpose is to achieve moksha or liberation, which releases our atman from the state of being attached to this world, from being in the cycle of repeated births and associated misery.
Once enlightened about the true nature of our self (as the first step), we can strive towards enlightenment, and ultimately achieve moksha. 聽And then our atman becomes one with Brahman.
Simple steps will be in my next article.
Suresh Basrur聽practises the Hindu faith, participates in inter-faith activities in Victoria, and speaks to audiences about Hindu religion, philosophy and practices.
You can read more articles from our interfaith blog, Spiritually Speaking,
* This article was published in the print edition of the Times 91原创 on Saturday, April 28 2017
