Who am I? - Deepak Chopra

"Vedanta also says that the five causes of suffering are all contained in the first cause — not knowing who we are. If we can answer this one basic question, Who am I? we may find the answer to all other related questions like, Where did I come from? What is the meaning and purpose of my life? Where do I go when I die?"

Deepak Chopra

"According to Vedanta, there are only five reasons why humans suffer. The first is not knowing who we are. The second is identifying with our ego or self-image. The third is clinging to that which is transient and unreal. The fourth is recoiling in fear of that which is transient and unreal. And the fifth is the fear of death.

Vedanta also says that the five causes of suffering are all contained in the first cause — not knowing who we are. If we can answer this one basic question, Who am I? we may find the answer to all other related questions like, Where did I come from? What is the meaning and purpose of my life? Where do I go when I die?

Now, if someone were to ask, "Who are you?" your response would probably be "Oh, my name is so-and-so. I'm an American, or I am Japanese, or I am the president of this company. All these answers refer to your self-image or to an object outside your self: a name, a place, a circumstance. This process of identifying with your self- image or the objects of your experience is called object referral.

You may also identify with your body and say "This is my body. This bag of flesh and bones is who I am." But then the question is, What is the body, and why call it yours? The body that you call yours, is really the raw material of the universe: recycled earth, water, and air. But so is the tree outside your window. Why call the body yours when you do not call the stars, the moon, or the tree outside your window yours? Of course your body seems nearer to you, but this assumes that you know where the "I am" that you think you are is physically located.

Many people somehow feel that the "I" they call themselves, the skin- encapsulated awareness, is located somewhere in their head. Other people think it's located somewhere behind the heart or solar plexus. But no scientific experiment has ever found a center of awareness in any one location in space or time.

An interesting insight that comes to us from both Vedic Science and the Jewish Kabbalah is that the center of our awareness is the center of all space and time. It is at once everywhere and nowhere. But let's assume for a moment that indeed your awareness is located where you are physically sitting. If this universe has infinite dimensions - and physicists assure us that it does - then infinity extends in all directions from where you are.

You are in the center of the universe, but so am I because infinity extends in all directions from where I am. Infinity also extends in all directions from a peasant in China, a dog in Siberia, and a tree in Africa. The truth is, I am here, but I am also everywhere else because here is there from every other point in space. You are there, but you are also everywhere else because there is everywhere, or nowhere specifically.

In other words, location in space is a matter of perception. When we say the moon is near, the sun is far, that's only true from one vantage point. In reality, there is no up or down, north or south, east or west, here or there. These are only points of reference for our convenience. Everything in the cosmos is non-local, meaning we can't confine it to here, there, or anywhere.

But my eyes tell me this is not the case. I am here, you are there, wherever you are. So maybe we should not trust our senses that much. My eyes tell me that the Earth is flat, but nobody believes that anymore. Sensory experience tells me that the ground I am standing on is stationary, but I know from science that the earth is spinning on its axis and hurtling through outer space at thousands of miles an hour. Sensory experience tells me that the objects of my perception are solid, but that's not true either. We know they are made up of atoms, which in turn are particles that whirl around huge empty spaces. These are all superstitions that I've developed because I've learned to trust my senses.

The universe is actually a chaos of energy soup, and we ingest this soup through our five senses, and then convert it into a material reality in our consciousness. Our senses transform massless energy into form and solidity, texture and color, fragrance and taste, sound and vibration. And our interpretation of that energy soup structures our reality and creates our perceptual experience. Most of the time we do this unconsciously as a result of social conditioning. Scientists have called this the hypnosis of social conditioning. I call it the superstition of materialism.

The superstition of materialism relies on sensory experience as the crucial test of reality. In this world-view, reality is what we can see with our eyes, what we can touch with our hands, hear with our ears, smell with our nose, taste with our mouth, or touch with or hands. If energy or information is not available to our senses, we tend to think it isn't there. And the intellect, with its linguistically structured system of logic, serves to justify this mistaken perception of reality.

Sensory experience is totally illusory; it's as transient as a fantasy or a dream. Is there really such a thing as the color red? Every color you see is a particular wavelength of light, and the light you can actually detect is a fraction of what exists. How long can you cling to a world of illusion? You may think you are the body that your senses can locate in space and time, but the body is a field of invisible vibrations that has no boundaries in space and time.

So maybe you are not the image you identify with, and maybe you are not the body. Then at least you must be your thoughts and feelings. But who can honestly claim to know where thoughts and feelings come from? Where do thoughts come from, and where do they disappear?

If you can't claim exclusivity over the objects of your experience, your body, or even your thoughts and feelings, then what can you call your own? And here the knowledge of Vedanta saves us. If we replace the word exclusive with the word inclusive then you are not just these objects, you are not just this body, you are not just these thoughts and feelings. You are all things, you are all bodies, you are all thoughts and feelings. You are a field of all possibilities.

The essential you, your real essence, is a field of awareness that interacts with its own self and then becomes both mind and body. In other words, you are consciousness or spirit, which then conceives, constructs, governs, and becomes the mind and the body. The real you is inseparable from the patterns of intelligence that permeate every fiber of creation.

At the deepest level of existence, you are Being, and you are nowhere and everywhere at the same time. There is no other "you" than the entire cosmos. The cosmic mind creates the physical universe, and the personal mind experiences the physical universe. But in truth, the cosmic mind and the personal mind are both permeated by infinite consciousness. Infinite consciousness is our source, and all manifestation is inherent within it.

Infinite consciousness observing itself creates the notion of observer, or the soul; the process of observation, or the mind; and that which is observed, or the body and the world. The observer and the observed create relationships between themselves; this is space. The movement of these relationships creates events; this is time. But all these are none other than the infinite consciousness itself.

In other words, we are infinite consciousness with a localized point of view. And yet our whole system of thought divides the observer from the observed; it divides the infinite consciousness into a world of objects separated by space and time. The intellect imprisons us in a cage of fictitious images, a suffocating web of space, time, and causation. As a result, we lose touch with the true nature of our reality, which is powerful, boundless, immortal, and free.

We are all prisoners of the intellect. And the intellect's mistake in one simple sentence is this: It mistakes the image of reality for reality itself. It squeezes the soul into the volume of a body, in the span of a lifetime, and now the spell of mortality is cast. The image of the self overshadows the unbounded Self, and we feel cut off or disconnected from infinite consciousness, our source.

This is the beginning of fear, the onset of suffering, and all the problems of humanity from our minor insecurities to our major catastrophes like war, terrorism, and all other acts of human degradation. To one who is trapped in the prison of the intellect, all indeed is suffering. But the cause of the suffering can and should be averted. Ignorance of our real nature causes the inner self to be obscured. But when ignorance is destroyed, the powerful, unbounded, free nature of the self is revealed.

At first this may sound strange and abstract, but as you bear with this notion and understand it, you realize the most dramatic discovery: The real you is nonmaterial and therefore not subject to the limitations of space, time, matter, and causation. The soul, the spirit, the essential you, is beyond all that. In this very moment, you are surrounded by a pure consciousness. Pure consciousness illuminates and animates your mind and body, and it is powerful, nourishing, invincible, unbounded, and free. Pure consciousness, the eternal spirit, animates everything in existence, which means it is omniscient (all knowing), omnipresent (present in all locations simultaneously), and omnipotent (all powerful)."

Deepak Chopra: Power, Freedom and Grace, pages 13-22,
Hardcover: 232 pages
Publisher: Amber-Allen Publishing (July 31, 2006)
ISBN-10: 1878424815
ISBN-13: 978-1878424815

"Vedanta, one of the world's most ancient philosophies, is based on the Vedas and Upanishads, which are the earliest and most sacred scriptures of India. Regarded by many historians as the oldest surviving texts of humanity, these scriptures were said to be revealed by God rather than created by humans.

The word veda means knowledge, and the Vedas are considered to have existed since the beginning of creation. Centuries before they were written, the Vedas were passed on orally from teacher to student in the form of exact verses chanted in precise patterns of a three-note scale.

Vedanta tells us that our true nature is divine. The divine Self is the underlying reality and source of all that exists, and to realize this truth experientially is the goal of Vedanta. Revered for its enduring wisdom, Vedanta is a timeless philosophy that expresses the heart of all religions and spiritual doctrines."

Deepak Chopra: Power, Freedom and Grace, page 219
Hardcover: 232 pages
Publisher: Amber-Allen Publishing (July 31, 2006)
ISBN-10: 1878424815
ISBN-13: 978-1878424815

Main Entry: experiential
relating to, derived from, or providing experience : empirical

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Main Entry: empirical
1 : originating in or based on observation or experience
2 : relying on experience or observation alone often without due regard for system and theory
3 : capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

"At the core of Hinduism is the synthesis of sat (existence), chit (consciousness) and anant (infinity) as found in the texts of the Vedas and the Upanishads said to date back to 2500 B.C. These truths known as shruti (heard) were revealed to sages in an inspired state of mind, and were handed down for centuries from teacher to pupil by word of mouth. The techniques of transmitting the shruti verse were so accurate and precise that when they were finally written down, manuscripts composed independently were found to agree syllable by syllable, Rukamani (Ph.D) said."

The Gazette (Montreal, Canada), April 23, 1996

The Spirit-Paraclete Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi is
Christian by birth, Hindu by
marriage, and Paraclete by duty

"The Self is the Spirit. This Spirit resides in the heart of every human being and is in a witness-like state.

The Spirit is the projection of God Almighty, while the Kundalini is the projection of the power of God, of His desire which is the Primordial Mother, or you can call it Adi Shakti, Holy Ghost or Athena.

So the Kundalini is the projection of the Holy Ghost, while the Spirit is the projection of God Almighty.

The All-pervading Power of Love is the power of the Primordial Mother, which creates and evolves, and does all the living work."

Shri Mataji Nirmal Devi

Question: How does one discard all the organization and useless activities (of Sahaja Yoga) and seek her (Holy Spirit/Adi Shakti) only in the Sahastrara (Kingdom of God)?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: Despite being years in Sahaja Yoga I do not agree with what our leaders are doing. I am thinking of leaving my collective. Can you suggest something that will help me continue on my own?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: I am a Muslim who absolutely am against worshipping of any idol or image. How then is Sahaja Yoga and Shri Mataji compatible with Islam?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: We are devout Christians who are very uncomfortable with Hindu rituals, and see the same in Sahaja Yoga. Is there any way we can do without such rituals?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: You loudly claim on your website that all religions and holy scriptures preach the same message. I don't see such evidence. What have you got to say?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: I do not want to meditate on anything non-Christian but agree that the Holy Spirit is feminine. How do I only worship the Holy Spirit but not the Adi Shakti?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: My parents and husband are against worshipping Shri Mataji. How can I solve this serious family problem but still continue to practice Sahaja Yoga without their knowledge?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: I completely agree with your belief that if you have to take a single step in any direction to seek the Divine you are going the wrong way. How and why did you reach this incredible conclusion only now despite spending so many years meditating, checking the scriptures and listening to Shri Mataji's speeches?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: How can we spread Shri Mataji's message successfully? So many have failed all these years and Sahaja Yoga is very slow. Most of the seekers have never heard of Shri Mataji. Other than Her Divine Message what can we teach new seekers that will attract them?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: I do not want to follow any religious organization or yoga teacher but still am interested in spirituality. You think that is possible?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: My mother-in-law is totally against Shri Mataji and regards Her as just another false guru. But I know Shri Mataji is the Adi Shakti and want to continue. However, i do not want to antagonize my mother-in-law. Any suggestions?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: I am a Sikh. I am completely against any Hindu ritual or worshipping of their idols and gods. Sikhism is completely against such practices. But Sahaja Yoga is also so full of such rituals and gods. What have you got to say, being a Sikh yourself?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: I am getting somewhat ridiculed for my own spiritual experiences regarding the crown chakra and the divine feminine. People think I'm weird by emphasizing that the Devi is the true nature of brahman and it is creating doubt about my path (despite my own experiences). Should I continue with my meditations and ignore them or try to explain to them? What do you suggest?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: There is so much information about yoga and meditation. I am so confused and do not know which path to take. What then is the truth? How do I attain it?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: I have been in Sahaja Yoga for years but still do not know what is Self-realization. Can you tell me in detail what you understand by it?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: I have been a SY for many years and some of us find shoe-beating and some rituals quite absurd. You also are against them. How then can we solve our subtle system problems without such treatments?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: I am a Muslim living in Pakistan who want to practice Sahaja Yoga. But there are no centers here. How can I continue?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: What will happen after Shri Mataji passes away? Will She still be in the photograph? Where will the vibrations come from then?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: I have just started meditating on Shri Mataji in the Sahasrara but find it very difficult. Is there a better way?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: I do not want to join Sahaja Yoga but believe in a number of Shri Mataji's teachings. Can you help me?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: I am an established SYogini who am concerned at the way the organization is heading. However, I still want to spread Shri Mataji's teachings. What do you suggest I tell others?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: I want to practice meditation but find it impossible to stop the thoughts. I value you opinion. If you don't mind my asking, but how do you do it?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: What is the shortest and surest route to realize God?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: Some religions claim that humans are divine in nature and that liberation is from within. Can you tell me how all this is realized in such a hectic and materialistic world?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: As a SY I am concerned that after Shri Mataji takes Mahasamadhi there will great grief and sense of loss. How can I cope with this eventuality and continue my faith and devotion? Do I continue to meditate on Her photo even though She is not physically present anymore?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: Jagbir, you are already telling us to discard Shri Mataji's photo and meditate on Her is the Sahasrara. A number of SYs have been offended by this and have left. What makes you so sure you are right?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: What is the most profound and deepest enlightenment you have discovered after all these years, based on the teachings of Shri Mataji? She also claims that all religions teach the same truth about the spirit. How is that so given all the religious differences and centuries-old rivalry?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: Hi, man-made religions, sects and denominations are wide spread. So much misdeeds and divisions are committed and blood is shed in the name of God and religion. Is there a way to make humans realize that they are all worshipping the One and same Creator, no matter how different religious organizations have made God to be?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

Question: It seems that religions are all preaching about a God that is to be found only in their organizations. Why then is it that the Divine can only be realized through one's own experience? What and where is God then?

Answer: Silence on Spirit

NOTE: If this page was accessed during a web search you may wish to browse the sites listed below where this topic or related issues are discussed in detail to promote global peace, religious harmony, and spiritual development of humanity:

www.adishakti.org/
www.al-qiyamah.org/
www.adi-shakti.org/  — Divine Feminine (Hinduism)
www.holyspirit-shekinah.org/  — Divine Feminine (Christianity)
www.ruach-elohim.org/  — Divine Feminine (Judaism)
www.ruh-allah.org/  — Divine Feminine (Islam)
www.tao-mother.org/  — Divine Feminine (Taoism)
www.prajnaaparamita.org/  — Divine Feminine (Buddhism)
www.aykaa-mayee.org/  — Divine Feminine (Sikhism)
www.great-spirit-mother.org/  — Divine Feminine (Native Traditions)