Is There Any Way To Realize Who Am I?

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Our identity forms the basis on which we live and thrive in worldly life.

We often identify ourselves with what we think we are or with what others think that we are. We identify ourselves with the society and community that we live in, with our career, with family, parental background, our values, education, culture, religion, cast, creed, and many more things. We not only identify, we very much exist based on these beliefs. But when any of this belief is hampered in any way or even if slightest tremor causes this basis to shake, we get disturbed; we feel insecure and become restless.

At this point, there’s a need to think, ‘do these material world identities really define our existence?’ No, how can they? All these identities are prone to change. If our very basis is changeable (not permanent), how can we ideally identify ourselves with it?

So what is our permanent identity, then? What can we consider ourselves to be in reality, permanently and for infinity? Come, let’s find out….

Who am I?

Suppose you are asked, “Who are you?” you would reply, “I am XYZ (please insert your own name here)”. And when asked, “What is your name?” your answer could be, “My name is XYZ.”

Do you see a contradiction in these two statements – ‘I am XYZ’ and ‘My name is XYZ’? It is like equating the terms, “My house” and “I am house”; absurd, isn’t it? The owner and the thing he owns (‘my’) have to be different. So your name and the owner of this name cannot be one and the same.

Factually, whatever falls under ‘MY’, for that ‘I’ is the owner.

So, you are the owner of the name you have and not the name itself. ‘I’ and ‘my’ are two separate things. You say ‘My body’; not ‘I am Body’.

Body is separate from you and it will end up one day, die one day. But ‘I’ never dies, it takes another body. Hence name is temporary but your true self is not; that’s permanent. ‘My’ is relative and temporary and will come to end one day. ‘I’ is permanent and is there to remain always.

How can one realize “Who am I?” Is there any way to know it?

There is certainly a way to realize “Who am I”, and that is called Self-realization.

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There are two paths:

1. Step by step path: This is the Kramik path to realize one’s Self, where one-by-one we renounce the worldly things and focus on leaving all that is considered to be bad on the path of salvation eg. anger, pride, deceit, greed. And once these get removed, ultimately we reach the state of Pure Soul and realize the real self.

2. Stepless path: This is the Akram path on which just by the grace of the Enlightened One, we gain the Knowledge of ‘Who am I’ and attain Self-Realization within only two hours.

Let’s understand the two paths through an example.

Suppose, since many years, you own a shop which you now decide to sell off, you will have to sell each and every item in stock and finally you sell off the shop too. Similarly here, anger – pride – deceit – greed – attachment – hatred are all baggage contained in the shop named XYZ. This is the step by step path which seems like a fairly long and tough process. After selling off each and every baggage, we get free from the baggage and we realize ‘I am Pure Soul’.

On the other hand, on the stepless path, by grace of the Enlightened One, you directly realize, ‘I am not XYZ, I am a Pure Soul’. The entitlement changes straightaway. Thus, you are no more the owner of the shop nor of the name of the shop nor do you own any of the baggage lying in it, namely the body, anger – pride – deceit – greed – attachment – hatred. When you remain in the awareness of ‘I am not XYZ, I am a Pure Soul’, all the baggage in the XYZ shop automatically drops off – at its appropriate time as and when incidents take place.

Where can we find the Enlightened person? Are they present in today’s world?

One such enlightened person is Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, the founder of the stepless Akram path. Presently Dadashri is no more. After him, Pujya Niruma, and thereafter Pujya Deepakbhai Desai, who have been lovingly blessed by Param Pujya Dadashri, are the Enlightened beings (Gnani Purush) who continue to grace the masses with Self –realization i.e. bestow the Knowledge of Who am I.

So, Pujya Deepakbhai is the Enlightened One, who is very much present in today’s world!!! Just go see him and receive His grace – that’s the easiest way to realize ‘Who am I’ even today.

To know more about Self-Realization, please click here: https://www.dadabhagwan.org/self-realization/

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