What we are doing here is to bring ourselves to understand who we are, what we are, what is the reality, what is life. Do you ever inquire or question as such? Like now you are inquiring as to what we are doing here, what is our teaching…

What do you consider yourselves to be? Have you given it a thought ever? Do you ever enquire? Who am I? What is my true identity? You associate yourselves with some role usually – I would say almost always. But this is all temporary, is it not? So, is there something more?

You have a job so you associate yourself with the job; but you are not the job – you have just taken the job. Before the job you exist, and when the job is finished you still continue to exist. Have you ever considered this? But always the thought-identification is with what you are doing or your relationships: relative experience – it is relative, therefore – your relatives. You are the son of somebody, the brother of another, and, if you are married, the husband of some woman. These are relationships you identify with, and this is how you explain yourself. But before this relationship, did you exist or did you not? These are changing relationships, changing identities. So the question is, is there an identity that is beside all these changing relative identities?

How do you consider yourself? Do you ever give it a thought? Do you ever question as to who are you, what are you? If I question you, who are you, what will you say? How do you define yourself? How do you normally reply if one were to ask you – who are you?

Like yesterday, since it is pertaining to the job, I would ask and you would say, “I am a Bajaj representative.” But are you only that? It is only a relative identity; it is only pertaining to this moment, it is only pertaining to a job. It is only an identity you have taken upon yourself in a life situation. But before that you still existed and after that you will still continue to exist. These are all relative identities – is there something that is permanent, absolute? Something that is always eternal in you? Or are you only temporary – these changing identities? So what are you? Do you ever inquire?

You identify with a particular place, but that is temporary again. Lot of times there is conflict: you are from the South, I am from the North – so we have a fight. I am a Hindu, you are a Muslim – so fight again, whenever there is conflict of interests because of being fixed in certain relative identities. This is how we continue to live a life of relativity. But is there something that continues to exist, an eternal existence? I am not saying it is there, yet – I am just questioning now.

What I am trying to inspire in you now is self-inquiry, because it is very valid. You say, “I am this – I am that.” You are given a name and you associate yourself with that name alone. You have a family name: you associate with that family alone. But – did you exist before that family relationship? And will you or will you not exist after that relationship? We have our parents – but a time comes when they pass away. Those, we have with great love and affection called upon as ‘father’ and ‘mother’, they are gone one day – but you continue to remain. The role is over, your relationship is over; it is there in memory only – and at times even that memory fades. You are not memory – it is your memory, but you are not memory! You had a relationship, but it is over now: you have a memory of it, and you still continue to exist with the memory – but you are not the memory. So you are more than the relationship, you are more than the memory. You can have the memory: it is an identity, a relative one, through which you work in life, associate and interact.

So who are you? What is the ground wherein all this happens – this change, this mutation? All relationships are changing! So who and what is this ‘I’ whenever you say ‘I’? It is the first word you use: if I ask who are you, then you start to say, “I am…” ‘I’ is the first word. Who is this ‘I’? What is this ‘I’?

Well, for the moment ego can be termed as this relative identification – this is how you function, this is your reference point presently. But is there something more behind all this relative identification? We immediately say, “I am this”: you give your name, your family name, you give your property identifications, you even say if you are rich, “I am rich,” and if you are not so rich you say, “I am poor.” But these are only conditions, which are relative: they are not absolute – they can change. Somebody who is rich today can become poor tomorrow; somebody who is poor today can become rich tomorrow.

These things in fact seem unreal, in the sense that they are not permanent but ever in flux, ever-changing – except at times it takes a long time in changing so it kind of gives you a false sense of permanence – but is there something that does not change in you? Is there something that continues? You remain – whenever the relationship changes. Parents pass away – you still remain. The relationship is over, it remains in memory: the feelings are there. Friends also change: a friend of today can turn into a no-friend tomorrow. You may have a girlfriend today, and after a few years you may decide to get married; but after a while something happens and the relationship falls apart… So, do you ever think, inquire within yourselves what is the truth about yourselves?

Arya Vihar

15 Nov 1997