14 August 2025
Thursday
If anybody accosts a person and asks him, “Who are you?”, out of his identification with the body, he gives his name in reply. In answer to further questions, he introduces himself as a doctor, a farmer, a student, or the like. When the enquiry goes further, he identifies himself with his nationality as an American, an Indian, a Pakistani, and so on. When you examine these answers deeply, you will find that none of them gives the truth. He got his name from his parents. It did not belong to him at birth. His identification with one or other of his professions is not true because he is not the profession. What then is the truth about him? “I am the Atma. That is my true Self.” That is the truth. But people identify themselves with their names, professions, and nationality and do not base their lives on the Atma. No driver of a car identifies with the car. Likewise, the body is a car, and the Atma is the driver. Forgetting one’s true role as a driver, one identifies one’s self with the body, which is only a vehicle.
From Swami’s discourse of 23 August 1995
Also on words from this discourse: A Ceiling on Wants, 12 August 2025
If anybody accosts a person and asks him, “Who are you?”, out of his identification with the body, he gives his name in reply. In answer to further questions, he introduces himself as a doctor, a farmer, a student, or the like. When the enquiry goes further, he identifies himself with his nationality as an American, an Indian, a Pakistani, and so on. When you examine these answers deeply, you will find that none of them gives the truth. He got his name from his parents. It did not belong to him at birth. His identification with one or other of his professions is not true because he is not the profession. What then is the truth about him? “I am the Atma. That is my true Self.” That is the truth. But people identify themselves with their names, professions, and nationality and do not base their lives on the Atma. No driver of a car identifies with the car. Likewise, the body is a car, and the Atma is the driver. Forgetting one’s true role as a driver, one identifies one’s self with the body, which is only a vehicle.