Question and answer 3

How does one actually make the enquiry, Who am I?

Going, coming, and everything of that kind belong to the body and to nothing else — which is why it looks as though the body were the one saying "I". But the body was not here before it was born; it is made of the five elements; it is not there in deep sleep; and in the end it becomes a corpse. Can that be the consciousness that says "I"? Does this body, insentient as a log, throb of itself and go about saying "I, I"?

That borrowed consciousness which rises with reference to the body and calls itself "I" is what goes by many names: the ego, ahaṅkāra, ignorance, māyā, taint, the individual soul. Is one to leave it unexamined? The whole of scripture came into being so that one might examine it, know it, and be free; and scripture cries out that the ending of that ego is itself liberation.

So: let the corpse-like body be a corpse, and do not say "I" of it even in speech. Then ask, keenly — what is this that rises now as "I"? At that, in the Heart, with no sound of "I, I" at all, there is a kind of pulsing; the thoughts that were broken and many fall away, and what is unbroken and single — sheer knowing — shows itself, by itself. Stay with that and do not let go, and it will consume utterly the ego-consciousness that says "the body is I"; and then, like a fire that has caught camphor, it too will grow still. That is what the great ones and the śrutis call liberation.

To enquire "Who am I?" — how is it done?

Going, coming and the rest of the activities belong to the body and to nothing else — so it appears as though the body itself were saying "I". But the body was not there before it was born, it is made of the five elements, it is absent in deep sleep, and it goes on to become a corpse: can that be spoken of as the consciousness which says "I"? Does this body, an insentient thing like a log, pulse and issue forth as "I, I"? The consciousness which, in this derivative way, rises with reference to the body as "I" is what is called by many names — the ego-sense, ahaṅkāra, ignorance, māyā, taint, the individual soul. Can one leave off enquiring into this? It is precisely so that one may enquire, know, and be delivered, that all the scriptures came to be, and they proclaim "the destruction of the ego-sense is itself liberation". Therefore, holding the corpse-like body to be a corpse and not saying "I" of it even in speech, if one enquires keenly — what is it that now rises as "I"? — then in the Heart, without the sound "I, I", a certain pulsation, that is to say: the thoughts that were broken and many having gone, the unbroken and single sheer knowing will show itself of its own accord. If one does not let go of that but remains still, it will utterly destroy the individual-consciousness in the form of the ego that says "the body is I", and at last, like fire that has taken hold of camphor, it too will grow quiet. This is what is called liberation by the great ones and by the śrutis.