Now it is time to understand 'Who am I'?

A great man had said 'The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.' And the most important thing in our life is to know our own self, which indeed is the true purpose of life.

- DEEPA PADHI

It is really strange and interesting as we are not only ignorant of our own selves, but we cannot even see our own face, which is supposed to be the most important part of the body for our identification.

Most people believe that our identity is tied to our physical body, as each one of us is a creation in the physical world. But when a person dies, we say 'Mr. X is no more, while the body is still there. Then what goes away?

Rene Descartes, a French philosopher, defines 'I' as a thinking being. He says 'Cogito ergo sum' (I think, therefore I am). John Locke, a British empiricist philosopher, argued that personal identity comes from memory. Therefore, we are only the sum of our experiences. Jean-Paul Sartre, a French Philosopher and an exponent of Existentialism, thought that we are not bound by a static identity. Today, one may have a particular educational qualification, which may change after a couple of years. Therefore, Identity should not be regarded as a destination; it is a journey, according to Sartre.

In the book, At the Feet of The Master, it is stated - 'Do not mistake your bodies for yourself - neither the physical body nor the astral nor the mental. Each one of them will pretend to be the Self to gain what it wants. But you must know them all, and know yourself as their master.'

Advaita Vedanta postulates that there are five layers or sheaths of our individual self with different names. The layers are - Physical (Annamaya Kosha), Energy layer (Pranamaya Kosa), Mental layer (Manomaya Kosa), Intuition layer (Vijnanamaya Kosha) and Blissful experience (Anandamaya Kosha).

The self with the physical layer is our outward and social personality with which we identify our physical appearance, qualification, status, wealth, honour, etc.