chapter

1 Who am i?

There is fragrance in a flower, oil in sesame, fire in wood, ghee in milk,

and brown sugar in sugarcane. In the same way the intelligent perceive
the spirit soul residing within the body.
— Chanakya Pandit

Let’s T H I N K About It

1. What is your real identity? Are you a student? Are you an Indian?
Are you a Hindu? Who are you really?

2. We identify ourselves with the body and the things related to the
body. But the question remains, are we really the body?

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 Let’s R E A D and Learn

Who am I? To ask oneself this question is a very important part of human life.
Unfortunately, very few people ask themselves this question. And even more
rarely do they come to the correct answer! The whole purpose of human life,
the foremost priority, is to find out “Who am I?”

According to the holy scriptures, human life

starts when one begins to inquire about the
self and God. We can understand who is a
human being and who is not yet a human
Who am I ?
being from the quality of their inquisitiveness.
Animals are inquisitive only about eating,
sleeping, mating, and defending. If, even after attaining this rare human body,
one only inquires about these four things, then such a person is no better than
an animal. Therefore, the scriptures tell us about dvipada-pashu, “two-legged
animals.”

I don’t have time to understand

the values of life!

A human being who is interested only in these four things,

viz., eating, sleeping, mating and defending and does not in-
quire about God is considered a two-legged animal.
Thus, we should know that the prime goal of life is to ask, “Who am I?” Without
knowing this, human life will remain imperfect, incomplete, and useless.

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Knowing The Self
We are spirit souls, part and parcel of God. The Bhagavad Gita (2.13) explains:

As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood

to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at
death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.

Every living being is an individual soul and is changing his body every
moment, manifesting sometimes as a child, sometimes as a youth, and
sometimes as an old person. Yet, the same spirit soul is there and does not
undergo any change. This individual soul finally changes the body at death
and transmigrates to another body.

Can we see the soul ?

The soul, being non-material or spiritual, cannot be seen through man– made
instruments like microscopes, but can only be understood through holy
scriptures which are the words of God or His bonafide representatives.
The real owner of the body, the soul, resides inside the body. The body is just
like a garment. When a garment gets old, we replace it with a new one. In the

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 same way, when the body gets old and is no longer in good order, the soul leaves to take
up residence in a new body. The body changes but the soul does not.

If someone saw me once when I was two

years old but never saw me again until
today when I am 60 years old, would that
person recognize me?

No, because your body has changed, your mind

has changed, your intelligence has changed. And yet,
even if all of these have changed, you are still the same
person. You are the spirit soul, not the body.

The Proof Of The Soul – Consciousness

If we bring a lamp into a dark room, the room will immediately become brighter
and darkness will dissipate. And if we remove the lamp from
that room, then once again the room will be dark and devoid of
light. The lamp provides illumination.

In the same way, the soul, like a lamp, enters the body and
makes it conscious – the soul illuminates the body with
consciousness. And as soon as the soul leaves the body, the
body loses all symptoms of consciousness. The soul, or
living being, is conscious, and it therefore makes the body
conscious. As long as the soul is there inside the body, the
body remains conscious. But as soon as the soul leaves the
body, the body becomes unconscious. The thing that makes
the body conscious is known as the living being, the soul.

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 Removing
electric current

If connected to electricity, a loud- Without electricity, the loudspeaker

speaker can amplify sound. is nothing more than an assembly of
metal, plastics, etc.

Similarly

The living force

leaves the body at
death

Without the living force, the dead body

The presence of living force alone decomposes and loses its form. (It is the
makes the body appear to be alive. soul alone that gives form to matter.)

Hence, death is the departure of the spirit soul from the material body. The soul is the real
person, the ‘I’ who resides within the body. And when the soul leaves, the body decays.

The Spirit Soul Never Dies

The body is temporary. It has been created, and it will be destroyed. At one time,
this body did not exist. Now it exists. But one day in the future, it will no longer
exist. This body is not eternal. In the material world, all living entities – human
beings, animals, tress, insects and birds – undergo birth and death. The spirit soul,
however, suffers neither birth nor death. The spirit soul exists eternally. It was
never created, nor will it ever be destroyed. The soul always exists. It exists now,
and it will continue to exist in the future. In the Bhagavad Gita (2.12), Lord Krishna
tells Arjuna that there was never a time when the soul did not exist, and there will
never be a time when the soul will not exist.
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 What is the size of the soul and what is it made
up of ? where in the body is the soul situated?

The atma, or soul, is situated in the heart of every living entity and it is not made
up of matter like solids, liquids, or gases. The soul is a beautiful personality whose
body is made up of sat-cit-ananda (eternity-bliss-knowledge). The Upanishads says
that the soul is roughly one ten–thousandth the size of the tip of a hair.

S torY T ime
My dear grandmother

There was a boy who loved his grandmother very much. The boy would go to school
everyday, and also go out to play with his friends in
the evenings, and whenever he returned home, his
grandmother would shower him with love and affection.
Naturally, the boy developed deep attachment for his
grandmother.
One day, the boy saw his grandmother lying on
her bed motionless. The boy thought that she
was relaxing. After some time, the boy went out
for shopping. While he was shopping, he meet a
family friend who told him that his grandmother

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had died. The boy returned home immediately where he found his family members
standing over the body of his grandmother, crying. They were all lamenting, saying, “My
mother is gone...” “My wife is gone...” and so on.
Now, the boy was thinking, “Before I went to the market,
I saw my grandmother lying on the bed. I can see that
she is still lying on the same bed. Then why are all these

people crying? Why are

they saying, “My mother
is gone...” and “My wife
is gone...”? Where has
she gone? What is it
that’s gone? Where is that
person who hugged me
and spoke to me?

Moral
The soul is the “person within the body.” At the time of death, the soul leaves the
body and transmigrates to another body depending upon his/her past activities.

LIVING BODY = SOUL + MATTER

DEAD BODY = MATTER
DEAD BODY = LIVING BODY – SOUL

which means that the soul passes away at the time of death.

All Living Beings Are Children Of God

There are 84 lakh different forms of life as shown below and the soul is present
in all forms of life. Of all these species of life, the human form is considered
the best, because only in the human form of life does one have the developed
intelligence required to understand God.

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 The soul may occupy any 9 lakh 4 lakh
Humans
kind of body from amongst 84 Aquatics

lakhs species of life. It may be

the body of a human being or 10 lakh
Birds
an insect or an animal. In this 30 lakh
Animals
way, the soul keeps revolving
11 lakh
in the cycle of birth and death.
Insects &
Thus, the body is only a dress Reptiles

for the soul and the bodies of

different species are just like
20 lakh
different types of dresses. All Plants

living beings, in various bodies like human beings, animals, trees, insects, birds, etc.,
are children of God.
The soul in its original state is always linked to God in a bond of loving devotional
service.
Bodily Happiness Cannot Satisfy The Soul
It is very surprising that most of our life revolves around
pursuing the temporary and flickering pleasures of this
world. We forget the spirit soul, which is eternal. It
is equally amazing that people accept the body to be
permanent and are attached to it. This becomes the
cause of their misery in life.
There was once a man who had a pet parrot that was
kept in a golden cage. He cleaned and polished the cage
everyday but neglected the parrot completely. Soon,
being deprived of food and water, the parrot died. It is explained that the body is
like a cage and the soul is like
Similarly, our modern society is simply a cage polish- a bird within. If one simply
polishes the cage but neglects to
ing civilization that caters to the unlimited demands of
feed the bird, what will be the
the body, but completely ignores the needs of the soul. result?
How then can there be peace and happiness in society?
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Let’s A N S W E R

1. The following sentences explain the differences between the body and the
soul. With the help of the picture, fill in the blanks with one of the two words:
body/soul.

a. The _______ is material. The _______ is spiritual.

b. The _______ goes through six changes. The

_______ never changes at all.

c. The _______ is made of the inferior energy of

God. The _______ is the superior energy of God.

d. The _______ is not the cause of the _______.

The _______ is the cause of the _______.

e. The _______ is not conscious. The _______ is

conscious.

f. The _______ is made of the eight material ele-

ments: earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and ego. The _______
is spiritual.

g. The _______ has individuality, while the _______ has no individuality.

h. The _______ has form, while the _______ has to be given a form.

2. Write the answer in one word only.

a. In the story “My Dear Grandmother,” who has passed

away if the body of grandmother is still lying there?
________

b. This story shows that I am not this body. I am the

_______, part and parcel of God.

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 3. The following pairs of words explain the difference between God and me. Fill
in the blank spaces by choosing an appropriate word from the box.

Maintainer Energy Created

God Myself (soul)

Controller Controlled

__________ Maintained

Never forgets Prone to forget

Energetic __________

Eternal master Eternal servant

Creator __________

4. Study the following examples to understand the relationship between the

body and the soul and fill in the blanks by selecting an appropriate word
from the box.
Useless Death Body
Soul Person Garment

a. Driver in the car

The body is like a car and the soul within the body is like the driver.

i. A car without a driver and a body without the soul are

_______. The _______ is like a vehicle for the soul.

ii. Simply by taking care of the car by washing, polishing,

etc., the driver cannot be satisfied. Similarly, no amount of
bodily care can satisfy the _______.
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 Moral: Loving the Supreme Lord by chanting His Holy Names is food for
the soul.

b. Tenant (Resident) in the house

The body is like a house and the spirit soul is like a resident of that
house.
i. One stays in a cheaper or more expensive home ac-
cording to one’s paying capacity. Similarly, one gets
superior or inferior bodies according to one’s karma
(actions) in past lives. _______ is like leaving one
house to enter another house. The resident (soul) is
not destroyed. Simply the house is changed.

c. Person in the dress

As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones,
the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving
up the old and useless ones.

i. Here, our material body is compared to a _______

and the _______ is compared to the soul.

5. State whether the following statements are true or false.

a. The spirit soul finally changes the body at death and transmigrates
to another body.

b. There are 8,460,000 different species of life.

c. The soul is only a dress for the body.

d. Animals and birds also have a soul.

e. The soul has a form and is situated in the region of the heart.

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