Gita Introduction

WHO AM I? WHO ARE YOU?

If you were to be asked, “Who are you?,” what would you answer? Perhaps you would

say your name – I am Alexander Hammon, also known as Alexander the Great. But if

you went to a different country where they could not say your name, and called you by a

different name – Alexander the Great was known as Sikander in India and various other

names in other countries – you still remain yourself.

You may answer with your profession, and a general description of yourself, what you

look like, what you do, but all that still does not identify you, nor does it remain constant.

Your physical characteristics change, your occupation/profession can change – but you

are still the same.

We know that each human being has a Body, a Mind, and an Intellect. Many people

describe these most superficial aspects of “themselves” to identify their existence.

They may give a general description of their body: I am 6 feet tall, I have black hair,

brown eyes, etc., I am 24 years of age, etc.

You may describe your Mind (see section on Mind) or your Intellect (see section on

Intellect) but by describing each of these components of yourself, you are positing that

this is “my” Body, “my” Mind, “my” Intellect. The question still remains then: Who is

the entity saying that these things are “mine?” If I say this is my car, the car is the object

possessed, “I” am the possessor/owner of the car. Thus, who is the possessor/owner of

the Body, Mind and Intellect that you so proudly say this is mine?

The Body changes – goes from being a child’s body to a young person’s body to a

middle-aged person’s and then finally to an old person’s body. Throughout this lifespan,

this person says “I am the child,” “I am the young boy,” “I am the man,” “I am the old

man” but who is this “I”?

If a person has all limbs amputated, and no heart and no lungs, is sustained on a heart-

lung machine, but is unconscious, he/she says “I am still alive” – who is this “I”?

When you are awake, you recognize the “I” in you – “I walked,” “I ate,” “I laughed.”

When you are dreaming, you recognize that even when you are asleep, the “I” is there. “I

dreamed a nice dream.”

And when you are in deep sleep (see section on conditioned consciousness – waking,

dreaming, deep sleep states), you wake up and say “I had such a great sleep that I did not

know where I was …. I didn’t even dream, I was so soundly asleep.” But, by saying that,

you are confirming that the “I” was there deep sleeping. Who is this “I”?

To determine any change, there has to be something constant. When flying in an airplane

– if you look out of the window and see no clouds and are too high up to see the ground,

you cannot tell that you are moving position or how fast you are moving. But the

presence of even a single cloud, immediately helps you determine how fast you are

moving – relative to that cloud. So also throughout your life, there is an “I” that observes

the changes in your body as you age, the changes in your mind as it vacillates through

different emotions, and the changes in your intellect as it thinks more sharply or less

sharply. That “I” is the real “You.” But what is it?

It is the Life Force. It is the life force within you – the energy. It is the electricity that

makes the bulb light up. It is this life force which makes your body function, your mind

and intellect to feel, think, decide. When this “I” or Life Force leaves the body, mind and

intellect, we are considered dead.

Throughout the centuries, there has been a description of this life force and different

names given to it. You yourself call it “I” when you refer to yourself – or “You” when

you refer to it in another person.

Religions have referred to this Life Force as Soul, the real Self (with a capital S),

Divinity, Atman, or God.

Moses is said to have asked God “Who are You?” and God replied “I am that I am.”

Elsewhere in the Bible, it has been declared that the Kingdom of God lies within you. He

who finds Himself, shall find it. Mohammed said, “What you are searching for,” to his

disciples as they were riding towards Mecca or pilgrimage, “what you are seeking is

nearer to you than the neck of the camel.”

Visualize for a moment this force within you; think of it as “energy” similar to electricity

with no color, shape, or other characteristics. Just as electricity cannot be seen or

described until it “manifests” itself through an electrical “body,” similarly light coming

through a hole in a ceiling into a room that is a vacuum does not show itself. It requires

some dust particles in the room at which time the light reflects off the dust particles and

you see a ray of light coming through the hole in the ceiling. Without those dust particles

for the light to bounce off of, light does not show itself. Similarly, life force shows itself

only when it manifests through a body or a mind or an intellect.

So now imagine that all around you, this same life force, this energy exists – it is free-

floating, but it only shows itself in something that is “alive.” But what does that mean –

“alive”? Simply put, “alive” has Life in it, which means there is movement in its cells.

So human beings, animals, birds, insects and plants all, while there is life in them, are

moving – not just from one place to another – but also when bedridden or completely

stationary. Our cells are multiplying, changing, metabolizing.

This is movement, this is “life,” this is the life force manifesting itself. To complicate

matters, ancients have said that even mountains, stones, hard carbon “changes,” “moves,”

“cells” change (for example, carbon becomes diamonds) and therefore the life force is

present in every aspect of this world. Thus one must respect all objects that have this life

force, this energy, this soul in it.

This life force or Atman or Self (or God) is indestructible, all pervading, everlasting,

infinite, etc.

Take for example a seed. Take the smallest seed possible – for example a mustard seed.

If you cut it open under a microscope, you would not find a Self in it. No life force, no

energy. But if you were to plant it in soil, with sunlight, temperature and water, it would

thrive as a mustard plant. From that mustard plant, you could harvest ten thousand

mustard seeds – all with the exact same characteristics as the original. Yet, when you cut

open any one of these ten thousand tiny seeds – you find nothing inside. You can keep

planting these seeds and harvesting more for thousands of years and you will have a

trillion mustard seeds and trillions of mustard plants but the basic original life force has

neither increased nor decreased in each mustard seed.

This life force – this Self with a capital S – exists in every seed, in every plant, every

insect, every bird, every animal and every human being.

It is what every living thing perceives as “I” – every living thing would then duplicate

itself just as the mustard seed and plant in this example – or as children in your case. But

the “I” is the same – changeless, formless, everlasting, infinite, and the kingdom within

you for you to reach.