One of the most difficult things in human existence is to understand oneself. Who am I? The most common identification is with our body. My body defines me.
I will say I am tall if I am above a certain height. My body decides which category I fall into. Similarly, the body decides whether I am fat or thin, fair or dark, ugly or handsome.
Often, which categories we fall into influences how others see us. When any government agency creates our identity proof, they take our unique body impressions like a photograph of our face and print it on a card. Our resemblance to the picture is taken as proof of our identity.
With the advancement of technology, newer means of establishing identity have been created. Our Aadhaar contains our biometric information like our fingerprints and eye scan which can be matched to establish our identity. The technology may have changed, but the basic idea remains the same.
I am my body. People who want to go deeper into personality, beyond the superficial physical features, look at the mind as a better representative of one’s identity. The way one’s mind works tells us what kind of person one is.
I am an extrovert if my mind prefers to be surrounded by people. If not, I am an introvert. One of the most common markers of our identity is our religion.
This again has to do with our mind and nothing to do with our body. If a Hindu father gives his son at birth to a Christian man for adoption, the boy will be brought up as a Christian. His body has not changed.
Physically, he will still resemble his Hindu biological father, but he will behave like a Christian. The brain-computer interfaces being developed today may one day enable the mind to exist independent of the body; thus raising new questions of identity. People who want to look even deeper say that the real marker of our identity is our soul.
The soul is our essence and may exist even when our body and mind cease to exist. It is easiest to perceive the body because it can be seen. The mind can also be perceived if we practice looking inwards.
There is no way to directly perceive the soul. Osho Rajnish gave the example of water. When water is frozen, it becomes solid ice which is like our body.
It is rigid and has clear boundaries. When ice melts, it becomes liquid water. This is like our mind.
It is more fluid and has no definite shape. When water evaporates and becomes steam, we can no longer see it. We cannot define its boundaries.
This is like our soul..
