Day Three: Who Do You Think You Are?

Who do we think we are? That question is central to the spiritual quest. It is one I remember my mother asking me when I was a teenager. It was always a spiritual question, though in that context, it was my mother’s exasperated response to my fledgling efforts to assert my ego as young people that age are prone to do. Developing a healthy ego, a sense of self-identity, is a central life task for a young person. However, this task is best accomplished within a spiritual framework. To recognize that we are first spiritual beings—divine expressions, one with God and equal to every one else—and then to acknowledge our individual gifts and talents, this is ideal.

The question of self-identity is central for seekers of truth. When we don’t realize who we really are, that primary error in perception colors everything else. In yoga teachings this error is called avidya. Avidya is often translated as ignorance. But, it is a special kind of ignorance. We usually think of ignorance as being something we do not know. But in this case of erroneous self-identity, ignorance is wrong knowledge, not missing information. In short, we think we know who we are, but we are wrong. The mistake is to be identified with the body-mind through the mechanism of the ego. This error causes a false sense of separation from the Source. We express through the body and mind, but we are not that. The body, mind, personality, roles that we assume and things that we do—all of this changes over time and ultimately fades away. Our essential nature remains. 

The purpose of yoga study and practice is to dislodge this error through the direct perception of truth. First we hear the teachings: There is only One Reality and you are That. We discern intellectually and intuitively that this is so. What remains is for us to inwardly inquire and observe what consciousness are, what changes, and what does not. Then, in superconscious meditation, experience directly what we are as pure existence being, one with all that is. This is the knowledge of Truth that sets us free.

Think About It: Egotism is an over-inflated sense of self-importance, arrogance or self-centeredness. This can be readily corrected through discernment or life experience. Egoism is the false assumption of being separate from the Source, or God. This is corrected by the revelation of our true nature as spiritual beings.

Be Inspired: As a rich harvest is reaped by regular cultivation, godhood is attained by regular and constant practice of meditation.  –Lahiri Mahasaya