Indian Self Identity

The question of self identity has been a matter of ancient philosophical quest. In the ancient Greek and Indian civilization people paid great attention towards finding the self identity. Once the great Greek philosopher Socrates was moving on the street absorbed in deep philosophical contemplation when he accidentally bumped into someone. The man annoyed said “can’t you see where you walk? Who are you?” Socrates replied him “My dear fellow I have been pondering over the question for the last forty years. If you ever come to know who I am, please let me know.” This way the matter has been discussed in various ancient literatures in eastern and western philosophy. For example it said once king Janak was resting in the afternoon when he saw a

The self is the ego or the knower and it experiences the world. Generally the self comes across 3states.The waker experiences the waking world. This waking world is called “jagrata Prapancha” in Sanskrit. This world is a manifestation of five gross elements (pancha)-Earth, water, air, fire and space .As it is in a manifested state these five elements creates the manifested world or better to say the sensation of the manifested world. Similarly in the dream state the mind experiences the dream world. This dream world is nothing but a manifestation of our conscious and subconscious thoughts in a jumbled up manner-as defined by Sigmund Freud. But again this is the manifestation of the same five elements that creates the world. The third state which is called Sushupti in Sanskrit is the state where the mind is completely void. It happens in a deep sleep. When we wake up we have no idea of the time we slept. In this state the mind receives no signal and hence interpretes nothing.The Upanishad calls for a fourth element-the turiyam. It simply means “The fourth”. The idea is that we can’t explain this fourth by our material mind and just represent it symbolically. But this fourth state is the real me.It has been present in rest 3 states but its none of the three states mentioned. For example a golden bangle or a necklace or a bracelet all is gold but real gold is none of it. This