Gnani: You are Chandulal right now. In this Chandulal, there is both ‘I’ and ‘My’. They are like the two railway lines of ‘I’ and ‘My’; they always run together yet they are always separate. They are always parallel and never become one. Despite this, you believe them to be one. This is due to the ignorance or unawareness of your true identity. Having understood this, separate the ‘My’. Keep all that comes under ‘My’ to one side. For example, ‘My heart’, keep your heart on one side. What other things do we need to separate from this body?

Questioner: The feet and all the sense organs.

Gnani: Yes, the five organs of perception (gnanendriyas) and five organs of action (karmendriyas) and everything else. Furthermore, do you say “My mind” or “I am mind?”

Questioner: We say, “My mind”.

Gnani: Do you not also say, “My intelligence”?

Questioner: Yes.

Gnani: And “My chit (citta, the inner organ that sees from previous experience)”?

Questioner: Yes.

Gnani: Then do you say “My egoism” or do you say “I am egoism?”

Questioner: My egoism.

Gnani: So, even egoism is not a part of you. By saying “My egoism”, you will be able to separate that too, but you are not aware of other components that fall under ‘my’. That is why you are not able to do a complete separation. Your awareness has limitations. You are aware of only the gross (sthoola) components, beyond which there are subtle (sookshma) components. The subtle components also need to be separated, after which there are two more levels of subtlety, subtler (sookshmattar) and subtlest (sookshmattam), which also need to be taken away. Only a Gnani Purush is able to achieve a separation at these intangible levels. Is it not possible to separate the two? If you keep on deducting ‘My’ from ‘I’, at every step and level and put all the things that fall under ‘My’ on one side, then what will remain?

Questioner: The ‘I’.

Gnani: That ‘I’ is precisely what you are. That is the ‘I’ that you need to realize.

Questioner: After such a separation am I to understand that whatever is left over, is who I really am? Is that the Real I?

…to be continued in next part…

–from the book shivoham

–Shikha Punjani