Who am I , what is our purpose of coming to this world. Where will I go after this life. When will all this end. .These are some of the eternal questions which keep puzzling us from time to time. Many times it seems there is no answer to all this. And we should forget it and keep going with our usual lives.
But Sanatan Dharma (as Religion can not be literally replaced with Dharma in English, you can call it Ancient code of living) not only gives answer to theses questions but also show us a way to live our life effectively by processing this information and applying the same in our life making it full of abundance.
Let us understand and start with the first question :-
Who Am I?
When we are asking this question, we are actually asking about our existence in this world. It is true and it 
is evident that we exist, but the only thing is that what we should consider ourselves, how to define our existence. Are we this body, are we our name, are we our mind, brain, intellect, or other body parts. As per Tattvabodha- Our body constitutes seventeen tattvas – They are :-
5 Karma-Indriyas
5 Jnana-Indriyas
5 Pranas
Mind i.e. Manas
Intellect i.e Buddhi
All these seventeen 17 tattvas process the information as and when any input is given to the body, and accordingly they react. But the moment inputs stopped from outside theses tattvas ceases to work, therefore we cannot consider our existence as these tattvas, because their working is only limited up to the time as long as they are getting the inputs from the outside world.
We cannot consider ourself as our physical body parts as well, I am not my hand, legs, foot, or any body part for that matter. I am something else. I know I am , but I still have to realise who I am.
To understand it in a better way, let us delve more into our scriptures and first take a look on following open secrets of The Cosmos. They are open because they are evident right before our eyes, and they are secret because we have yet not taken out time from our busy schedule to understand and contemplate on them. Here they are:-
Two open secrets of this Cosmos:-
Cosmic Intelligence governing the Universe!!
First Open Secret of the Cosmos:–
“Anything that exists in this world has to qualify for two things to prove its existence. First it has to be eternal, Second it has to be constant/changeless. Anything that changes with respect to time and space is not real and actually does not exist”.
Surprised!! Yes it is true, More clarity is here with some analogies:-
Lets taken two analogies to understand it:-
First Analogy:-Suppose you see a big dinosaur at your favourite hangout where you daily have coffee with your friends , but you see this dinosaur only for 120 seconds. After this 120 seconds , the dinosaur disappears. Not only you, all your friends have seen that dinosaur, and they all confirm it also. Now 120 seconds is a good amount of time to observe anything. But still after the disappearance of the dinosaur, you will wonder whether the dinosaur was real. Or was it a hallucination. Inspite of seeing it for full 120 seconds along with all your friends, you yourself will deny the existence of such dinosaur, and will not believe that it existed before you few moments back. Such is the importance of time. Anything that ceases to exist after an interval of time cannot be real, and cannot exist. It can only appear to exist in different names and forms. Whether the time is 120 seconds, 120 days, 120 months, or even 120 years. The existence has to be eternal. The truth cannot be different at different scales of time. As one year of the planet Neptune is said to be 164.8 years of Earth. The time scales are entirely different for different worlds. Your 120 Years can be 120 seconds for some other species in some other dimension, does that mean even you does not exist ? Depends how you define yourself. Read on.
Second analogy: Suppose you see a white elephant in a park you go for daily jogging. Suddenly that white elephant changes its form to a rabbit, and then in next moment it again changes its form to a dog. before you can realise, it again changes its form to a cat, In a similar fashion it keeps changing its form. Now again you will wonder whether such a thing really exists which changes its form continuously. For you it has to be constant to be a real thing. Now you increase the scale of time. As truth has to be same at different scales of time. We can safely say that anything which changes and is not constant with space and time, is not real and does not really exists. Even if it appears to exist, it is only its different names and forms.
Entire Hindu Scripture is nothing but the study and exploration of this existence, which has to be eternal and constant. If I am subject to any kind of change, I do not exist. But… the problem still is that, I actually exists, so who am I again this is the question. As I have to be real to exist in this world.
Now the time for the second open secret of the cosmos.
Second open secret of The Cosmos:-
“There really exists a cosmic intelligence governing the entire cosmos and its movement”.
I know it is obvious. But we all as human beings are taking it for granted because our actions do not comply with the laws of the cosmos many times, which are governed by that supreme intelligence.
Now without deviating from the topic, Lets understand that the movement of any object in this cosmos requires a force. Now that something which determines the quantity of force to move an object is called intelligence. In fact there has to be a cosmic intelligence behind every action. As in Jagat (Cosmos), there are lot of forces working and for each of these forces there is an intelligence behind it governing it. Like the movement of body is governed by the intelligence housed in that body. This intelligence governing the body can never be the part of that body, otherwise something else would be governing it. It has to be apart from the body.
I Am Atman
Here comes the concept of Atman in Hinduism. Which is often termed as soul in English. (Although its not the literal meaning). I cannot be the body, I cannot be the mind, I cannot be the intellect, I have to be more than that, I have to be eternal, and constant. I am Atman.
As characteristic of the body is that it is continuously changing. That which supports this change, monitor this change and govern this change has to be a constant and eternal support. Everything that changes with respect to time and space is finite in nature, Therefore the intelligence that support this change has to be beyond finite. In our case it is our Atman. It never changes, It is always there even after the body perishes. It is there in the cosmos in the form of the consciousness. It is that which is always connected with the Supreme Consciousness. If We realise this Atman, we will certainly realise the Supreme Consciousness.
To Be Contd…
