So as we have defined it, yoga is a means to reestablish oneself in the consciousness of his real identity. But what is exactly this identity? This is a question man has always pondered about. The Greek philosophers had the aphorism: Know thyself. This is a most important subject, because unless I know who I am, how can I know what will make me happy?
Who am I? That is the most important question. Until one has come to a clear understanding of this, he cannot really be peaceful; and without peace, how can there be any real happiness?
Most people go about their daily activities assuming that their real identity is what they see every morning in the mirror: This body that we clean up every morning. But at night, while your body is lying in bed, still you experience various situations, in dreams. So you are actually quite different from your body.
But isn’t it the mind who acts during the dreams?
Yes, the mind creates subtle bodies at night. But try to understand the point: If the body is there lying, and that you experience something completely different from being there, lying, if you are unconscious of that situation it means that you are definitely distinct from the body.
So, I am the mind, that is me?
No, the mind changes along with the growth of the body. As a child you had totally different interests that now. With the ageing of your child body, your mind has changed and developed a completely different set of interests than the one you had. The body is changing, the mind is changing, but you are still the same person, and you can remember all the different phases of your so, who am I?
That is the question we are analyzing right now.
One usually designates himself in terms of race; I am a Chinese, I’m a British according to the place the body is born or according to the parents from whom the body has been inherited. Then, one identifies himself in terms of the sex of his particular body: I’m a boy, I’m a girl; in terms of the age of the body: I’m young, I’m old. An as one sees himself in terms of bodily designations, he also sees others in that way. But, actually, the self, your, your real identity, is quite distinct from the body: You do not say “ I head, I leg” but “my head, my leg”, so who is that proprietor of the hand and leg: You are not your leg; it can be amputated and you will still be alive and the same person.
The ancient tradition of wisdom is recorded in man books collectively called Vedas. We mentioned earlier that yoga originates from India. One of these text, called Bhagavad-gita describes very elaborately the subject of the self, that identity distinct from the body and mind. This Bhgavad-Gita (show the book) is a very ancient book. Practically speaking, it is one of the first, if not the book of mankind. It is said to be more than 5000 years old. This book is considered the most authoritative book of yoga. It is accepted as such world-wide by all the great yoga-masters. So this book gives us a lot of detailed knowledge about the self. This book contains the complete science of yoga, and yoga aims in fact at fully understand and realize the self, apart from the body and mind.
The Gita explains that while the body passes from babyhood to youth, to adult to old age, inside, the self or soul doesn’t change. The body is ever-changing, but we ar
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