“Who am I?” or” What is my?” Jaggannatheshwari Mataji (Gita Daily)

Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02, Text 69

Our life-story is essentially the story of our quest for happiness. This quest is directed by a driving question. For spiritualists, the question frequently is, “Who am I?” For materialists, the question usually is, “What is my?”

Thesequestions reflect two radically different conceptions of life. The Bhagavad-gita (02.69) points to these two antipodal worldviews metaphorically: “What is night for the materialists is day for the spiritualists, and what is day for the materialists is night for spiritualists.” Here day refers to the sphere of activity and night to the sphere of inactivity. For materialists, the sphere of activity is material enjoyment; for spiritualists, it is spiritual realization. Let’s look at these two worldviews.

Materialists are governed by the default unexamined assumption that they will become happy by acquiring and consuming material objects. As they stay preoccupied with questions like “What is my?” or “What can be my?” they scarcely have the mental space to consider the question, “Who am I?” They often buy unthinkingly into the notion that they are their bodies.