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I am the Soul
but even then does the feeling that 'I am' remain? You may well not be aware of 'who I am', may not even have the ability to know, but the awareness remains that 'I am alive', and 'if I exist, it is not as the ears, eyes, nose, tongue or touch, but independent of these'.
Similarly, if you are thinking in the mind, then the phrase used is: 'To my mind it seems. . .'. Now 'my' and 'mind' are two separate terms. Mind is different from the one who refers to it as 'my mind'. So mind also is not 'I'. I am some thing other than the mind.
Further considering 'I' - am I the one as the world identifies me? People call me 'human', so am I human? If I were human, then I should remain human always. But it is not so. I am born a human, but when I die, then what people call as human remains here. But the 'I' in it goes away. When a death occurs, the body does not go away. It remains here, yet people say, 'He is gone'. So the one who goes away is not human, it is somebody else. Hence 'I' is not human.
And if I am not human, then I am not in the form of relations that are established with relatives as a human. The close relatives like Parents, brothers and sisters who accept a relation with me, is not 'I'. 'I' am neither in the form of man or woman. Even that remains here, and the 'I' in it walks away.
Thus, if I were to eliminate all feelings felt through external experiences and look upon my self in exclusivity, then one experience remains and that is 'I am'. Moreover, this experience occurs to all jivas. Whether they are knowledgeable or ignorant, everybody is aware that 'I am'. The knowledgeable progresses from the experience of 'I am' to 'I am the soul'. The ignorant is unaware of this. Even a child is also aware of this feeling of being, of existence. For this experience is one that is without any hindrance. No one can hamper the feeling of this experience.
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