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real identity or form? To whom I am bound by worldly relations? Shall I keep or abandon them? If one contemplates these questions with peacefulness of mind, according to śrīmad, all the principles of self-knowledge are as good as experienced. śrīmad first told us what deserves to be abandoned but now he asks us to think about what deserves to be accepted and adopted. This forms his real and invaluable philosophical contribution. (1) Ask yourself, who am I and try to find the correct answer after thinking about and then eliminating the wrong answers. The correct answer is that you are a pure self. (2) Ask how are you born? Realise that you are eternal, you are not born at all, only your body is born. You are beginningless and endless and so you are eternal. (3) Ask what is your pure form? The answer is that you are a pure soul and that this body is not yours. (4) Ask why are there attachments and bondages? Here think of your actions and worldly ties with your kith and kin. (5) Ask whether you should keep these adjuncts or abandon them for ever? Here, think of the means to liberate the soul from its fetters. śrīmad advises us to think about these questions with a peaceful mind. Only then, he says, one can experience the philosophical truth of self-knowledge. 10
In the final and fifth verse Śrīmad asks us: "Whose words are to be taken as absolutely true to achieve this (self-knowledge)?" He immediately answers by saying, "Believe the saying of an innocent person who has experienced 'that. Oh your self ! Your self ! Recognise it quickly. See all souls as equals. Write this word in your heart." All the answers relating to the above mentioned questions should be properly reflected upon as they are not easily understood and form a part of deep spiritual thinking. Śrīmad therefore advises us to write these down in our hearts. He writes in letter No. 89, "At the young age of 22, I have experienced much about the the nature of the soul, mind, speech, body and wealth. I have experienced many kinds of worldly ups and downs, many kinds of waves of this ocean of existence and the causes of interminable misery. ... I had no attachment towards wearing clothes, keeping clean, eating and drinking or comfortable beds and seatings. From the age of seven to eleven, I devoted myself to study ... At that time I
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