In the tapestry of our lives we traverse through peaks and valley believing we know who we are. But do we really know the reality? In the never ending series of universe, how can we let believe in only what is in front of us. While science has kept on proving that our imaginations can come true, what about trying to find out who we are beyond this materialistic world.

On that course, one of an intriguing question to ask ourselves is of our identity. Who are we? Many philosophies have been poured, pages have been written in the attempt to answer it. One of the philosophy giving a profound answer to that is the Advaita Vedanta. Vedanta Society of New York says, Advaita Vedanta is one of the six orthodox Hindu philosophical school that teaches non dual concept of spirituality. Let’s see what it has for us!!!

Advaita Vedanta clears the clouds that have been set as blanket in between what we think we are and what we really are. It pours out a stream of divine knowledge that clears up the cloud of ignorance we have been carrying around to reveal the sun we are that lights up and reflects the world full of maya.

In the world of where trains commute in the speed of bullet taking us place within blink of an eye, why do we feel disconnected more than ever? That is maya, the divine in play where we are a mere act.

All of us were born once, and we die once. We call it the cycle of life. Immediately after the birth, we are assigned a name. A name that is going to be the base of our identity for the act for the rest of our time in this earth.

Since very early age we are surprisingly good in identifying. We can identify when we are hungry and cry for food. We can identify it is cold and cry for warmth. As we grow up, we start identifying our family, society, nationality, religion, profession and million other stuffs. This undeniable physicality has led us to conserve our identity to gross body we are left with.

Imagine if you will, a caterpillar moving in a wet leaf. It does not know its destiny. It has no clue that one day it will be blessed with a pair of majestic wings to take flight to strange yet beautiful places where it will meet colorful flowers with sweet-sweet nectar. No, it has no idea. Maybe there is some similar shades we share with the caterpillar. Unaware of what we can molt into, we wander in a transient vessel calling it body.

In the midst of million galaxies with billions of sun, we stand lost, forgetting our real essence. We shut our mind to what we can see, touch and feel. Are we scared to look beyond or are we just an ignorant?

The body that we claim to be us, how much of us is it? Could the forever changing body be the never changing depth we are? Though I still feel like the young boy I once was, a glance at myself reveals how everything has transformed. Even as the body changes, my constant self remains unchanged; thus, I am not the body, for the observer cannot be what is observed.

Moving further within deeper to where our thoughts reside. The mind where our emotions travel like a wave; up and down, and where we seek to settle. We claim the mind to be us. How can the house of changing thoughts and emotions quantify us the unchanging observer. On the shore, I might think I am the excited wave but if I look deeper I see the calm ocean I am. I create the wave but the wave does not truly justify my essence. Like the wave, our emotions rise and fall and like the ocean we stay tranquil. Staying in auto pilot where we put our mind to the drivers seat to make decisions where we end up navigating from the world once we thought was everything.

The ignorance we carry around departs us from the physicality once we were attached to. We feel disconnected, lonely, unloved and scared. We submit ourselves the tiny wave not realizing we are the ocean that remains undisturbed but yet house the whole world as millions of wave. This is what the Vedanta reveals to us. We are the Atman (the self) and the Brahman (the ultimate reality) with in us. We are that non dual peace.

With that, there is more to quest into the Brahman, the ultimate reality we are.