The Question "Who am I?"

The question 'Who am I' has no answer. No experience can answer it, for the Self is beyond experience.  ... It has no answer in consciousness and, therefore, helps to go beyond consciousness.  

"All I can say truly is: 'I am', all else is inference. But the inference has become a  habit. Destroy all habits of thinking and seeing. The sense 'I am' is the manifestation of a deeper  cause, which you may call self, God, reality or by any other name. The 'I am' is in the world; but it is  the key which can open the door out of the world. The moon dancing on the water is seen in the  water, but it is caused by the moon in the sky and not by the water." 
(Nisargadatta, in "I am That") 
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Dr. Srinivasa Rao asked Bhagavan, “When we enquire within ‘who am I?’ what is that?”

Bhagavan: It is the ego. It is only that which makes the vichara also. The Self has no vichara. That which makes the enquiry is the ego. The ‘I’ about which the enquiry is made is also the ego. As the result of the enquiry the ego ceases to exist and only the Self is found to exist. (Day by Day; 21-11-45)

To enquire ‘Who am I?’ really means trying to find out the source of the ego or the ‘I’ thought. You are not to think of other thoughts, such as ‘I am not this body, etc.’ Seeking the source of ‘I’ serves as a means of getting rid of all other thoughts. We should not give scope to other thoughts, such as you mention, but must keep the attention fixed on finding out the source of the ‘I’ thought, by asking (as each thought arises) to whom the thought arises and if the answer is ‘I get the thought’ by asking further who is this ‘I’ and whence its source? (Day by Day; 28-12-45)


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