How is self understood? How do I understand myself? What led up to this understanding of the self?

Your current belief that ‘I am this body and name’ is not true. This is not your real Self. Your real Self is distinct, it is very different from who you believe to be!

How do I understand myself?

Have you ever questioned, ‘Who am I really?’

Because you do not know the answer to the question, 'Who am I?', you keep on going further away from your real Self. Whatever suffering you experience in life is all because of not knowing your real identity. Until you realise your real Self, you believe yourself to be the name that has been given to you, you believe to be the owner of the body.

Furthermore, you believe yourself to be a father/mother, a husband/wife, a friend, an engineer, a passenger or a patient? The truth is that you are a father/mother because you have a son/daughter. You are a husband/wife because you have a wife/husband. A passenger because you are on a train. So all your identities, everything you believe yourself to be, are all dependent on something else. So then, who are you? A father/mother, a husband/wife or a passenger?

So who are you?

The Soul is your Real Self, but it is covered with ignorance

In reality, you are an eternal Soul. Right now, the Soul is in the body. It is full of infinite knowledge and infinite vision, but it is currently covered with ignorance.

For infinite past lives, the Soul has remained hidden beneath veils of ignorance. Ignorance means unawareness of your real identity. So, owing to ignorance, we mistakenly believe the body or the name which is given to the body, is ourselves. Due to this, you have been unable to experience the real Self.

What leads us to the understanding of the Self?

With the grace of the Spiritual Master (Gnani Purush), it is now possible to realise your real Self through a scientific process called Gnan Vidhi (the Self Realisation ceremony). Only Self-Realisation can dispel the veils of ignorance. Once you recognise your Soul, it means that the ignorance over it has been removed. Thereafter, you will not only understand that you are a Pure Soul, but you also experience your true bliss.

Understanding the natural characteristics of the real Self after Self-realisatio

Once you have attained the knowledge of the Self, the awareness of your real Self, the pure Soul, begins.

The Soul is a source of life energy. It is an element that spans through the past, present, and future. The Soul is immortal, immiscible and invisible, it is still, and it never hurts nor is hurt by anyone. These are innate natural qualities; qualities that will never change.

There are numerous qualities of the Soul. The Soul has an abundance of natural characteristics. Here are the ones that stand out:

• Infinite Knowledge and Infinite Vision - To See and to Know is the nature of the Soul. It is essential to comprehend these qualities to know what the Soul is made of. No other eternal element shares this attribute. This nature of knowing is not present in any non-living thing nor is it the nature of the body of a living being. This inherent attribute of ‘Knowing’ is that of the Soul.

• Infinite Energy - “The Self has infinite energy! After You realise the Self, if You become one with the Self, then it [the energy of the Self] will manifest.” – Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, the Spiritual Master.

• Eternal Bliss - The Soul, although invisible, is discernible by its inherent blissful nature. People keep looking out for temporary materialistic pleasures in life. However, once the Self becomes awakened, there prevails eternal bliss within.

To conclude: The self can only be understood after attaining the knowledge of the Self. Only a Spiritual Master can lead you to this understanding of the Self. Thereafter, you begin to remain aware of your real Self and its numerous virtues.