Understanding our true identity in the Matrix by meeting the guide and reading the manual

Who are we? Who am I? These are some of the fundamental existential questions each person asks themselves at some point in their lives. The process of introspection and contemplation on the meaning of life and our real purpose here, is something that does not come naturally to everyone, but it comes nevertheless, at least at some point, and usually that point is a time of crisis.

During times of life-changing stress, like the death of a loved one, bankruptcy, severe ill health or other such crises, even the most shallow or superficial person will be forced to evaluate their position in the world. What is the meaning of life, why does it manifest thus, or who am I really? These questions are based on the original question of “who am I?” Without knowledge of who we are, we cannot act in our best interests because our best interests are founded upon who the person is whose interests need to be for the best. Without knowing who we are, we cannot know what to do or how to act, and will simply carry on following the dictates of the survival instincts that are inherent in our built-in body/mind organism.

By coming to the realization of who we are as individuals in this human form of life, we can then begin to act in our best interests. And to come to the correct conclusion of who we are, we question ourselves, we ask ourselves. However, there is no guarantee the conclusion is anything more than a speculation, a concoction or a fantasy. We can imagine anything we want about ourselves, but it won’t bring us to the truth, to the best answer for the most important question in existence.

Therefore, it is recommended to avoid mental speculation on this crucial philosophical point because this point is the foundation of everything that follows. By concluding our true identity, we choose a direction in which to focus for the best interests of ourselves according to that focus. We can choose our mental speculations and act according to that, but there is the risk that we are missing the mark, falling short of the target and failing to get the best out of our existence.

Survival alone is only the lowest rung of the ladder of our hierarchy of needs, according to the psychologist Abraham Maslow, as well as the ancient Vedic tradition of India. In the Vedas we have a veritable encyclopedia of information presented thousands of years ago already about this exact fundamental quest for self-realization, enlightenment or truth. We all want to get to the bottom of the matter, or find out what is really going on, especially those who have already met their survival needs – which even the animals do with very little effort.

Unless we look further than mere eating, sleeping, procreation and defense, we are no better than polished animals. Some might conclude that we are basically animals, and indeed part of us is. But we are also more than animals. All mammals have the basic reptilian and mammalian brain parts but only humans have the neo-cortex or frontal lobes with which to self-reflect, to introspect on our nature and behavior. Only humans can philosophize about their identity. And so to get the best out of our human form of life it behooves us to inquire into consciousness. One of the first aphorisms in the vast Vedic literature of ancient India says; “atatho brahma jijnasa” or “therefore now is the time to inquire into the nature of our identity as consciousness.”

Obviously over the millennia it may be challenging to keep an accurate interpretation of what is being said in a language no longer used. The Vedic texts are all written in Sanskrit, a “dead” language, like Latin, and the concepts referred to in the texts may be lost in translation. As a result there are even sometimes conflicting translations, for we are discussing concepts that may be very abstract and ephemeral by mundane standards, so we can’t even be sure that what the text says is what we understand it to imply today.

Nevertheless, there are Sanskrit scholars who have heard from elders who have handed down the knowledge from generation to generation, and we can study that. Also the realizations of the student are limited by the insights of the teacher, so it’s important to find a valid and authentic source of information when investigating consciousness as mentioned in the ancient Sanskrit Vedas, or any other source of information.

One classic text, of which there are hundreds of translations by different scholars over the decades, is the Bhagavad Gita. And an authoritative translation by a genuine Pundit (scholar) and “sadhu” or holy man/monk comes form Swami Bhaktivedanta, so I refer to his translation and commentary. One verse, for example alludes to this very question of our existential identity as living entities in the human body. It describes who we are:

ममैवांशो जीवलोके जीवभूत: सनातन: ।
मन:षष्ठानीन्द्रियाणि प्रकृतिस्थानि कर्षति ॥ ७ ॥

mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke
jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ
manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi
prakṛti-sthāni karṣati

“The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.”
Bhagavad Gita as it is ch 15:7 translated by Swami Bhaktivdanta.

Here we see some fundamental answers to our questions of self-identity. Primarily the text – spoken supposedly by the divinity, the Godhead, the Source – says that we are eternal, that we are fragments or parts of God/Source, and that we are under the illusion of conditioning that leads us to identify with the body we find ourselves in (with its five senses) as well as identifying with our mind (the sixth sense, although not in the telepathic meaning of the term). For those who want to see the word for word translation for each Sanskrit word in the original beautiful script above called “devanagari” we can look at the same book, for it is published there for us to see:

mama — My; eva — certainly; aṁśaḥ — fragmental particle; jīva-loke — in the world of conditional life; jīva-bhūtaḥ — the conditioned living entity; sanātanaḥ — eternal; manaḥ — with the mind; ṣaṣṭhāni — the six; indriyāṇi — senses; prakṛti — in material nature; sthāni — situated; karṣati — is struggling hard.

With this valid reference we can answer the question of “who am I” and thus know how to act in our own best interests, based on that knowledge. Basically we are part and parcel of the one original source, the “causeless cause of all causes”, as described elsewhere in the Vedas. But we are eternal parts, and so we remain. We do not become God, and we can never identify as Source, but we are a fragmented part. In other words, we are simultaneously one and different. We are in quality also pure original divine spirit in essence, but we are very small fragmental parts in quantity. The living entity is in quality one but in quantity different in size and potency.

Another realization I have had is that we are in essence basically part of our original forefather and mother, for example as far as their genetic material goes, but we are now but a fragment of that person, like a fractal hologram, where even the fragment still contains the original blueprint in it, in full. Like the Mandelbrot images that one can look at, going deeper and deeper into the pattern but always seeing the full picture even in the smallest part.

So as a result of knowing that we are eternal, according to this text, while the body is temporary, it implies that we are not the body, and we are not the mind, which is just another of the bodily sense organs generally. Therefore to identify with the body and to make our goals of life those of the body, implies that we have missed the bigger picture.

This alone gives us massive insight upon which to contemplate. It also obliges us to think outside the box, or outside the body, in this case, even outside the mind, to really understand who the real self is, and our relationship to the source. Armed with this knowledge, we can begin to free ourselves from the Matrix of Maya, the illusion that covers us, and begin to awaken to higher dimensions of reality, which will naturally shift our assemblage point, shift our perspective, as well as our behavior towards ourselves and all other living entities that share the planet with us.

As Morpheus said when awakening Neo in the Matrix movie, “Welcome to the world of the real”.