In Search of Self
An Analogical Explanation
Imagine yourself observing a road. So, what do you see?
First, you see the road and perhaps speed breakers in it. Second, you can also see vehicles of various shapes and sizes passing by at a high to moderate speed. Third, you can see a light post adjacent to the road, installed, to provide direction in darkness.
Here, the road can be identified with our life’s journey as sentient beings; while we as vehicles pass by the road. And just like the vehicle has parts attached to it, so does our physical body. For example, wheels can be corroborated with limbs, headlights with eyes, and so on. Similarly, just as the vehicle requires servicing and repairing from time to time, so do we. And lastly, just as we perceive a vehicle’s body with its ‘true form,’ we misrepresent our body as ‘true self.’
But what if we disassemble the vehicle, that is, we remove all its parts, what would remain then? Nothing right. That ‘nothing’ is the true form of the vehicle, as it is ours. There is just space. The body of the vehicle has just entrapped that space. Open and disassemble the vehicle, and the space which was there unites with the universal space.
In any way, coming back to the analogy, the vehicle’s speed can be equated with the pace at which we accelerate in life. While the energy, i.e., the fuel that makes the vehicle move, is the prana (or vital force) in us. The faster we burn the fuel, the quicker we reach our destination — which can be looked at as either body’s demise or the liberation of entrapped space from the bondage of physicality.
Moreover, in the road, i.e., life’s journey there is not just one vehicle; instead, there are many. And sometimes in the road, there could be darkness, due to bad weather or dysfunctional headlights. So, for that reason, we have light posts to illuminate. These light posts are none but people in our lives who illuminate our pathways for time-to-time.
For example, right now I may act as a light post to you by explaining the spiritual aspect of life. Yet I am not going to stay there forever. Our lives crossed because on a particular road, you happen to drive and I happen to stand by — a coincidence, perhaps? In other words, the light post (or people) is not your constant companion, none is. What’s permanent is “you” i.e., the true self, the space. So, try being with yourself, and thereby eradicate despair, agony, etc. from your existence.
Here, you must consider that I am using ‘space’ to denote the true self. Yet ‘space’ is not the correct terminology to denote it. In fact, no word is. However, for explanatory purposes, I took the liberty of using the term. So, I would suggest that you do not get engulfed with the terminology for the self cannot be bounded by the mere limitation of language. The beauty is — though we can perceive it through knowledge, we cannot describe it because there is simply no word.
