Thus the seemingly
innocuous question is most difficult to answer.
Who am I? This is the basic question that Hindu
puts to all.
And everyone struggles to get the correct answer!
Correct answer is not coming out at all. Yet human beings call
themselves intelligent species!
They will discover planets in distant galaxies
without knowledge of self identity!
There are two main branches. First one identifies
'I' with body and the other one identifies 'I' with soul.
If we accept 'I to be body then it should change
along with the changes in the body because according to this
definition of 'I', body is 'I' and child's body is different from
that of the adult's. Thus child's 'I' is different from the adult's
'I'.
But every one feels the same 'I' while in
childhood and adulthood. How is this continuity of the feeling of
same 'I' can be justified before and after changes in body? If you
consider in continuous chemical or biological change the reactants
and products are not the same.
But we feel the same 'I'. It indicates that this
whole body belongs to someone which is different from body. Just as
innovations or changes in the structure house does not make change in
feeling of 'I' of the house owner,, similarly even though there are
innovations or changes in the body structure from birth to death, the
'I' which is housed in the body but different from the body preserves
it identity.