Question to end all questions!

WHEN we ask a question, many a times the answers we get are unexpected. One such question is: Who Am I? We will certainly ask many questions in our lifetime. This question is central to all our other questions. The other questions supplement and compliment this central question.

We ask many kinds of questions. Some people question out of innocence, like a child, out of curiosity. We ask some questions to exhibit our knowledge and ego. Sometimes we ask questions to check out if others are more knowledgeable. Often we ask questions out of ignorance. Our questions often express our confusion.

Laura, a teacher, was instructing the last class of the academic year. She prepared a few questions to get feedback from students on her teaching style.

One question in the questionnaire was: “Have I influenced your attitude towards the subject?”

A student answered: “No, I still like it.”

When people meet me, they start conversing with me about enlightenment and God. They begin to say that they wish to follow the spiritual path with my guidance. They ask esoteric questions on karma and moksha. I change the subject to other matters. We talk about their personal lives, families, businesses, everything under the sun, except anything remotely spiritual. They never return to their original question on spirituality. It does not matter to them really.

The fervour with which they started their queries was only to impress me with their keen interest and knowledge. Such fervour will not sustain. Their enthusiasm will evaporate rapidly.

‘What is Brahman,’ asks Arjuna to Krishna in the Gita. Krishna says, “If I ask you to repeat the question, you would have forgotten what you asked.”

We keep asking questions about all external objects and issues, who is this, who is that? But we never turn our questioning inwards and ask, Who Am I?

If we are spiritual, we would be interested asking ourselves, ‘Who Am I?’ It will answer our other questions. The questioning attitude itself will dissolve. Our mind survives by questioning. More answers means more questions.

Questions are the fuel for our minds. Unless we answer that central question, ‘Who Am I?’ we can never come out of the cycle of questions. An answer to a question can lead to another question.

Ask yourself this question repeatedly. It will finally extinguish all questions. The more we ask this question, the clearer we become in our mind. This is a path to bliss.