Who Am I

The book draws our attention to the questions: Who am I? Am I this body given to me as a human being? If that be so, what will happen when this body is no more? Will I end with this body? Where will then be the consciousness of the ‘self’ and the ‘I’ that is within me day and night, in wakefulness and sleep, in dream and reality, in work and leisure, in rest and activity, while alone and in company? Will it be finished? How will I know about it if I no longer exist?
Drawing from holy books, it tries to answer these questions saying that we are primarily cosmic consciousness, called soul (atman), that has manifested human form to work out its actions (karma) and remove dross impurities within. As no soul could purify self on its own, it always needs a body which acts as a medium to fulfil this objective. These impurities and blemishes are not of just one, but several of our previous births.
Cosmic life belongs to the world of souls and not the manifest physical human form. Unless we believe that we are a living consciousness, there is no use of other activities which are mere rituals, taking us nowhere. Our belief in our real self as a soul is the crux of spiritual life. We fail to realize our true inner self because of presence of ego, and waste our time in pursuits which ultimately prove useless when our journey in this world comes to an end.
The book asks us to remember that each one of us is eternal bliss consciousness—unchangeable, unaffected, indestructible spirit being. Our nature is that of peace and eternal blissful happiness. Soul is our true and real self. We are not the body that changes, withers and one day dies. We are blessed, faultless, unbreakable, everlasting souls. Our nature is that of durable peace and exultation. Soul is our actual truthful being, since the beginning, at present, and in the times to come. The book emphasizes the fact that due to ignorance, man forgets who he is, why he is in human form, and what promise he had made with God. He takes this changeable, transitory, and time-bound body as his true being. This makes him do all he can to satisfy the needs of the body, and fills him with remorse when these needs are not fulfilled, and with fear when something happens to the body.
The message given in the book is that the body is only a means to achieve the aim of reaching God, not to indulge in worldly pleasures. It tells us that the body and the soul are different from each other. We should be dedicated and committed to the soul which is our real self so that we get salvation (moksha) and are free from the cycle of births and deaths forever.