Who Am I?

Dr Chowdary's talk on Swami's Hospital at Puttaparthi

 E ckhart Tolle's book, The Power of Now , is a great work; one of the most important philosophical books ever written, not because it elucidates a new idea, but that it reminds us of a fundamental one with such clarity and insight. The book begins with a beautiful description of how the German-born, English educated author came by the transformative experience that would guide his life and cause him to write not just The Power of Now but also A New Earth , a fascinating explanation of the workings of the ego in oneself and all of us. ' Until my thirtieth year I lived in a state of almost continuous anxiety interspersed with periods of suicidal depression. One night I woke up in the early hours with a feeling of absolute dread. The silence of the night, the vague outlines of the furniture in the dark room; the distant noise of a passing train - everything felt so alien, so hostile, so utterly meaningless that it created in me a deep loathing of the world. The most loathsom

There was not then what is or what is not. There was no sky, and no heaven beyond the sky. What power was there? Where? Who was that power? Was there an abyss of fathomless waters? There was neither death no immortality then. No signs were there of night or day. The ONE was breathing by its own power, in infinite peace. Only the ONE was; there was nothing beyond. Darkness was hidden in darkness. The all was fluid and formless. Therein, in the void, by the fire of fervour rose the ONE. And in the ONE arose love: Love the first seed of the soul. The truth of this the sages found in their hearts: seeking in their hearts with wisdom, the sages found that bond of union between Being and non-being. Who knows the truth? Who can tell whence and how arose this universe? The gods are later than its beginning; who knows therefore whence comes this creation? Only that God who sees in highest heaven: he only knows whence came this universe, and whether it was made or uncreated. He only know