Yes, Sir.... an eternal question that the humanity has been in search from the time immemorial and Science, Art, Philosophy and Religion are the different paths to go on search for the ultimate answer- the answer for the ultimate salvation.

Can 'Who am I? be answered through Science? Art? Philosophy? or by the Religion? Which one will be the right kind of path to follow? Or 'Is this Pathless Path'? What is it? Can 'Philosophical Nature Photography' lead us to solve this eternal koan of life? Can any form of Art give the answer of it? Can Meditation take us to beyond all this where there is no duality, no friction? Just I have meditating over this theme and trying to put this into my images.

The question is as huge and solid as a mountain. The crack in the stone is a portrayal of liquidity of abstraction with a hope to get the answer to the question- ‘Who am I?’ Right now, the answer is just like a shadow. Tfs.

Thanks and regards….

Dear Ganesh,

I've scribbled few things that came to my mind. Tried to put it in words.

Does the I keep changing every minute? Today's I will not be same as tomorrow's I, right? Or, even the very next minute it'll not remain same. So I keeps changing. Or the so called I remains constant and the meaning of I for me keeps changing with time and experience. But when do I realise the existence of I. When I'm happy do I realise there is something called I. Or when I'm not happy do I start searching for who am I. Why I am not happy because I'm not happy with what I have. Why do I feel that what I have is not satisfying because I compare it with what others have. Or it starts within me feeling the true sense that I don't have anything.
Who am I?

Best regards,
Prashanth

Ramana's observation was "Who is asking this question? " "Who wants to know ?" Maybe it is a paradoxical question. "I" exists precisely because of "Who am I ?" if the answer is found at that moment the "I" ceases and asks no more questions and gets dissolved ......

A simple yet profound image to go with the eternal question!, Ganesh. I don't know/understand much, but feel there will never be an answer to this question. Here is my all time fav answer saying 'what I am not'! .. by Bulleh Shah @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTxZy32Fv_0
Regards.

Thanks for that interesting video, Nevil. I embedding it down here if someone to want to watch it here itself.

While discussing a related topic today with a friend of mine, I remembered this image I posted a few years ago. I just wanted to add gist of what I wrote to him here.

Who am I?

While I don't expect scientific dissection of these philosophical concepts I find some of the religiously views very elusive to understand. You listen to them for an hour and ponder over what was said, you tend to get confused because most of it is not amenable to reasoning and questioning. I think they make sense only if you are already
bought into them and you blindly accept them.

The two best answers I know to the questions like "Who am I?", "What is life?" are:

1. The question does not make sense
2. I don't know

I think I have no reason to believe I am very different from an ant or a crow on this mother planet which itself is an atom in this universe of trillions of stars. If the "liberation/moksha" does not make sense for an ant or an elephant, it does not make sense for me too. Of course, needless to say, I don't know what makes sense for an ant or an elephant. The so-called "higher order thinking" of us humans has only been endorsed by us, the humans. For all we know the so-called "laws of nature" may be a much bigger super set of the laws of nature that we humans know. To me the cycle of birth and death is not bad, it is just marvellous and beautiful. That is what I see everywhere in mother nature. If it is good for nature, it is good for me too. It is the law of Nature (or God). Who knows what the "truth" is? I think, if we keep aside morality and ethics, religious philosophy may be left with just views and opinions.

In this context these words by Einstein makes profound sense to me:

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead - his eyes are closed. The insight into the mystery of life, coupled though it be with fear, has also given rise to religion. To know what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms - this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness - Einstein.

There may be something behind this magnificent construction which we (insignificant creation of Nature) don't understand. The best we can do is to wonder about it, during our lifetime.