Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa | Science of Identity Foundation

TWO

1
Forgetting thyself, coming into this world,
Having suffered manifold pain, At thy feet I have come,
Thee I shall tell my sorrows:

2
In my mother?s womb while I lay in the deadly fetters of bondage,
For once, oh Lord, showing thyself to me
Didst thou abandon Thy poor servant,

3
Then thought I: after I have birth,
I shall worship Thee,
I was born but fallen into the meshes of maya
There was not a particle of knowledge.

4
A fondled child in the lap of kindred,
Laughingly I passed the time.
The affection of the father and mother made me forget,
This world did taste sweet.

5
By slow degrees day by day, growing up as a boy, with other boys did I play.
In a few more days the power of understanding was aroused
I conned my lessons night and day.

6
In the pride of learning I journeyed to many a place,
Supporting kindred with all my heart,
Hari, Thee I forgot.

7
Now in old age Bhaktivinode
Crying feels so sad;
Not worshipping Thee the days passed in vain,
What help is there now?

You are your body, right? You are chemical in essence ... right? At least, that's what one of America's most influential scientists claims:

"I am a collection of water, calcium and organic molecules
called Carl Sagan. You are a collection of almost identical
molecules with a different collective label."*

Like Sagan, most people believe that they are their body. So if you ask them who they are, they think and respond in terms of bodily labels.

"I'm Susan. I'm blond, 29 years old, a mother, and still 36-24-36!"
"I'm Henry. I'm a white American male and proud of it!"
"I'm John. I'm a lawyer. I'm 40 years old and getting older every day."
"I'm Alice. I'm a female student. I'm fat and I'm a Methodist."

Name, race, age, sex, religion, nationality, occupation, height, weight, and so on,all these are bodily labels. Therefore if you consider your body to be yourself, you automatically identify yourself with such labels. If your body is fat and ugly, you think, "Woe is me! I am fat and ugly." If your body is 60 years old and female, you think, "I am a 60-year-old female." If your body is black and beautiful, you think, "I am black and beautiful."

But is the body really the self? Are you really your body?
Science of Identity Foundation | Chris Butler Speaks

*Carl Sagan, Cosmos (New York: Random House, 1980), p. 127.