"Oh Man.. Human - the self-proclaimed seeker of truth, thinks he can seek the truth; the truth he has made for himself, in his mind, by his little intellect" 

At least once in our lifetime we've asked ourselves this question, "Who am I? What am I doing in life? What is the purpose of everything?" And everytime we ask this question, we get no answers from the universe.. As if the universe is giving us the silent treatment, just like a toxic EX. Pun intended  :/ 

So, what are WE?
To answer this question, I'd like to share the story of a very dear friend of mine. He used to be that non-chalant and detached guy. But after the passing of his mother, he became a completely different person. He started to beleive that everyone will leave him one day and he'll be miserable again. He never got recovered from it. But when he did, he became something which was completely different from who HE ONCE WAS. Now when I meet him, I try to remember who he used to be, but nothing seems to make sense.

You all must've felt that in your life too. You meet someone, you get along with them. But after some time it feels like everything is just fading. The spark is not there and the connection is not feeling well. It's as if that person is DEAD now and the person you are seeing is someone else in that same body. But the mind remembers and tries to forcefully construct the old identity of that person in your mind.

It hurts .. but it's true.

Now you might ask me why I'm sharing this story and how it relates to this oldest philosophical question, which is, "WHO AM I?"

Well, to tell you the truth, I don't know the answer to that. Infact, no one does... 

So, does that mean there's no answer to that? 

Well, not exactly..
YES ! I don't know who I am.. but I do know what I am not.

And the answer to that is....

I'm not who I think I am. I'm not what the world says I am. I'm not my body. I'm not some soul or magical being. I'm not the identity which is associated to me.

Then if I'm nothing of all that, what will I be?

And the answer to that is again the question, "WHO AM I?"

No matter how and where you start, you always end up exactly at this same question. No philosophical debate can ever answer that. The existence itself seems like a big joke. You spend your whole life protecting your identity, which in the end does not mean anything at all.

When you were born, you were given a name, language, religion, identity and sense of reality. Upon that you built your entire being. That identity is a borrowed one, a borrowed SELF. It has nothing strong, nothing substantive. Anything built around it will be shallow and weak.. and literally an ILLUSION, because it exists only in the realm of thought.

For me, if you ask me, I will answer by saying that this whole existence is the biggest illusion that we will never be able to look beyond of. It is a delusion. Magical and true at the same time. Just like magic is real if it can be observed, same as life is real as it can be observed by us. But.. not everything you see it real.

I wish I could further explain it and connect the dots. But I'm leaving with an Ayah from QURAN. This will blow your mind, connect all the dots and also keep you in deep thoughts after reading this article.

It is as follows:

"The life of this world is merely enjoyment of delusion." 

[ The Quran 3:185 ] 

Let this thought sink in....