The soul’s identity

‘Who am I’ is a crucial question that has to be a constant refrain in every body’s consciousness, says Narada to Prachina Barhis in the Bhagavata Purana. He relates the story of Puranjana to illustrate the fact that by pursuing this enquiry one is led towards jnana and salvation, pointed out Swami Paramasukhananda in a discourse

King Puranjana goes in search of a city with his close

friend named Avignatha Saka and finds an exquisite one
with nine openings.

He resides there with a beautiful girl, experiencing the

joys and sorrows of life. Kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada
and matsarya jostle with one another in his mind, and he
forgets his friend.

He then dies and is reborn as a princess who marries a

king and is attached to her family. When the king dies, she
feels lost and cries in despair. A kindly old man advises her
about the inevitability of the course of each one’s life that
continues through every birth and points out that she is Puranjana reborn as a woman.

Every jivatma’s life is subject to fear, old age, disease and

sickness and the cycle continues. But it is also true that
every jivatma has a close and most dependable friend in Avignatha Saka, who is the very Paramatma.

He is the only support, but the gap between these friends

widens when one forgets this and begins to chase the desires of this world. Sita is always with Rama, but her desire for the deer separates her from Him. At that moment she is so deluded that she does not even heed Lakshmana’s advice.

Awareness of the truth of the atma and its undying relationship with the Paramatma is the jnana that leads to liberation. It is in the heart and mind of a jivatma and is fostered  by aligning oneself with the company of the pious.