Identity Theft

Identity Theft!

Is such a thing even possible? Can anyone ever steal your true identity? Think about it.

What does an Identity Thief steal anyway? Your name?

And what’s in a name?

Are YOU in your name? Does an Identity Thief steal YOU?

What about your LIFE? Is your life somehow tied to your name? Does an Identity Thief steal your LIFE?

Does an Identity Thief steal your very existence? Will you disappear the instant an Identity Thief steals your name?

Does an Identity Thief steal your consciousness? Will you fall over dead or go into a coma when the Identity Thief steals your name?

Yet, we make so many false associations with that term – identity, meaning to be what a person or thing is or, to put it in everyday terms, who we are.

Here are some of the things we have come to identify with: our name, our family, our nationality, our religion, our occupation, our political and social organizations. Yet, none of these are who we truly are.

Then who are we?

There is only one real way to answer that question. Drop all of the above false identities. In essence, you must be willing to become your own identity thief.

Take away all associations with your name, your family, your religion, your nationality, your occupation and political and social organizations. What remains is who you truly are.

Sit quietly and ask yourself: Am I my name? My family? My religion? My nationality? Or, are these something that were given to me or put on me by either my family or society in general. Or, perhaps by my own doing as in the case of occupations and political and social organizations.

Your real identity is that which you always were, are now, and will be in the future. It does not change. You may change your name, your occupation, your political and social affiliations, even your religion or citizenship. But you can never change who you truly are. No thief, no matter how ingenious or masterful can steal your true identity.

Written at Chinmaya Vibhooti, India, January 12, 2017.