Questioner (Q): We exist so that timeless can be discovered. Who is it that discovers timeless? If the ego-self, the 'I', is itself a product of time, how is it going to discover the timeless?
Acharya Prashant (AP): What is meant when we say that the ego-self is a product of time? It means that all that the ego-self knows itself to be has come to it in the stream of time, hence it is a product of time. Whatever you call yourself as has been given to you by some experience in time. It happened someday. It kept happening over a period of time and hence you said, "This am I".
When you were a few months old, somebody came to you and said "Mumma". It happened someday and then it kept happening and hence you said, "A daughter am I". You did not just become a daughter, time made you a daughter. You might say, "I am someone who is quite easily hurt". Time did that to you, a sequence of experiences in time did that to you. Remove those experiences, remove those moments, remove those periods, where is the one who is hurt? Gone. Finished. That is meant when it is said that the 'I' is a product of time. 'I' relates to stuff and all that stuff is time-based.
The 'I' is always incomplete and hungry. It wants to hook on to something. It is always looking around for a companion. "Hello, I am incomplete. Would you complete me?" "Hello, there is something missing here. Can you please plug the hole?" "Hello, a bit of the jigsaw puzzle is missing. Can you help me?" And various helpers arise. Some as friends, the others as enemies. And the 'I' sense keeps swelling, the 'I' sense keeps acquiring layer after layer. That is what time does to 'I'. What does time do to 'I'? One day the 'I' gets attached to A, so now 'I am A'. Another day, the 'I' gets attached to B so now I am?
