Divine maxim on Absolute Reality. (Glossary for the Vahinis)
- Prajnanam Brahman is the Holy Declaration of the Rig Veda. Prajnanam means constant integrated awareness. This is present and active, in all things, at all places, all the time. It energises the physical, mental and spiritual realms, the lower, middle and higher regions and the sub-human, human, and super-human beings. The three periods of Time-the nether, spatial and heavenly worlds, and the three modes of being-goodness, passion and inertia (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas)-are all pervaded and permeated by Prajnanam (total awareness) or Chaitanya (pure consciousness).
- Aham Brahmasmi is the Holy Declaration of the Yajur Veda . It is a component of three words – Aham, Brahma and Asmi. Aham implies a total, a composite Personality. Man is subjected to countless thoughts, desires and resolutions, called ‘Sankalpa’. The very first Sankalpa that nestles in the mind of man is Aham or I-ness. Other ideas or thoughts leading to action can enter the mind only after Aham has struck root. Earlier than that event, no acceptance or rejection, no Sankalpa can find a place.
The I-ness persists in the gross body of the waking stage, the subtle body of the dream stage and the causal body of the deep sleep stage. It persists through all three states. The one that permeates in all three is the I, the Aham. I is the universal response, whether I ask who is Gokak or who is Sudharshan or who is Chakravarti. From every one, the answer arises, I, I, I, I is in every one, the core of all.
Next, we have the expression Brahma-Asmi, (I am Brahman). This truth can be made clear by an example. To curdle milk and get curds for use, we add a small quantity of curd itself to the milk. Then all the milk turns into curds. Where from did we get the curd, initially? From milk which was similarly treated. The years of life are the milk: the Divine Principle. Brahman is the curd, which, when it is welcome to pervade life, converts them into a Divine Saga. This is what the Upanishad mean when they declare that he who knows Brahman becomes Brahman (Brahmavid brahmaiva bhavati). Asmi is the process of mixing, the consummation of adding, the merging, the union. When it happens, Aham becomes Brahman. When human-ness is permeated by God-ness, man becomes God.
For, what is it that takes place subsequently? The milk that has been curdled is churned by inquiry and inner probe and the soft sweet fragrant butter, ananda (divine bliss), emanates. This ananda can be gained only through and from the Divine. Hence it is proclaimed that ananda is the core of all the Vedas, the fruit of all the Shastras (the goal of all the scriptures) in all the tongues. One must have faith in this truth, or else, he will miss the fruit. I am also stressing the need for faith, very often. For, where there is faith, there is love. Where there is love, there is peace. Where there is peace, there is truth. Where there is truth, there is bliss. And, where there is bliss, there is God.
People, nowadays, have weakened their faith and even lost it; yet they clamour for ananda. ananda cannot be procured from any shop or ordered from any Company. Many enquire, ‘How do you develop faith? What are the reasons for faith?’ One cannot define or demarcate the reasons; faith arises in the heart, through imperceptible conviction. One has faith in son and father, husband and wife, but one cannot explain why? It does not grow in the mind or as a result of external causes.
The I or Ego should not be moulded or enclosed in an ‘ism’; then, it becomes harmful as egoism. If the I is limited to the body and labelled on the form, it is harmful; it brings about pride and selfishness. If it is identified with the Atman (true self), it is sanctified and leads to the mergence with the Brahman (Divine Self). Do not take the temporary, trivial body which is like a bubble as the Aham. For, what exactly is such an I? You use the words ‘I’ and ‘mine’ from morning till night and repeat My home, My body, My life, My senses, My, My, My, without delving into the I that owns these. When you are in deep sleep, you don’t feel I, or think of the I, or worry about any My. Where does it go to, then? When the ‘I’ leaves you even during the few hours of sleep, how can it be with you during the permanent sleep from which you do not wake? Sleep is a short death; death is a lasting sleep. Consider the attachments that develop between the one and the other. Then, you can arrive at the truth, Aham Brahmasmi.
- Tat Tvam Asi is the holy declaration of the Sama Veda - That thou art. Tat (That) was in existence before creation and is in existence subsequently too. It is the Principle of Total Consciousness, the totality of Being and Becoming, encompassing and transcending the physical, mental and spiritual reaches,’beyond the horizon of expression and imagination’ (Yato vacho nivartante aprapya manasa saha). The Cosmos did not originate from God; It is God. There is nothing ‘Other’; ‘there is no Second.’ Some people ask, ‘Have you seen God?’ Reply, ‘I have.’ Then they ask, ‘Where is He? Show Him to us.’ If He is in one specific place, you can point your finger in that direction and say ‘He is there.’ But, this microphone before Me is God; this garland on this table is God; this handkerchief is God. There is nothing in the Universe higher than God, different from God, distinct from God. He is the ‘Tat’ (That). It is the Omnipresent (Eternal Awareness Chaitanya.) It is referred to as Tat (that), since we now imagine It to be distant, far from us. Far from where? Yes. Far from your body, your senses, your mind, your reasoning faculty, which are all equipped only with, limited capabilities. But, once your intuitive consciousness is aroused, the ‘far’ is ‘close.’
The Bhagavad Gita (13:16) announce It to be:
bahir antas ca bhutanam
acaram caram eva ca
suksmatvat tad avijneyam
dura-stham cantike ca tat
‘Durath dure, antike cha’ (farther than the far, also closer than the closest). ‘Tattva’ (Thou) is the body-sense-mind-reason complex. This too is That, as confirmed by the verb, asi (art). When you are engaged in reading the prayers of a book, what exactly is happening? The hand is holding, the eyes are seeing, reason is judging, and the mind is reacting to the flood of feeling. ‘Thou’ is the composite of hand and eye, reason and mind. ‘Thou’ is the mould, the Akara (the form). ‘That’ is the core, the genuineness, the sva-bhava. To realise the identity of the two, one has to resort to the sadhana (spiritual discipline) of meditation. Meditation is the process of sublimating concentration (which concerns itself with the realm of the senses), leading into contemplation (which concerns itself with the realm of mind and reason), resulting in real meditation (which concerns itself with the realm unreachable by logic or thought or even imagination).
This declaration is enshrined in the Sama Veda, whose hymns are musical and have to be sung as part of holy rites. Music is an excellent medium for harmonising Thou and That, the Human with the Divine. Of course, the song has to emerge from prema (selfless love), not from greed for fame or profit. When rain pours, the sheet of water brings together earth and sky. So too, the shower of Love-lit song can bring Thou and That together. Asi (art) can be consummated.
- Ayam atma Brahma is the Holy Declaration of the Atharva Veda, the Fourth among the Vedas. It means, ‘This Atma is Brahman.’ It implies that the Individual Self is the untarnished, unaffected Witness of the activities of the Body-Mind Complex. The lamp illumines the area around it. One person falsifies accounts so that he can escape paying tax; another writes the Name of Rama as a sadhana; another person takes advantage of the light to lay his hands on articles to steal. The lamp is the witness. The Atma too shines within the cave of the heart.
One should engage oneself in sacred activity, with the inspiration of that illumination. Many people who come to Me ask, ‘Swami! We are striving to control the mind but it runs about like a maddened dog. How am I to succeed?’ Therein lies a wrong step. The mind is beyond contact, for it is attached to the senses. Control the senses; let them not draw you into the objective world. By this means, the mind can be made an instrument of illumination and not of delusion. The truth will then dawn, this Atma is Brahman. The splendour of this awareness will drive away the darkness of ignorance. There can be no Tamas (ignorance) where there is jyoti (light). The Atma (Self) is jyoti (self-luminous).
The Gayatri Mantra helps to uproot nescience by invoking the splendour of the Sun to illumine the buddhi (intellect), the faculty of thought. That splendour will reveal the identity of Ayam Atma, of this self (individualised) with Brahman (the Cosmic Overself). (S.S.S Vol XVI - p. 1/7)
Jealousy and Anger are the twins born of Egoism; Ahamkara is the Mother. Destroy the twins and take the karam (meaning in Telugu, the hot taste) of the Ahamkara and keep it simply as Aham, so that you can get the thrill of ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ with that instrument. That is the stage to be reached, the height to be scaled. The karma in the Aham is like the single seed which if allowed to sprout, multiplies a thousand fold and produces many bags of seed. It has to be crushed in the very first instance. Then the analysis of the Aham starts and ends in the conclusion, ‘Ayam Atma-Brahma’, this Aham is the Atma, which is the Brahma. The two: That and This, Tat and Tattva are identified and This is found to be only That, when Tat Tvam Asi is realised. The fourth Mahavakya declares: Prajnanam, the Highest Wisdom, Unity, One.
All these Mahavakyas relate to the Glory of the One, which is a veritable Ocean of Grace. The vapour rising from it is ‘Prajnanam Brahma’; the cloud is ‘Ayam Atma Brahma’; the shower of rain, ‘Tat tvam asi’; the river is ‘Aham Brahmasmi’.
Prajnanam Brahma is symbolised by Anda pinda Lingam. It is the vision of the one entity in all the manifold entities, the expansion of the individual into the universal, the enlargement of the I into the vastness of the ‘He’ and ‘We’. The door of Liberation can also be opened to those who can explain who the ‘I’ truly is. This reveals to the Jiva ‘I am in the Light’.
The second Mahavakya, Ayam atma Brahma tells him ‘The Light is in me.’ Slowly the truth dawns on the mind. The Light which I imagined as enveloping me, the Prajnanam which I identified as the basis of all this appearance, that illumination is in me, too. My innermost truth is also that Prajnanam, that Light. This is represented by Sadashiva Lingam (the vision of the Eternal Shiva).
The Sadhaka sees in his Sadhana that Light which dispels the darkness of ages. He is told that He is that Light and nothing else, ‘Tat tvam asi’, ‘Thou art that’. He then becomes immune to spasms of ignorance, which make him forget his nature. Just as a beginner learning the violin
lapses easily into grinding out distressing sounds from the strings, the sadhaka also grinds out
discordant notes, of discontent and grief. When pain becomes unbearable, a person faints and
loses consciousness; that is a consolation. Beyond a certain limit, you are not to suffer pain. Similarly, when this identity feeling is established, no more activity is possible. One becomes
"unconscious" of the world, or rather, one passes beyond the realms of consciousness--un-, sub-, and even super-; the river has reached the sea. Tat Tvam Asi is symbolised by the Jnana Lingam (the vision of enlightenment).
Aham Brahmasmi, the last of the Mahavakyas is associated with the Atma lingam. The fourteen higher worlds and the fourteen lower worlds cannot be shown and demonstrated in models; they are symbolic of the levels of consciousness in the geography of the spirit and in the journey of the mind towards the Goal. There are no books that can teach you the topography; the journey is the best teacher, each step making the next one easier. Radha, Meera, Sakku, Surdas, Ramakrishna---all followed the guidance of their own inner call.
The Angam or body is the Sangam where spirit and matter meet; the Jangam, the moving phantasmagoria where spirit and matter meet is in Sangam. From this Sangam, one has to evoke the Lingam in its aforesaid four forms, one after the other. The Lingam is just a sign: the sign of endeavour, the sign of success. For example, the Anda pinda Lingam signifies the egg-shaped universe, which is how it is, even according to experts in science. The outer cover is the anda and the inner rasa or matter is the pinda. They are both dependent, one on the other.
You are all basically the Anda-pinda, with the outer shell of materialism and the inner core of Divinity. The body is a vessel to contain the Chaitanya or effulgence of Divinity.
The sentiment, "Aham Brahmasmi" explicit in the Mahavakya, gives a sense of kinship; as when this Linga, confronted by that Linga proceeds to alingana (embracing). That sense of belonging has great psychological value: when you hear a child cry and find on enquiry that it is your child, you get far more anxious than when you are told it is another s child. The attachment will lead to merging (for the Anda pinda Lingam is this body, this nature which we see) and imbibing and building into our consciousness. Even God, when He comes with human body or as materialised from, is Anda-pindam, whether it is MahaVishnu,Shiva,Rama, Krishna or Sathya Sai Baba.
Jnana lingam symbolises the Jnana that you are Sarvabhuta (the totality of all beings) and that Sarvabhuta is in you. The Jnanam (divine wisdom) itself is Brahman. Jnana is not a quality of Brahman - it is Brahman itself, for Brahman has no quality. The Jnani (the liberated person), though in this world, has the Inner Vision, which makes him fall away from twig as the dried leaf, which has no need of attachment.
Atma lingam (the vision of form of the Self), the ultimate phase, is the stage of gold, when the names and forms of gold jewels have been subsumed. Water freezes into ice; Atma freezes into the individual. Atma lingam is just the pot that contains sea-water, immersed in the self-same sea. It is just sugar, made into dolls of cats and dogs and cows and horses.
Sadashiva lingam indicates the person who is ever of the Swarupa (form) of Shiva. Here and everywhere, night and day, in joy and grief, he is Shivam: happy, auspicious, graceful. Anandam is the breath, his motive force, his demeanour, his inner and outer expression; Sada always and forever – Shivam (auspicious). Instal the Sadashiva lingam in the consciousness and all things will be revealed to you, step by step, by the Grace of the Divine In-dweller. (SSS Vol.2, pp. 90-95)