Am I The Supreme Brahman?

There is an understandable reason why people hesitate to study or listen to Vedanta. It changes our vision altogether about our own identity, and about our approach to the world around us and we are as though shaken out of our comfort zone.

There are four brief statements from four UpanishadUpanishads (associated with the four Vedas) which talk about the oneness of jiva, the individual being, with Brahman (God in normal parlance). Equating the limited with the unlimited, the finite with the infinite, looks strange. Jiva, the individual, is physically limited to a space, limited to a time-period, limited by being a specific person. These three limitations do not exist in Brahman, which is infinite in nature. Out of several statements in the Upanishads, the teachers chose four statements which make such bold assertion, and called them the maha vakyas, grand statements. But how to understand them?

Upanishads, the primary source of Indian philosophy, are of the nature of meditations by several sages on the nature of the Supreme Reality (which we call God), on the nature of the Jiva, the individual, and the nature of the jagat, the universe around us. As we saw in earlier notes, the Brahman is not a personal god whom we see in religion as a powerful male or female sitting in heaven, supervising creation. Brahman is an impersonal entity, denoted by the pronoun ‘It’. It is defined as (satyam, jnanam anantam brahma) the infinitely existing consciousness, which is manifesting as the whole creation.

In this background, we may see one grand statement, aham brahmaasmi, which literally means, ‘I am Brahman’, from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. The most important enquiry in Vedanta is, ‘Who am I? Vedanta, after an elaborate discussion, tells, ‘tat tvam asi’, which means, ‘you are That’, in which ‘That’ means Brahman. The student contemplates it under the guidance of the teacher and realizes that he/she is Brahman. But how?

Vedanta starts by enquiring into the nature of Jiva. The jiva identifies himself with a body-mind-complex. He/she is given a name, a religion, and a social identity by the society around him. The moment a person is born, he is born into a religion, a nationality, a particular sex and so on. Vedanta calls all this a superimposition, done by society and by the jiva. After a brief enquiry the jiva finds that the gross body, with blood, flesh and bones is not his real self. The idea of ‘I’ does not stick there. The jiva also finds that he can also see the mind and the senses as separate from the ‘I’. Thus, they all become objects which can be seen, or known, by the ‘I’. Whoever is the knower, is different from the known. Whatever is seen as an object is not me. The knower is the real self, and not the things which are seen by the knower. The real self is the undying, eternal consciousness tentatively reflecting in all beings like the sunlight falling on the whole world. This realization negates our earlier knowledge of self. The real identity, or essential nature, which is consciousness, is the same as with Brahman. This is the discussion we find in chapter 13 of the Gita.

The jiva has always been Brahman, but due to ignorance, he/she assumed a different identity. Such ignorance is removed by scripture and by the teacher. The seeker is awakened into a higher identity.

This realization, ‘I am Brahman’, is not an egotistical statement. It is the total opposite of it. The ego of the jiva has totally merged in the infinity of Brahman, just as a wave loses its identity by realizing that it is essentially the ocean. The jiva’s individual identity dissolves for him, though others may see him as before. The enlightened person sees not only himself as Brahman but all beings as Brahman. It is such a magnificent revelation to see all beings as sparks of the divine. It is a message which goes beyond race, religion, or place.

(The writer is a former

DGP, Andhra Pradesh)