Absolute Existence
When we say that “I’m That” what we are trying to say is
that “I’m” (Individual Consciousness) are nothing but “That” (Universal
Consciousness).
So let us try to understand few things before we fully
understand “I’m That”. There are two components here “I” and “That”
Firstly we have to understand “I’m”, in-fact we need to know
what is this “I” who is this “I”?
So now we will try to understand “I”, take an example of
typing this article, now my hands are typing this article on the laptop and my
mind is creating thoughts, the ego there by executes the action by associating
itself with the body and mind and types the article. But if we observe closely
this process of typing we understand that, first my hand is writing the article
and my mind is thinking about the article and with the help of intellect to
write it in an accurate manner and finally we say that “I wrote this article”.
Now it very important to note the statement “I wrote this article”, as it is my
body that wrote the article and my mind which came up with this thought, so I’m
different from mind and body which has written this article.
Let us go further, we are here saying that my body and my
mind, if it is my body and my mind, obviously I’m different from mind and body
as here I’m saying that body and mind are mine, or in other-words both body and
mind is used as tools by something else to write this article. So when I say “I
wrote this article”, it does not mean the mind or body but something else which
exists independently to this mind and body, which is using the mind and body as
a tool for creating action. It is the cause and mind and body actions are the
effect.
So what is this I? It is nothing but the consciousness that
illuminates the mind and body. So when I say that “I wrote this article”, it
should mean that the consciousness that exists within is the cause for this article
and “I wrote” is nothing but “It wrote”, in-short this consciousness is the
cause for everything and we should not wrongly identify ourselves with body or
mind but to the consciousness.
So from this we understand that “I’m” refers to individual consciousness.
Now let us go to the second part “That”, now what is this “That”?
It is nothing but universal consciousness. So now when we say that “I’m That”
what it means is that the individual consciousness which is within is no
different than the universal consciousness. Now the question that we come up is
that how the individual consciousness is same as universal consciousness? To
answer this we have to go with basics first. Universal consciousness is nothing
but Brahman and per Upanishads Brahman is omnipresent and infinite. When I say
that my consciousness and your consciousness, here this statement becomes
contradictory to Brahman’s Omnipresence, as when Brahman (universal consciousness)
is present everywhere then there cannot be another consciousness like
individual consciousness as this will rule out the omnipresence of Brahman
given raise to duality, if something is omnipresent the presence of something
else defeats the purpose of Omnipresence.
Second argument would be that of infinity nature of Brahman
(universal consciousness), if there are two consciousness then there needs to
be space for two i.e. Brahman (universal consciousness) and Atman (individual consciousness),
now if there are two then Brahman is not infinite as the individual consciousness
limits Brahman consciousness.
Hence we say that “I’m That” as our individual Self is
nothing but the universal Self and there is not difference between the same.
What we have to do is that remove this ignorance from our mind by repeated learning
of the scriptures, understanding them and finally bring it to practice by
practicing Mahavakyas (Aham Brahmasmi, Tatwamasi etc) which will ultimately
give raise to the realization of Self with the Universal Self.
