निरुपममनादितत्त्वं त्वमहमिदमद इति कल्पनादूरम् ।
नित्यानन्दैकरसं सत्यं ब्रह्माद्वितीयमेवाहम् ॥
Nirupamaṁ anādi-tattvaṁ tvam-aham-idam-ada iti kalpanādūram
Nityānanda-eka-rasaṁ satyaṁ brahma-advitīyam-eva-aham
“I am indeed Brahman, who is incomparable, reality without a beginning, beyond the ideas such as “you” or “me” or “this” or “that,” the essence of eternal bliss, real, and nondual.” (Vivekacūḍāmaṇi, 493)
The idea is intriguing—the real me is beyond anything that can be described as “you” or “me” or “this” or “that.” What roles do these personal and demonstrative pronouns play in my life?
“You” is clearly whoever is in front of me. “Me” is myself, whatever my notion of “self” may be. “This” is whatever is relatively closer to me than “that” which is farther away.
All of these—you, me, this, that—are limited entities. Their identities are affirmed as distinct from and in relation to one another. All of them, moreover, are dependent on “me.” When my “me” disappears (as in deep sleep), the “you,” “this” and “that” disappear also. When my “me” changes (as in dream), “you,” “this” and “that” change as well. The “me” seems to be the hub of everything. It is the “me” that controls everything.
At present, my “me” doesn’t feel like “the essence of eternal bliss.” Occasional bliss? Yes, but eternal bliss? No. My “me” doesn’t also feel like it is “without beginning.” Didn’t it begin when I was born? Is there another “me” beyond my present “me”? It sure looks like there must be. That “me beyond me” is the real me. Because it is real and because it is infinite, I am going to capitalize it in order to distinguish it from the puny me which is what my ego is. The “Me beyond me” is the Ātman. The description given in the Vivekacūḍāmaṇi verse refers to the Ātman.
The two terms, Ātman (lit., “self”) and Brahman (lit., “vast, infinite”), can sometimes be confusing. The reality in relation to an individual is called the Ātman. The same reality in relation to no one in particular is called Brahman. The two—Ātman and Brahman—obviously are one and the same. The Ātman is unlimited. Being infinite, the Ātman is one, hence there is nothing and no one else from whom the Ātman is different. My present “me” clearly doesn’t answer this description.
A phenomenon called superimposition (adhyāsa or adhyāropa) magically hides the real and covers it with an apparitional layer (kośa). Which is how the Ātman remains hidden while my present “me” layers itself atop the Ātman. More accurately, the hidden Ātman deludes itself into thinking of the layer as its own self. It is the inner darkness of ignorance that hides the Ātman from itself. We saw how the process works in the previous post.
Addressing the deluded “me” of the student, the teacher says: Tat tvam asi, “You are That” (Chāndogya Upaniṣad, 6.8.7). Meaning, your present “me” is not real. Your real “me” is That. “That” refers to Brahman, the ultimate reality. Being impersonal, Brahman is beyond gender and hence is best referred to as “That.” Using the pronouns “That” or “It” to refer to Brahman may initially sound odd, because we tend to use these to refer to inanimate objects. Brahman is not an object (it’s the real me!) and certainly not “inanimate.” Brahman is the very source of all life. Brahman is life itself. “You are That” is a powerful teaching that leads to spiritual illumination—instantly in the case of the student who is ready for it, and gradually in the case others.
Everything that is grasped by the senses or imagined by the mind is sometimes referred to as “this,” as in this statement from the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (3.14.1):
सर्वं खल्विदं ब्रह्म ।
sarvaṁ khalu idaṁ brahma.
“All this is indeed Brahman.”
The meaning is straightforward. All of “this”—the world perceived by the senses and the mind—is nothing but Brahman. In other words, all of “this” is really “That” transcendent, boundless reality beyond the layers created by time (kāla), space (deśa), and causality (nimitta).
Taking this teaching to heart, the student strives to look past all the layers that appear as “you,” “this,” “that,” or “me.” Every time the ego, or the layered “me,” raises its head, the student ignores it and affirms the Ātman, the “Me beyond me.” Śaṅkarācārya’s “Nirvāṇa Ṣaṭkam” is a hymn that describes powerfully the process of affirming the real and rejecting the unreal. Eventually the unreal evaporates into nothingness and the real alone remains.
I am that real. Nothing else exists.