Brahmanubhuti – Talk 17
(You are Inifnite)
Let us contemplate on the next topic – ‘You are infinite’.
Are you infinite? ‘Yes, yes. I was 40kg when I was twenty years old and now I have become 80kg – I have become infinite.’ No. This has nothing to do with your body. In essence you are infinite. All of our life, we keep on struggling to become something in life – ‘I want to become something in life.’ Our entire struggle is – ‘I want to become important in life.’ All I want is to be something bigger. ‘I want to have a name,’ which means, ‘I want to expand.’ ‘I want to make money,’ which means, ‘I want to acquire more power.’ All our life, we are trying somehow to expand ourselves and become something infinite and larger. That is our basic motivation.
Somewhere, we are not satisfied with what we are. There is a lot of dissatisfaction. ‘I look very finite,’ ‘I look very small.’ But, what if, what you understand is wrong? That is why Vedanta teaches us ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ – ‘That you are’ or ‘You are that’. Now please understand, in ‘You are that’, ‘You’ is the real essence of you, the actual you – the real you; ‘That’ means Brahman, the Supreme Reality. All encompassing infinite reality is you. ‘How can I be? I am so small.’ – This is your question. ‘From small I want to become infinite. I am a Jiva, individual. How can I become infinite?’ This is the question we have for ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ – ‘That you are’. For that the answer is – Vedanta doesn’t say that you have to become that. It doesn’t say ‘Tat Tvam Bhava’ – ‘You have to become that’. No. Then you will ask ‘I am feeling finite, how do I become infinite?’ Vedanta doesn’t say, ‘You meditate for twenty four hours a day for so many years and then you will become that; from finite, you will become infinite.’ No. By doing something you cannot become infinite, because you already are. For what you already are, you cannot do something. ‘No, I am finite. I want to become infinite. Should I have devotion, sing Bhajans, chant a name for a million times?’ No, because you already are that. ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ – You already are that. ‘Should I do breathing practices some million times to find out whether I am That; whether I am infinite?’ Sorry, no, because you already are that. ‘How is that possible? I am feeling so miserable, so small.’ You are not small, you are infinite – that you have to recognize.
That is why you have to understand ‘Tat’ and ‘Tvam’ and ‘Asi’. When I say ‘Tvam’, it means ‘you’; so when you use the word ‘I’, what does it mean? Sometimes I use the word ‘I’ for body; sometimes I use the word ‘I’ for mind, sometimes I use the word for intellect. ‘I am hungry’ – who is hungry? The body is hungry. Sometimes I will say, ‘I am sad’ – the mind is sad. Sometimes I say ‘I am worrying’ – the intellect is worrying. So, you use the word ‘I’ under various contexts. Then ‘I’ itself is changing. But, deep inside, you know that ‘I’ is not changing. You are the same ‘I’. So, there is a changing ‘I’ in you, and an unchanging ‘I’ in you. Deep inside, you know that you are the unchanging ‘I’. But, while talking, while communicating, you confuse yourself for a changing ‘I’. Deep inside, you know that you are not changing ‘I’. Now, Tvam refers to that unchanging ‘I’. This unchanging ‘I’ is not a thought. A thought comes up and goes. A thought sometimes says, ‘I am a body,’ sometimes says,’ I am the mind.’ When you wake up in the morning, the thought of ‘I’ comes. In deep sleep, the thought of ‘I’ disappears. But still, ‘You’ continue, because in deep sleep you are not dead. There is something in you that continues in deep sleep also. In deep sleep, waking and dreaming states, all the states, something in you is continuing. That is permanent. And that is the real ‘I’. And what is the nature of that? Nature of that is Awareness and Consciousness.
But, you confuse that real and unchanging ‘I’ in you and identify with the body, mind and intellect. So, that is the problem. Now, the problem is not you becoming infinite, but the problem is removing the mistake of understanding – correcting the understanding. That is the problem. If you are already infinite, you cannot become infinite. So, if you are infinite, but you think you are finite, then the correction can happen. The correction is required for your understanding – for the intellect, Buddhi. That is where you have to realize, ‘I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not the intellect, but I am the pure Consciousness.’ ‘Naanu naanembudu naanalla, ee deha, mana, buddhi naanalla, sachidananda atma Shiva naanu naane. Shivoham, Shivoham, Shivoham.’
This realization has to happen.
Now, you cannot become Consciousness, because you already are Consciousness. But you can correct your wrong understanding and realize that you are not the body, mind and intellect. Then, you will be established in Consciousness. This can happen through Jnana. Jnana is a way for realization. So, another example I can give you – you can see the Sun rise in the east and the Sun set in the west. By looking at this, we can think the Sun is going round the earth. That is what people thought, until somebody realized, that earth is going round the Sun, but the Sun is not going round the earth. So now, people corrected their understanding, and because of that they started having new discoveries. Understanding got corrected. Hundreds of years ago, somebody started exploring and they traveled from Europe to India – Europe to America, and that was a discovery of a new continent. Similarly, earlier people had thought earth is flat,now they understand that earth is round, so it is a correction in understanding, earth looks the same. Also, they realized that earth is going round the Sun. So many new discoveries started happening. What happened? The basic understanding got corrected. Similarly, when your understanding is wrong, and you identify with our body, mind and intellect, you feel limited.
If we are Consciousness, we are unlimited. How are we unlimited as Consciousness? I am seeing the stars, I am seeing the moon, I am seeing the whole sky, which is infinite. Now, where is that? Sky is there, is it not in your Consciousness? Is it not in your Awareness? Everything is in your Consciousness. Now let me ask you a question. Between two of my hands, how much is the gap? You can see in inches – how many inches? Ten inches, or twelve inches is the gap. There is a gap between my hands. But, how much is the gap between me and the space – my hand and space? How much is the distance between my hand and space? Between two hands, there is a ten inch gap; between this hand and space, how much is the gap? No gap. With the other hand and space how much is the gap? No gap. Both hands are in space. Why are they in space? It is because space is all pervading reality. Space is everywhere. In that my hand is there. Whatever is there everywhere, you don’t have a distance between that and your hand or anything. Is there a distance between your body and space? No, there cannot be, because space is everywhere. Space is subtler than the body, which is why space is all pervading and in space you exist. There is no gap between you and space.
Consciousness is subtler than the space, because in Consciousness space is available. Without Consciousness you cannot understand space. So, how much gap is there between Consciousness and space? It is zero. How much is the gap between Consciousness and your body? No gap. How much gap is there between Consciousness and the Sun? No gap. So everything exists in Consciousness. And who is that Consciousness? You are. Everything that you perceive is in your Consciousness. What you perceive is infinity – infinite sky. That is in your Consciousness and who is that Consciousness? You are not the body, you are not the mind, you are not the intellect; you are that Consciousness. You are that Awareness. Everything is in Awareness. Since everything is in you, you are already infinite. And you are feeling miserable, because you are wrongly thinking that you are the body. You are identifying the consciousness with a small body. How did the infinite identify with this finite? There is one example. There is space in this room, and there is space outside. Are the space inside and the space outside the same or different? Has space got cut because of the room? Space cannot be cut, because space is subtler than the walls. But, space inside the room appears to be small. Space outside appears to be infinity. This applies to space because it is physical. But, Consciousness is subtler than space, because in Consciousness space has appeared. So, can Consciousness be cut – inside and outside? The Consciousness is all pervading reality, which is you, which is infinite. But, just like the space inside the room appears as room inside space, and space outside the room appears to be outer space, the conscious inside your body and mind that appears to be as you is called Individual Consciousness. Whereas, the Consciousness outside, is the Universal Consciousness or God, or Brahman. That is infinite, but you appear to be finite because of the limitations of the body and mind.
If you really understand the nature of Consciousness, you will understand that there is no body and mind which can limit the Consciousness. Consciousness is same, one Consciousness, which is infinite. When space itself cannot be bound by walls, how Consciousness can be bound by walls? You, and the Sun and the Moon, are in the Consciousness. ‘You’ means your body. Sun is also in the Consciousness, there is no gap between Sun and the Consciousness; Moon is also in the Consciousness, because there is no gap between the Moon and Consciousness; your body is also in Consciousness. Your body, Sun, Moon, everything is an object in Consciousness. Your problem is, you are identifying the object in Consciousness with the Consciousness inside your body, and that is why you think that my Consciousness is limited to that body. You have to just understand that Consciousness is not limited by a body. Space cannot be limited by a body, how can Consciousness be limited by a body? The space inside and space outside are the same, similarly the Consciousness inside and Consciousness outside are the same. Consciousness inside is called Atman, and Consciousness outside is called Brahman or God. They are the same.
Where is the confusion coming into picture? The confusion is coming because of the Buddhi, the intellect. Intellect is causing confusion. Intellect is causing erroneous judgment saying that ‘I am seeing the body’ – intellect cannot see the Consciousness. Intellect is saying that ‘I am the body’ because, what it sees it thinks, ‘it is me’. The Consciousness, Atman, the individual within you, the Consciousness in you, identifies with that erroneous intellect and thinks that it is also you. That’s all. The moment correction happens in intellect, Consciousness says, ‘I am infinite’ – Consciousness understands, ‘I am infinite’. Or rather, there is a feeling of infinity. So, realization is the result of clear Jnana – Ajnana removal.
So do you understand what the meaning of ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ is? ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ means you are infinite. You are thinking that you are the body, mind and intellect – that is a wrong understanding. You already are infinite. Correct your understanding, and then you will feel or rather understand that infinity, and that you are Brahman – that Atman is nothing but Brahman. This is the understanding which is required. And how can this happen? It can happen through Jnana only. Shravana, Manana, and Nidhidhyasa. Jnana – not a general and intellectual understanding. Finally, it has to be Nidhidhyasa. It has to establish as truth in you. You have to live that truth. Nidhidhyasa is not meditation. Nidhidhyasa is contemplation to establish the truth. So, you have to remove all your doubts. Then you will get established in the truth. ‘You’ means not the intellect. It is the Consciousness. It no longer identifies with the body and mind. It identifies with the infinite space. That is called ‘Tat Tvam Asi’.
For that you have to meditate on ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ – ‘I am Brahman’, ‘I am Consciousness’.