Who am ‘I’? and I AM THAT’ - are stages in comprehending truth but they are not final.+

Who am ‘I’? and I AM THAT’ is for beginners only. Who am ‘I’? and I AM THAT’ are stages in comprehending truth but they are not final.

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana leads to the realization of the highest truth.

Swami Vivekananda:- Stick to the truth.

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is the foundation of all knowledge.

Two kinds of knowledge:

Dualistic knowledge is the lower egocentric knowledge based on ignorance. The dualistic knowledge is limited to form, time and space.

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is the Higher Knowledge is the Soulcentric knowledge of our true existence which is formless, timeless, and spaceless existence.

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana and the Higher Knowledge is that by which the Imperishable Brahman is attained.

By means of the Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, a Gnani behold, everywhere the consciousness, which otherwise cannot be seen or seized, which has no root or attributes, bodiless; which is eternal all-pervading, imperishable and the source of the form, time, and space.

As the spider sends forth and draws in its thread, as plants grow on the earth, as hair grows on the head and the body of a living man so does everything in the universe arise from the Soul, Imperishable.

For Gnani the Imperishable Brahman, are born Brahma, name, form, and food.

Fools, dwelling in darkness, but wise in their own conceit and puffed up with vain scholarship, wander about, being afflicted by many ills, like blind men led by the blind.

First Mundaka - Chapter 2 (9) - Children, immersed in ignorance in various ways, flatter themselves, saying: We have accomplished life's purpose. Because these performers of karma do not know the Truth owing to their attachment, they fall from heaven, misery-stricken, when the fruit of their work is exhausted.

First, Mundaka - Chapter 2 (10)- Ignorant fools, regarding sacrifices and humanitarian works as the highest, do not know any higher good. Having enjoyed their reward on the heights of heaven, gained by good works, they enter again this world or a lower one.

Second Mundaka - Chapter 1 (9) From Brahman (God) come all the oceans and the mountains; from Him, flow rivers of every kind; from Him have come, as well, all plants and flavors, by which the inner 'Self' subsists surrounded by the elements.

Sage Sankara says: ~ “What is accepted without a proper inquiry will not lead a person to the final goal. On the contrary, such acceptance will result only in evil, something which is detrimental to our spiritual progress.

Sage Sankara himself had often said that his philosophy was based on Sruti, or revealed scripture. This may be because Sage Sankara addressed the ordinary man, who finds security in the idea of causality and thus in the idea of God—and Revelation is indispensable to prove the latter. He believed that those of superior intelligence, have no need for this idea of divine causality, and can, therefore, dispense with Sruti and arrive at the truth of Non-Dualism by pure reason.

The reasoning is interpretable in two ways. The egocentric interpretation is to apply it only to the practical purpose (waking experience). The Soulcentric interpretation is to apply it to the three states. The latter leads to a final settlement of the problems because it takes all data into consideration.

Swami Vivekananda says: ~ Advaita encompasses everything. Advaita requires heavy-duty intellectualism. - From 'The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda'...

Sage Goudpada wrote his Manduka Karika: ~ “To establish the truth of Non-duality by sheer reasoning alone. He begins by defining "What is real?" "What is unreal?" etc, because that is the right way to discuss or teach. People must first know what they are talking about.

Bhagavad Gita: ~ Reason as a means to reality. (Chap.18 verse 37)

In chap. 10 of in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says: ~ I cannot save you, but I can give you Buddhi (reason). (chap. 10)

In chap. 10 of in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says: ~ "I have given you the most secret teaching, now reflect over it all" Krishna plainly says reflect, think. (Verse 63 of Chap. 18)

Ashtavakra Gita: ~ It is not the absence of Buddhi (Reason) that can grasp Advaita but the man who possesses the highest intellect. Brains are necessary. Such a man, by merely hearing the truth mentioned will know it.

Remember this:~ The world in which you exist itself is the mind. You cannot get rid of the mind because without the mind the world, in which you exist ceases to exist.

The mind will not die because the mind is merely an illusion. When wisdom dawns the unreal nature of the mind is exposed. Same way as the unreal nature of the dream was exposed when the waking takes place.

Without knowing ‘what is the mind? it is impossible to realize the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.

The ‘I’ is present only when the mind is present. The mind is present in the form of the universe. The universe appears as the waking or the dream (duality) and disappears as deep sleep (non-duality).

The one that becomes dual and nondual is consciousness. Thus, all three states are nothing but consciousness. The consciousness alone is real and all three states are merely an illusion. When the conviction about the consciousness becomes firm, then it leads to Advaitic awareness in the midst of the duality.

Thus, it is necessary to have a perfect understanding of ‘what is ‘what’ to realize the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar