You Are That

Nidagha had been contemplating in solitude for many months. He returned to his master with a troubled mind.

"Master, your teachings ring true, yet something eludes me. You say Brahman is all there is. I accept this intellectually. But when I look at myself—this limited being with desires, fears, and confusions—I cannot see how I am that infinite Brahman."

Ribhu nodded. "You have arrived at the crucial juncture. Now listen to the essence of all teachings: Tat Tvam Asi. You are That."

"But how can I be That?" Nidagha protested. "Brahman is infinite; I am limited. Brahman is pure; I have impurities. Brahman is eternal; I was born and will die."

"You speak of 'I,'" Ribhu replied. "But which 'I'? There are three meanings of 'I.' The first is the body—'I am tall, I am old, I am hungry.' Is this the 'I' you mean?"

"No, the body is clearly not my true self."

"The second is the mind—'I think, I feel, I remember.' Is this the 'I' you mean?"

Nidagha hesitated. "This feels closer to who I am..."

"But the mind changes constantly," Ribhu pointed out. "The mind of childhood is different from the mind of adulthood. The waking mind is different from the dreaming mind. Are you something that constantly changes?"

"No... there must be something more constant."

"The third meaning of 'I' is the pure awareness that witnesses body and mind but is itself unchanged by either. When you say 'I know I have a body' and 'I know I have thoughts'—who is this knower? This knower is not body, for it knows the body. This knower is not mind, for it knows the mind. What remains?"

"Pure awareness itself," Nidagha said slowly. "But this awareness seems individual, located here in this body."

"Does awareness have location?" Ribhu asked. "Consider: space appears to be divided when we place pots in it. There seems to be space inside each pot and space outside. But is space actually divided? Remove the pots and where are the boundaries?"

"The space was always one," Nidagha realized.

"Similarly, awareness appears to be divided into many individual consciousnesses because of the body-minds through which it expresses. But awareness itself has no boundaries. When the limiting adjuncts are seen through, only infinite awareness remains—and that is what you truly are."

"Then the 'I' that I truly am..."

"Is the same 'I' that is the reality of all beings. Not similar to—identical with. Not a part of—the whole itself. The wave is not similar to the ocean; it IS the ocean, momentarily appearing as wave. You are not similar to Brahman; you ARE Brahman, momentarily appearing as Nidagha."

Nidagha's eyes widened. "Then when I say 'I am Brahman'..."

"You are not making a claim," Ribhu said firmly. "You are stating a fact that was always true. The statement does not make you Brahman—you already are Brahman. The statement simply dissolves the false belief that you were ever anything else. Tat Tvam Asi—You Are That—is not an instruction to become something. It is a revelation of what you have always been."

"Why then did I ever feel separate?"

"Ignorance—beginning-less but not endless. Like a man who has forgotten his wealth and lives as a beggar, you forgot your true nature and lived as a limited being. But the wealth was never lost; the nature was never changed. The beggar does not earn his wealth anew; he simply remembers it. You do not become Brahman; you simply recognize you always were."

Nidagha sat in silence, and for a moment, the words dissolved into the truth they pointed to. There was no one to understand, nothing to be understood—only the fullness of That which he already was.