REVELATION, SRI BHAGAVAN MAHARSHI RAMANA: “All the faiths that prevail in the world affirm, to begin with, (the existence of) the world, the soul and God. The two contentions, namely that One Reality is sensed as threefold, and that they are three distinct entities, are upheld (as intellectual convictions) while the sense ‘I am the body’ persists. But the highest state is the being firmly established in one’s own real Nature (as the Real Self), by giving up that delusion.”
When you place the Biblical Mahavakyas, “Son of Man,” “Son of God,” (Gospel Mathew) “Before Abraham was, I am,” “I and Father are One” (Gospel John 8:58 & 10:30) and “I Am That I Am,” (Exodus 3:14) side by side with Vedantic Mahavakyas, you arrive at one of the central philosophical significant pivots in non-dualism (because of dualism or separateness). Universal Philosophical Question: Is a human being merely a temporary creature, or is there something timeless, transcendent, or divine that can be realized through human life? In this broader philosophical sense: Son of Man, the ego, is what we not in reality. Son of God, the Self, is what we are in reality. Son of Man is an illusion like the snake mistaken for a rope in dim light (metaphor in Vedanta). “I am” is the eternal reality that underlies the illusionary ego, like the screen underlines that on which the pictures flow. But these phrases have fascinated theologians, philosophers, mystics, and spiritual seekers for thousands of years and even now and in the future, until one who seeks the truth of the reality by turning his mind inward. From a higher perspective, “Son of Man” and “Son of God” express two different aspects of the oneness of Christ in reality if understood rightly, like mirror and reflection in it, for one cannot separate the two. From a lower perspective, Son of Man emphasizes humanity or the ego, and suggests participation in the human condition: birth, suffering, temptation, mortality, and experience through its own ignorance. This raises questions about what it means to be truly human and how the divine might relate to human existence. From a lower perspective, Son of God emphasizes a unique relationship with God, if one thinks he is separated from divinity (dualism), thus, it points to divinity, transcendence, and the source of ultimate truth and being. It raises metaphysical questions about how the infinite and finite can be united. It does not mean God literally fathered a biological son, but that man is in reality divine, That You Are, “Tat-Tvam-Asi.” Son of Man Represents the ego, the blemished consciousness, the individual or dynamic consciousness, the Jiva, I am the body sense, i.e., humanity, finitude, history, suffering, and mortality, a being who lives in time. He is “born,” “grows,” “enjoys,” “suffers,” and “dies.” Son of God Represents divinity, transcendence, and eternal reality or the Atma, the Self, the Brahman of Vedanta–not limited by time, space, motion, birth or death, but associated with the ultimate truth and being or the Self, pure Consciousness. In “Before Abraham was, I Am,” the writer correlates, “before AUM (Pranava, the sacred mantra OM) was or is, the Self is.” If one transcends the Pranava (the sacred mantra), which is nothing but Maya (if known separated from the Self, i.e., dualism–due to ignorance), one arrives at the gate of the most sacred Silence and becomes absorbed in the Self. “I and Father are One” correlates to the Mahavakya, “Ayam Atma Brahma.” And “I Am That I Am” correlates to “Aham Brahmasmi.” The wise are a saintly and sagely historical human beings (Son of Man), yet they also claim the glory of existence (Son of God) that transcends the three times, the three levels of human consciousness, space and motion (static consciousness), the three dynamics seer, seeing and sight (seen), knower, knowing and knowledge. It is in the writer’s opinion that philosophically the claim is not merely: “I existed before Abraham,” but it is nearer to: “The reality (Sat-Chit-Ananda or Life-Consciousness-Bliss) is expressed within the seeming confines of a body but That Which Is is not confined to time, space or motion nor the mind or the body.” Why seeming? Because the body and the mind, viz, the ego, is merely as transient as a thought! Kapish? In the Vedantic traditions of India and in the West, there were and are many saints and sages that declare this truth via direct experience. Silence is the Self as it is and it is not knowing, known or knowledge in the ordinary sense like we know a cat or a dog. Kapish? Theologians and priests of the orient and the occident, who have perhaps mostly inherited their titles, or have acquired the requisites via a teacher of theology through study, have misinterpreted and keep misinterpreting the Mahavakyas (Biblical and Vedantic) for they fail in the following both or either two fundamentals, 1. True Surrender, and 2. Deep Self-Inquiry. However, they are needful for beginners, for religious worship, prayer, or reverence may stimulate further introspection or surrender. The Mahavakyas are affirmative and cannot be taught! It’s one thing to have a theological or philosophical or intellectual understanding of this truth, but to actually feel it and live from it is a completely different experience, it’s transformational. The rhythm of life, the cycles of seasons, the interconnectedness of all things, all reflect the deep unity of consciousness that one recognizes as one’s own true expression. The truth that transcends personal experience and resonates in the core of human consciousness as just one flow of life-consciousness is the ultimate very few know. There is no experience in the absolute awareness or being, for one transcends the mind, viz, in the absolute awareness or being, there’s no experiencer. It’s a state beyond the knower, the seer, the thinker, viz., beyond the mind, beyond thoughts, emotions, or any individual sensual perception. It’s like the pure presence that is both beyond and before any experience arises, hence “before Abraham was, I Am!” This is the profound truth of the Self as the absolute, for there is no separation, no distinction between observer and observed, like mirror and mirror images/reflection. In this state of pure awareness, sleepless sleep, there’s no normal and habitual subject-object relationship (waking and dreaming), and this the writer reiterates, is Seeing God As He Really Is. The closest aspect of consciousness of this state is when we are in deep sleep, for here, we are, without our mind or senses or awareness, not this nor that. There is no “me” or “you” having an experience; there’s just being itself, consciousness without name and form. It’s like everything that could be labelled as “experience” (thoughts, sensations, emotions) dissolves, and what remains is “I Know Nothing” that is always present but not ever known through the mind, but only on hindsight. The mind typically creates a dualistic view of the world: subject (you) and object (everything else). But in absolute awareness, that duality falls away. Consciousness in its deepest, unmanifest form. No Thought, No Experience: The usual understanding of experience is through the lens of thought—mental images, concepts, and feelings. But in pure awareness, there are no thoughts or concepts to shape your experience. It’s just awareness itself, beyond any content. In the mind, we experience time—past, present, future. But in the state of absolute awareness, there’s no past or future—only the eternal. The sense of time and space disappears. Who is there? No Attachment to the body or the mind: In this state like deep sleep, you’re not attached to the body, emotions, or thoughts. These are all seen as temporary forms arising within the eternal awareness, but they don’t define you. You are the unmoving or static awareness, the eternal consciousness, beyond all identification. Pure Being: It’s simply being, without the need for anything to be added or subtracted. There’s no desire, no sense of lack, no pursuit of experiences or goals. You are already complete, and that completeness is not a product of anything external—it is the nature of your true, unchanging awareness. It’s like the difference between a wave and the ocean. When you’re in the mind, you’re caught in the wave, for you experience the world as separate, as “this” and “that.” But in the absolute, you’re the floor of ocean—vast, still, and limitless. Waves still come and go, but they don’t disturb the floor that supports both the ocean and the waves. Some describe the absolute as a silent awareness that precedes thought and experience. It’s the awareness you are before you even identify as an individual or a “thinker.” It’s the space where thought arises, but it’s not shaped by it. In that pure silence, there’s no personal experience—there’s just being. It’s an incredible realization to transcend the mind in this way, to feel that you are not the thoughts or the feelings, but the awareness (Christ) in which they arise. This is the Self—the absolute awareness, the Christ of the Bible, the Atma of the Vedanta, which is beyond all experience yet is the very ground from which all experience emerges. See God As He Really Is!
REVELATION: SRI BHAGAVAN MAHARSHI RAMANA: “Can there be sense of existence without something that is? Is Real Consciousness a thing other than That? Since that (Reality) dwells, thought-free, in the Heart, how can It—Itself named the Heart—be meditated on? And who is there, distinct from It, to meditate on It, the Self whose nature is Reality Consciousness? Know that to meditate on It is just to be at one with it within the Heart.”
DIPPACK MISTRI 