Aham Brahma Asmi!
Hello all,
Namaste! Hope all of you are doing well. Two weeks back we discussed what 'Tat Twam Asi' means. This was from the perspective of the god 'Ayyappa' saying to us about realizing our true Self. How many times we forget in the chaos of the materialistic world that we are actually a small but significant part of the eternal whole. Today let us try to analyze the same concept from our perspective. Before proceeding any further, I want to warn you that this particular post has a very high dose of Metaphysics and Philosophy, so be ready for it. :)
Remember the post on the sacred chakras where we were discussing the energy centers. Concentrate on one particular energy center again called Manipura, which we discussed in the post on Lotus as well. What did we discuss? Let us recollect, that in Hindu mythology the God who has the job as the creator is called Brahma. He is depicted as sitting on the lotus coming out of the navel of Vishnu (another God of preservation). Now let us think of a person who has worked on all her/his lower emotions and have opened all the energy centers including the crown chakra called Sahasrara. Such a person through her/his deep penance has acquired so much of spiritual knowledge that she/he has become very close to Vishnu (or God) like status.
Let us recapture what we discussed in the post on Lotus. Here it is -"Now there is another chakra just above the navel called the 'solar plexus chakra' or 'Manipura', which is considered the center for creating anything new, that which has never been created before. The enlightened person who has acquired Vishnu like status has opened all the sacred energy centers including the Manipura. This fantastic creativity that is acquired after the opening of the Sahasrara is the Brahma depicted as sitting on a thousand-petalled lotus, that is coming out of the Vishnu. So what does all this mean? A person, who has managed to open the last chakra (Sahasrara) on top of the head, has acquired Vishnu like status and can start creating new and innovative ideas as if like the Lord Brahma himself sitting on the thousand-petaled lotus, the ultimate creator. For her/him nothing or no creation is impossible and the Vishnu who is behind the Brahma is always there overlooking and guiding her/his creation. See how a weird fact as one God coming out of the navel of another, once we know the hidden meaning takes a fantastic dimension or perspective."(Yes, these are my own words from the Lotus post, reused here as it felt very apt and I did put it in quotes).
So for a person, who has managed to open all her/his chakras the art of creating becomes very easy. Let us move to another concept now called 'reality'. What is the reality? That which we live each day becomes our reality (maybe we will discuss everyday reality, in another post). There is also another reality, which we can call as the fabric on top of which we all weave our own everyday reality. This reality in metaphysical or Hindu philosophical term is called 'Brahman'. Okay, what is this 'Brahman'? Let us analyze.
Brahman is known as the ultimate truth or reality. What is this? Tough! How do I even start to explain it? According to my understanding (mind you, this is how I interpret, there can be another person who interprets it differently), there is an essential principle (is it matter or energy or both), which is considered inert, formless, eternal and immortal. This Brahman, when in the eternal, inert, formless state is called by another name as well in Sanatana Dharma called 'Paramatman', or the Universal soul. It is always neutral, inert and formless. Once the eternal soul takes a form as a bird, a bee or a human, then the essential principle is called 'Jivatman' or the eternal principle that has taken the form of a 'Jeeva' or life.
Let us elaborate with an example. Imagine a still lake, which let us call as a Sacred Lake. In an inert state, the lake is still, calm, inert, neutral, and nothing happens. Then something triggers it, say like a wind and a water bubble rises up. Think now this bubble takes the shape of a bird. Then this bird has the same principle made of the Sacred Lake. The Sacred Lake with all the water can be called as the Brahman or Paramatman. The bubble which flew out as the bird is the 'Jeevatman', the same principle that has taken the form of a life. Now think the Sacred Lake does not contain water, but another material called ether (Aakasha in Sanskrit), and the Sacred Ether Lake fills everything, we can imagine and it also contains every kind of 'Jeevatma' known to this Universe along with solar systems, galaxies, Universes and more. This is the concept of Brahman or the Paramatman, which gives rise to Jeevatmans like us. (This is how I have imagined the Brahman in my mind, just gave you a tour of my imagination!J Another person may imagine it another way.)
So every one of us humans has the essential principle, Brahman in the form of Jeevatman or our Soul and the animals as well. (Do the plants have souls, maybe, not sure, but they do always grow towards light). As this blog is for humans, let us concentrate on humans. So every human is born with a small part of the essential principle or Brahman in them in the form of Jeevatman. This Jeevatman is the same principle that also is the same fabric of the Universe; so even though a small thing, each one of us has a part of the Universal soul in us. Actually, that is a piece of the fantastic power hidden in each one of us.
Now how can we capture this power? The one and the only way is to start living from that deep perspective that we are a part of the Universal soul and we are all very powerful beings able to access that latent power. But instead, what do we do? We think of ourselves as the body we have taken form in and work for our everyday activities from the body perspective. By being with a body perspective we can never capture the essence of this latent power, because at every juncture in our life we are shown again and again that we are weak, humans with diseases, ailments, emotional troubles and other world disasters. From just considering all these problems, we also start thinking the same. But the minute we overcome all these problems in our mind and start realizing the fact that we are indeed a beautiful part of that eternal principle then we have overcome the body concept and have captured ourselves that tremendous power. Of course, even after realizing ourselves as the Universal soul, if we go and jump in the fire, we will definitely burn to ashes. That is why we are given brain and wisdom to discern and only choose the best for ourselves, whether it is good food, good friends or good habits.
But how can we literally capture this eternal principle and bring it into our lives? We think we don't have anyway, but the Universal principle will never send us into a physical existence without giving a pathway forward for us. It is so intelligent and compassionate, how will it ever do that? We have been given an awesome tool in our satchel to bring this power into our life. What is this? It is our thoughts. The thoughts we have are a powerful tool we can use towards bringing what we want into our life.
Let us concentrate on our thoughts. What do we usually use it for? We usually use it for our everyday matters, how troubled we are in this life and how things are not going the way we want and how everyone is trying to bring us down. So always we are thinking about what we don't want. How about if we start thinking about what we want in our life? Will that make a change? Maybe.
Okay, now come back to the person we were discussing before who has opened all her/his energy centers and is balanced as we were discussing before in the 'Tat Twam Asi' post, with our feminine and masculine sides. Now to open all the energy centers we have to first work on ourselves, discard all our heavy baggage like lower emotions, ego, and pride. Once we have done all these background tasks and open our energy centers fully we are ready to use our, Vishnu like status and start creating like Brahma sitting on the lotus coming from the navel of Vishnu, which is the hidden metaphor for 'Manipura' chakra or the creative center of our being.
Our powerful tool, thoughts we have to use to create the things we want. So after clearing up all our previous lower emotions or energy baggage, being balanced in our feminine and masculine energy, we should use the power of the 'Manipura' energy center and should start sending thoughts about the things we want in our life. If we don't clear up our lower emotions, then it is sure to interfere with our creativity and we will be thinking about the lower energies we are having and end up creating things we don't want for our life. What do we call the things usually we want or don't want in our life? It is called our personal reality.
Who is the person that is highly creative in Hindu mythology? Brahma! So a person who has become highly creative by being balanced in energies and opening all the sacred energy centers, creating what she/he wants in her/his life can be called, what? Brahma! See the correlation, that person starts to be highly creative and using all her/his energy from the sacred centers, especially the Manipura, starts creating what she/he wants for her/his life.
Now, what does our title say? "Aham- I, Brahma-Brahma, Asmi- is". Putting it in proper English we can say 'Aham Brahma Asmi' means 'I am the Brahma' or I create my own reality using my own thought or 'I am the creator of my reality'! Isn't that a powerful and authentic position to take? But to reach that Brahma like stage for creating our own reality, the first thing we have to do is to start working on ourselves. The only person that can help us is ourselves and no one else can. The only other being or principle who can help us in this endeavor is the Universal Self or the divine wisdom, which can show us our proper way and we very much need that grace for becoming Brahma. So finally we need to take concerted action with the Brahman, to bring what we want in our life!
So all of us humans are born with this powerful tool of thoughts and the power to be 'Aham Brahma Asmi'. No one is excluded from this. Of course, as we discussed before animals are not given this powerful ability of contemplative thought. But for us humans, everyone one of us is unique in our talent or gift, which is a fact. My gift will not be same as yours and your gift will not be same as a third person's.
But without realizing this power we have been given for our life, we go about our lives and everyday things, never truly anywhere near capturing this position of a powerful being who is able to become Brahma and create what she/he wants for her/his life. So let us work on ourselves, capture the power and be strong and stand tall in our truth and unique gifts and make what we want in our life and say 'Aham Brahma Asmi', authentically, creatively and powerfully!
I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday! 😉
Next week: Ardhanariswara-An analysis!
Note: Images taken from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels.com.
Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".
All rights reserved to the author (SwaroopaStargazer) and SwaroopaBlog.
To my Blog readers: As all of you know, the European Union has passed laws regarding the collection of user data. This is just to inform all my EU blog readers, I use Google Analytics, which Google provides, to look at from where readers are reading my blogs. I also use Specific feeds for their service for subscription. I don't collect or intend to collect user data to sell or provide to third-party applications. Regards,
SwaroopaBlog.
Disclaimer: This is a personal blog. The opinions and viewpoints shared here are that of the author/owner only. Even though the author/owner will try to research well before posting the information, the author/owner of this blog does not make any portrayal of the accuracy or correctness of the content on this blog or the links provided. The author/owner will not be liable for any omissions or inaccuracies occurred. The author/owner will not be liable for any damages or losses due to the use or display of this blog. These terms and conditions can change at any time. This blog is purely for informational purposes only.
©SwaroopaStargazer and Swaroopa, 2017.
Namaste! Hope all of you are doing well. Two weeks back we discussed what 'Tat Twam Asi' means. This was from the perspective of the god 'Ayyappa' saying to us about realizing our true Self. How many times we forget in the chaos of the materialistic world that we are actually a small but significant part of the eternal whole. Today let us try to analyze the same concept from our perspective. Before proceeding any further, I want to warn you that this particular post has a very high dose of Metaphysics and Philosophy, so be ready for it. :)
Remember the post on the sacred chakras where we were discussing the energy centers. Concentrate on one particular energy center again called Manipura, which we discussed in the post on Lotus as well. What did we discuss? Let us recollect, that in Hindu mythology the God who has the job as the creator is called Brahma. He is depicted as sitting on the lotus coming out of the navel of Vishnu (another God of preservation). Now let us think of a person who has worked on all her/his lower emotions and have opened all the energy centers including the crown chakra called Sahasrara. Such a person through her/his deep penance has acquired so much of spiritual knowledge that she/he has become very close to Vishnu (or God) like status.
 | |
| Brahma sitting on a lotus coming from the navel of Vishnu By Anonymous (V&A Museum [1]) [Public domain or Public domain] |
Let us recapture what we discussed in the post on Lotus. Here it is -"Now there is another chakra just above the navel called the 'solar plexus chakra' or 'Manipura', which is considered the center for creating anything new, that which has never been created before. The enlightened person who has acquired Vishnu like status has opened all the sacred energy centers including the Manipura. This fantastic creativity that is acquired after the opening of the Sahasrara is the Brahma depicted as sitting on a thousand-petalled lotus, that is coming out of the Vishnu. So what does all this mean? A person, who has managed to open the last chakra (Sahasrara) on top of the head, has acquired Vishnu like status and can start creating new and innovative ideas as if like the Lord Brahma himself sitting on the thousand-petaled lotus, the ultimate creator. For her/him nothing or no creation is impossible and the Vishnu who is behind the Brahma is always there overlooking and guiding her/his creation. See how a weird fact as one God coming out of the navel of another, once we know the hidden meaning takes a fantastic dimension or perspective."(Yes, these are my own words from the Lotus post, reused here as it felt very apt and I did put it in quotes).
So for a person, who has managed to open all her/his chakras the art of creating becomes very easy. Let us move to another concept now called 'reality'. What is the reality? That which we live each day becomes our reality (maybe we will discuss everyday reality, in another post). There is also another reality, which we can call as the fabric on top of which we all weave our own everyday reality. This reality in metaphysical or Hindu philosophical term is called 'Brahman'. Okay, what is this 'Brahman'? Let us analyze.
Brahman is known as the ultimate truth or reality. What is this? Tough! How do I even start to explain it? According to my understanding (mind you, this is how I interpret, there can be another person who interprets it differently), there is an essential principle (is it matter or energy or both), which is considered inert, formless, eternal and immortal. This Brahman, when in the eternal, inert, formless state is called by another name as well in Sanatana Dharma called 'Paramatman', or the Universal soul. It is always neutral, inert and formless. Once the eternal soul takes a form as a bird, a bee or a human, then the essential principle is called 'Jivatman' or the eternal principle that has taken the form of a 'Jeeva' or life.
Let us elaborate with an example. Imagine a still lake, which let us call as a Sacred Lake. In an inert state, the lake is still, calm, inert, neutral, and nothing happens. Then something triggers it, say like a wind and a water bubble rises up. Think now this bubble takes the shape of a bird. Then this bird has the same principle made of the Sacred Lake. The Sacred Lake with all the water can be called as the Brahman or Paramatman. The bubble which flew out as the bird is the 'Jeevatman', the same principle that has taken the form of a life. Now think the Sacred Lake does not contain water, but another material called ether (Aakasha in Sanskrit), and the Sacred Ether Lake fills everything, we can imagine and it also contains every kind of 'Jeevatma' known to this Universe along with solar systems, galaxies, Universes and more. This is the concept of Brahman or the Paramatman, which gives rise to Jeevatmans like us. (This is how I have imagined the Brahman in my mind, just gave you a tour of my imagination!J Another person may imagine it another way.)
 |
| Bubble rising out of a lake Image courtesy -Pexels.com |
So every one of us humans has the essential principle, Brahman in the form of Jeevatman or our Soul and the animals as well. (Do the plants have souls, maybe, not sure, but they do always grow towards light). As this blog is for humans, let us concentrate on humans. So every human is born with a small part of the essential principle or Brahman in them in the form of Jeevatman. This Jeevatman is the same principle that also is the same fabric of the Universe; so even though a small thing, each one of us has a part of the Universal soul in us. Actually, that is a piece of the fantastic power hidden in each one of us.
Now how can we capture this power? The one and the only way is to start living from that deep perspective that we are a part of the Universal soul and we are all very powerful beings able to access that latent power. But instead, what do we do? We think of ourselves as the body we have taken form in and work for our everyday activities from the body perspective. By being with a body perspective we can never capture the essence of this latent power, because at every juncture in our life we are shown again and again that we are weak, humans with diseases, ailments, emotional troubles and other world disasters. From just considering all these problems, we also start thinking the same. But the minute we overcome all these problems in our mind and start realizing the fact that we are indeed a beautiful part of that eternal principle then we have overcome the body concept and have captured ourselves that tremendous power. Of course, even after realizing ourselves as the Universal soul, if we go and jump in the fire, we will definitely burn to ashes. That is why we are given brain and wisdom to discern and only choose the best for ourselves, whether it is good food, good friends or good habits.
But how can we literally capture this eternal principle and bring it into our lives? We think we don't have anyway, but the Universal principle will never send us into a physical existence without giving a pathway forward for us. It is so intelligent and compassionate, how will it ever do that? We have been given an awesome tool in our satchel to bring this power into our life. What is this? It is our thoughts. The thoughts we have are a powerful tool we can use towards bringing what we want into our life.
Let us concentrate on our thoughts. What do we usually use it for? We usually use it for our everyday matters, how troubled we are in this life and how things are not going the way we want and how everyone is trying to bring us down. So always we are thinking about what we don't want. How about if we start thinking about what we want in our life? Will that make a change? Maybe.
Okay, now come back to the person we were discussing before who has opened all her/his energy centers and is balanced as we were discussing before in the 'Tat Twam Asi' post, with our feminine and masculine sides. Now to open all the energy centers we have to first work on ourselves, discard all our heavy baggage like lower emotions, ego, and pride. Once we have done all these background tasks and open our energy centers fully we are ready to use our, Vishnu like status and start creating like Brahma sitting on the lotus coming from the navel of Vishnu, which is the hidden metaphor for 'Manipura' chakra or the creative center of our being.
Our powerful tool, thoughts we have to use to create the things we want. So after clearing up all our previous lower emotions or energy baggage, being balanced in our feminine and masculine energy, we should use the power of the 'Manipura' energy center and should start sending thoughts about the things we want in our life. If we don't clear up our lower emotions, then it is sure to interfere with our creativity and we will be thinking about the lower energies we are having and end up creating things we don't want for our life. What do we call the things usually we want or don't want in our life? It is called our personal reality.
Who is the person that is highly creative in Hindu mythology? Brahma! So a person who has become highly creative by being balanced in energies and opening all the sacred energy centers, creating what she/he wants in her/his life can be called, what? Brahma! See the correlation, that person starts to be highly creative and using all her/his energy from the sacred centers, especially the Manipura, starts creating what she/he wants for her/his life.
Now, what does our title say? "Aham- I, Brahma-Brahma, Asmi- is". Putting it in proper English we can say 'Aham Brahma Asmi' means 'I am the Brahma' or I create my own reality using my own thought or 'I am the creator of my reality'! Isn't that a powerful and authentic position to take? But to reach that Brahma like stage for creating our own reality, the first thing we have to do is to start working on ourselves. The only person that can help us is ourselves and no one else can. The only other being or principle who can help us in this endeavor is the Universal Self or the divine wisdom, which can show us our proper way and we very much need that grace for becoming Brahma. So finally we need to take concerted action with the Brahman, to bring what we want in our life!
So all of us humans are born with this powerful tool of thoughts and the power to be 'Aham Brahma Asmi'. No one is excluded from this. Of course, as we discussed before animals are not given this powerful ability of contemplative thought. But for us humans, everyone one of us is unique in our talent or gift, which is a fact. My gift will not be same as yours and your gift will not be same as a third person's.
But without realizing this power we have been given for our life, we go about our lives and everyday things, never truly anywhere near capturing this position of a powerful being who is able to become Brahma and create what she/he wants for her/his life. So let us work on ourselves, capture the power and be strong and stand tall in our truth and unique gifts and make what we want in our life and say 'Aham Brahma Asmi', authentically, creatively and powerfully!
I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday! 😉
Next week: Ardhanariswara-An analysis!
Note: Images taken from Wikimedia Commons and Pexels.com.
Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".
All rights reserved to the author (SwaroopaStargazer) and SwaroopaBlog.
To my Blog readers: As all of you know, the European Union has passed laws regarding the collection of user data. This is just to inform all my EU blog readers, I use Google Analytics, which Google provides, to look at from where readers are reading my blogs. I also use Specific feeds for their service for subscription. I don't collect or intend to collect user data to sell or provide to third-party applications. Regards,
SwaroopaBlog.
Disclaimer: This is a personal blog. The opinions and viewpoints shared here are that of the author/owner only. Even though the author/owner will try to research well before posting the information, the author/owner of this blog does not make any portrayal of the accuracy or correctness of the content on this blog or the links provided. The author/owner will not be liable for any omissions or inaccuracies occurred. The author/owner will not be liable for any damages or losses due to the use or display of this blog. These terms and conditions can change at any time. This blog is purely for informational purposes only.
©SwaroopaStargazer and Swaroopa, 2017.
very nice
ReplyDeleteThank you. All divine guidance! :)
ReplyDelete