If experiencing is happening all the time and that experiencing is consciousness, what is the thing we are experiencing? Is that separate from consciousness? Could it even exist without consciousness? It could not. Is it not the case that your entire experience, every single detail is itself consciousness and only consciousness? It is therefore the case that the entire thing is one power, not a seer and a seen, but one whole phenomenon of existence? For that is the Advaita message and the truth of the Upanishads.
The famous example is the snake and the rope. There is a rope lying on the ground in the half-light of the evening and, as you walk in the forest, you see it ahead on the path. You might think, “That’s a snake!” because it looks like a snake and all your experience will be an experience of ‘snake’. But the person walking next to you, a guru, says to you, “No, no. It’s a piece of rope.” And you believe him, “Yes, right. It’s a rope,” but you still see the snake. You still see the snake because the light is just the same, but you know it’s a rope. It is a rope. But the appearance ‘snake’ has come about as a property of your mind. To understand the rope as rope, the snake does not have to disappear. The snake is still there but the knowledge and reality of rope is fully known.
Similarly, none of this has to disappear or change in any way. This is Brahman, appearing to us as all this. The appearance is not the problem. The snake is not the problem. It’s all Brahman. It’s consciousness with name and form. The formless is consciousness. The name and the form are the appearance of things but it’s all only Brahman and has all only ever been Brahman and always will be Brahman. Similarly, the consciousness, the experiencing power of you, the ‘I’, that too is only Brahman appearing as ‘little me’. The ‘little me’ does not have to go away for you to fully know this is Brahman. The summative Advaita is that point.
Brahman, consciousness, is doing nothing but being itself, appearing as phenomenal universe. The statement “All this is Brahman, including you” is true. The appearance is not a problem. The experience is beautiful. Either we see the world as separate from ourselves, see it as the world and are afraid of it, or we see the world and ourselves as one divine reality and enjoy it.
Through your sadhana, through your study, practice, devotion, through your maturity, you begin to accept. The seeing means it’s a change in understanding, a change in knowledge and it is knowledge and only knowledge which cracks the delusion and the ignorance. Only knowledge, not the senses. You need to reflect on them, understand the strength of what’s being said and come to an acceptance in yourself of believing. It’s a realising that comes upon you, “My God! I understand.”
This is about the knowledge which is the understanding of the world but that’s only half the picture because it’s also felt. It’s experienced. It’s ‘sensed’. The Vichara has two faces. The Vichara is looking at the world through liberated spiritual knowledge – studying, thinking, reflecting, pondering. The Vichara is also the experiential sensing of the consciousness within. Both those things together bring about the realisation of, “Yes, this is so.” The senses will never change. The knowledge will change and you’ll have more subtle experiences.
Accept the statements and view the world through that lens for some time, through your ordinary experiences, through that lens, and ponder. Vedanta is absolutely specific about how you do that. It says first of all you hear; you receive the teachings. You hear them, you read and reflect upon them. You think about them for a long time. Then meditate about what you have discovered, you sense the reality. Go about your life viewing the world through this lens and see what happens