In the Upanishads, there are four short sentences called the Mahavakyas, ‘the great sayings’. One of them, from the Chandogya Upanishad, is ‘Tat Tvam Asi’, ‘That Thou Art’ or ‘You are That’. In the first person, ‘I am That’. Within the fabric of those three words is the entire realisation of Vedanta.
How does knowing this ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ create a realised state of mind? Well you must consider it, probe into its mysterious depths and then meditate on that which you find.
As the rivers flowing east and west
Merge in the sea and become one with it,
Forgetting they were ever separate rivers,
So do all creatures lose their separateness
When they merge at last into pure being.
There is nothing that does not come from Him.
Of everything He is the inmost Self.
He is the truth, He is the Self supreme.
You are That, You are That.
Tat Tvam Asi
(Chandogya Upanishad 6, 10.1.)
As milestones in this sadhana Vedanta knows that there are four stages of discovery of these truths. The first stage is ritual – like prayers, mantras and ceremonies, the fabric of religion. Then a second stage, an evolution from that, is philosophy – studying, knowing, thinking, starting to question into the powers behind ritual. The third stage is sometimes described as having glimpses, starting to actually sense the mystical content that is within the philosophy and the rituals. The fourth is experiencing it.
Experiencing it? What does it mean? We are misled into a thought that what we’re aiming for is transcendental experiences, some kind of revelatory vision or power, waiting for the big bliss. No. We’re talking about stability, resilience, maturity of mind, steadiness, happiness, peace, love. This is about clarity and illumination, experienced in these things not as a light, but as ‘Aha! I see, I know,’ I realise.
This is bringing about an intelligence in yourself, a tranquil, stable, motivated mind, a mind which is satisfied by its own resources. Contentedness, perhaps not all the time. In this world, that’s impossible for many but contentedness most of the time describes a mind which looks out upon the world with benevolence and sees wonder.
These are the indicators of experience coming about from a developing spiritual practice that is bringing us closer and closer to these rays of stability, this confidence of God