MAHA VAKYA VICHARANA
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It is very important in Vedanta, especially in advaita Vedanta, to know the exact meaning of the four Mahavakyas. ‘Mahavakya’ is defined as a statement that teaches totality. What is totality? It is to grasp the truth that jiva (the individual soul) and Brahman (the universal consciousness) are indeed one and the same. The two form the totality. Once this truth is realized ,,,the jiva is released from bond of samsara, the cycle of birth and rebirth. To grasp this truth does not by itself solve the problem. Once the truth is grasped by the mind, the thought of it keeps recurring (Vritti). In that process of constant mentation, jiva, jagat (world) and Iswara (the crator, sustainer, and absorber of this creation) – these three exist, without impacting the mind and without impressing. This existence (‘sat’) is formless and all-pervasive. If we become aware of this existence, our awareness (‘chit’) also becomes formless and all-pervasive. (In fact, there is no' my awareness, your awareness, our awareness'. There is only awareness). One is ‘sat’, the other is ‘chit’. The two together are experienced. This unity or totality is knowledge. And this knowledge alone is the solution, says the advaitins.
What are those great Vakyas? What are the meanings of those four? The statements are four, but their meaning is one. If they connote four, how can they teach the indivisible one ? All the four speak of the one from different points of view. The four mahavakyas are : 1. ayam atma brahma (this self is that self), 2. prajnanam brahma (Brahman is consiousness), 3. tattwamasi (thou art that),and 4. aham brahmasmi (I am brahman). The first statement asserts that this individual soul is indeed the one universal self. The second states that the one self is consciousness. The third states that you are that very Brahman, the one consciousness. And the fourth states that I am no other than that Brahman. Although these four meanings seem to mean four different meanings, all the four state the same thing. How? Brahman is but consiousness. The jiva who is the knower, and the jagat that is known both lose themselves in that consciousness (knowledge). Thus, knowledge is indivisible, and so it is called prajnana (higher knowledge). The two entities called jiva and jagat are unreal. This is the meaning of both ayam atma brahma’ (This self is that self) and ‘tattwamasi’ (Thou art that). ‘This self is that self' means this jiva that is seen is Brahman. But does not the third (thou art that) also mean the same? Yes. But it is part of a larger statement. ‘That is this subtle essence. All this (visible world) has that as its self. Thou art that .(Ch. Up 6.8.7) ‘All this has that as its self’ means that this jagat is Brahman. And thus jagat, like the jiva, is dismissed. As jagat and jiva are both unreal, what is real is brahman which is consciousness. The three mahavakyas speak of the indivisible Brahman. the next question then is: ‘Is that Brahman to be indirectly inferred or directly experienced? ‘If it is but an inference, it is theoretical and is not experienced. If it is not within experience, it cannot be the solution of life. Therefore the fourth states: ‘I am brahman’. That brahman which is consciousness is not away and above me. It is my very self’.
Thus, although they seem to be different statements, all the four mean the same the indivisible. But it is difficult for man, who is living in the world of duality, to grasp this non-dual thought. Therefore the science of advaita comes down to the level of our duality and dismisses in two Vakyas our delusion that jiva and jagat are real. In another Vakya it establishes the nature of brahman which alone is real. And in the fourth, reveals the secret that brahman is not some distant entity but our very self. In the science of advaita these are termed apavada and samanyadhikaranya. Apavada is to dismiss the delusion that what we take to be real is in fact not real, but unreal. Samanadhikaranya is to reveal the ‘unreal’ as essentially the real. This serpent is really the rope. What you take to be the serpent is really the rope which in partial darkness you have mistaken to be a serpent. To say that it is not the serpent is apavada, by which the illusion of serpent is dismissed. What is serpent then? The answer is that it is indeed the same as rope. This ‘same as’ is samanadhikarnya, to link what is unreal with the real. Then you are convinced that there is nothing other than the rope, all that there is is but the rope. The problem of the serpent is solved.
Similarly, we are plagued with the thought ‘I am but my body, and I do not exist anywhere outside it’. This sense of identity with the body (jivabhava) imprisons us within our bodies and we die with it and are born again. The thought that my existence is confined to this body is knowledge of the particular. Knowledge of the particular is partial knowledge and not the whole truth.Knowledge of the general alone gives us the total truth. By apavada, the false identification with one’s body is dismissed, and its identity with brahman is established by stating that you are not the body but brahman, the consciousness pervading all bodies. Thus the individual self’s identity with the universal self is established. With this, the sense of identification with the finite is removed and the thought of the infinite brahman is established. Jiva is thus eliminated. But the jagat still persists. This is removed by the sentence ‘aitadatmyam’, ‘all this has that for its self.’ ‘All this’, this visible world, has but one self, and '(thou are that'( tattwamasi). You and the world, the jiva and the jagat, have the same self and are united in that infinite indivisible self, brahman. ‘That is the truth, and that is the self’ declares that brahman is one’s very form and essence. This experience of the infinite brahman is assured in the fourth statement, ‘I am brahman', through the process of apavada and samandhikaranya- elimination of unreal and identity with the real.
Keeping all this in mind Sankara, in his commentary on the ‘BrahmaSutras’, says that the meaning of these four statements must be diligently studied and understood. Such study dismisses the jiva and the jagat as unreal and finite, and decisively establishes the brahman, which is infinite consciousness. It is then that brahman becomes experience. And there is no external effort needed to achieve that. But that knowledge of the pervading self as my own self must be decisively and firmly established. The constant recurrence of this thought in of the pervasive brahman is called brahmakara Vritti. This recurrence of thought in course of time is transformed into brahman itself. This Virtti becomes, like brahman, formless and pervasive. It is pervasive in three respects- internal, external, and essential. Then alone it can be said to be complete and pervasive. Let us take the example of a gold ornament. The ornament is of gold in its exterior as well as in its interior. Its essence is of gold. Every particle of it is gold and nothing but gold. Where then is the ornament? In reality, there is no place for it. If is has no existence, how is it perceived? It is gold that is perceived. Gold, while remaining gold also appears as ornaments. Thus, there is brut one thing, and that one is gold. As gold, it is essence. As ornament, it is its manifestation.
Similarly, this atma, which is consciousness, is the essence. It manifests as jiva and jagat. Or, jiva and jagat have relative existence. And Iswara is relative to both these. These that exist relatively to one another, like the seed and the tree--how can their relative existence be absolute? Just as the seed and the tree are both unreal and are rooted in the earth which alone is real and whose manifestation the seed and the tree are, jiva and jagat are not real in themselves. They are real as brahman. (jagat is mithya as jagat, but real as brahman). And that brahman is not indirect, but direct, being our very self. Our self, which is real manifests as non-self, as jiva, jagat and Iswara. These four Vakyas state this totality of truth. By listening to these, and by meditating on their meaning, if we can see this indivisible self (consciousness) in all and everywhere, then we can perceive that indivisible consciousness as our essence, and jiva, jagat and Iswara as its manifestations. It is to this awareness that these four Vakyas help us to. To experience the pervasive self is the sole solution for all our problems. It is also the supreme goal of human life.