Sadhana Panchakam, Instruction 21

Translation and Commentary by Jayaram V

3.5 Keep the awareness, ‘I am Brahman’

After listening (sravanam) to the teacher and remembering the great statements which are revealed by him or found in the scriptures, it is time for the student to practice meditation (nidhidhyasana) upon them. What a better way is there other than starting with the contemplative thought that you are Brahman (“aham brahmsmi”), which sums up the very goal and purpose of your whole life and spiritual sadhana?

The idea that you are the supreme Brahman in your ultimate essence is the most fundamental thought of Hinduism. In other traditions it may be considered an affront, but in Hinduism it is the first step to self-realization. It is also an effective way to dissolve the ego and all the identities that are associated with it in the universality of the all-inclusive, boundless supreme consciousness of Brahman.

The physical self is not Brahman. It is a superimposition upon that ultimate reality. Therefore, when you contemplate upon that thought, you do not include your mind and body but your pure self only. You settle in the idea that you are the boundless self whose essential nature is indivisible, pure consciousness. Finding yourself and be satisfied in yourself, this is the ultimate purpose of sravanam, mananam and nidhidhyasana, the triple means of practising the austerity of your mind (tapah).

In nidhidhyasana we absorb the mind in a chosen object, which may be an image, a thought or an idea. The purpose is to transcend the duality between you and the object and settle in oneness. If liberation is your aim, you shall be careful how you practice it or which objects you will choose. If you fix your mind in mundane objects, you will remain this worldly and your mind will be filled with the desire for those objects.

We practice renunciation and detachment in spiritual sadhana so that all worldly things become inconsequential in our estimate as we turn our attention to the inmost self. Nidhidhyasana cements that process. As the Bhagavadgita (5.17) affirms, those whose intelligence is fixed in Brahman, who have Brahman as their self, whose thoughts are firmly fixed in Brahman, who are intensely devoted to That, they attain the state of non-return.

If you begin your quest with the question, “Who am I?” and if you persist in that, eventually you will arrive at the realization, “I am Brahman.” If you studied the scriptures or received instruction from a teacher, you may already know the answer. However, merely knowing it in theory does not help you much other than as a trigger in contemplation because that knowledge or the thought is still a mental formation or a mere ideation. It suggests a possibility through objectification, but not the reality of it through self-realization.

In nidhidhyasana you contemplate upon Brahman to awaken the thought that you are not an individual being with a mind and body and but an eternal Self whose essence is pure consciousness. You have to keep that thought alive, constantly remembering it and meditating upon it until it becomes your natural, experiential and uninterrupted reality. That thought alone has the power to dissolve the impurities of your mind and lit your consciousness with the effulgence of supreme knowledge. It will even clean the maya shaktis so that they become purer and assist you in your progress.

The purpose of liberation is to set yourself free from your limited notions of who you are and from your deluded concept of your self-identity and merge into the oceanic consciousness of Brahman, who is without limits, without a personality or from and who pervades as well as envelops all their source and support. Brahman is not God (Isvara) in the traditional sense. God is a manifested aspect of him containing his essence. He represents the supreme state of pure consciousness and the ultimate and absolute reality, which is eternal, unchanging, indefinable, indivisible and indescribable. You cannot experience him in a state of duality, but you can always keep that idea in your wakeful consciousness through constant remembrance.

By remembering that you are Brahman, you gradually weaken your egoism, your sense of separation and limitation, and see everything with sameness and equanimity and with an expansive and all-inclusive vision as yourself or an extension or projection of yourself. It will help you break free from the constricted notions of who you are and cultivate nearness and oneness to the supreme Self.

You become what you think and believe yourself to be. Your thoughts are therefore important. If you think you are an individual being or a limited physical entity, you remain so, but if you think you contain within yourself the supreme Brahmic state of pure consciousness, you will eventually find it within yourself.

Since your mind stretches in the direction of your thoughts, if you constantly think of the world, the world will grow in you and dominate your thinking. With that, you will develop burdensome attachment to it and its objects. If you think of Brahman as your very self, the idea will grow in you and gather strength to transform into reality someday.

In the practice of nidhidhyasana or contemplation upon Brahman a seeker comes across many obstacles due to the influence of maya which prevent him from establishing his mind in the thought. Maya remains active in all embodied souls due to the presence of impurities and attachments whereby they remain confined to their limited consciousness and experience egoistic pride, attachments, etc. The next three instructions offer solutions to resolve this problem.

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