" Aham Brahmasmi " (I'm the Universe / God)... The deep meaning

"Aham Brahmasmi" - I am Brahman / Universe / God

Many Vedas and Upanishads have said this over and over again. It seems like a simple line but a thinker would find the catch in this simple phrase.

Hindu scriptures say that there is only Brahman and nothing else. The Universe is the only and everything. The catch here is that when we hear this quote - "Aham Brahmasmi", there is a speaker ("I") and the object ("Universe"). The speaker is saying that "It" is the universe. 

But since there is nothing else but the universe, it means that the universe itself must be saying this to itself. It is the speaker, the listener, the object and the subject itself. Something like when we tell ourselves something, we are the subject, object, speaker and listener.

The indication in this line is towards perceptions ; that instead of thinking duality (Creator & Creation), one should THINK OF SINGULARITY.

The Brahman / Universe is conscious. We are a part of this current universe in this space and time... Right Now. Are we conscious of ourselves ? Yes we are. Is my friend conscious of herself? Yes she is. Is the dog sitting over there conscious of itself? Most certainly. 
The universe, we being an active part of it right now, is always conscious, and thus it says "Aham Brahmasmi".

So whenever I'm being conscious of myself, this part of the universe bound in me is being conscious of itself. Whenever I gaze at the stars, the universe is gazing at itself. Whenever I dream, the universe is dreaming in its own. Now multiply this into so many other souls on lets say just this planet. This means a whole chunk of the universe is being conscious of itself.

Now I have started feeling that my senses - my eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin, memory, intelligence / brain, etc are just mere tools for the universe to experience itself. 

In other words, I notice that I had no control over the birth of my body, this set of organic tools I have been born with, including my basic senses and also my talents. I just kept discovering along the way what I'm good at and walked on that path. I discovered with time what makes me happy, and did those things. But am I controlling any of the basic things here? Yes I know I can make choices, but those are so heavily dependent on my characteristics, the ones which I never chose. For example, I can decide to quit my job to start a business, but the basic quality of being free willed is something I was born with which is why I feel happily conditioned to be making this choice. Am I what I think I am, or a lost part of a larger consciousness ?

My body, my senses, my brain is just a medium to experience and wonder, to raise questions and seek answers. But the active universe, that decided the way my body and mind would be, is only trying to see and realize itself through all these processes, which I think of as my identity. Isn't it ?

Who else does that ? 

I think, all the souls on this planet do that; i.e search for meaning. Seriously, I constantly try to find out about myself, my paths, my happiness. Sometimes I try to figure out other people also, and they do the same as well with me. We are constantly trying to know and figure out each other. Why would the consciousness of the universe (we being a part of it always) try to do that ?

Seems like the universal consciousness forms my body and mind, my eyes, ears and memory and is looking through me and wondering... What the heck an I doing here ? What am I here for ? What should I be doing in life ? What am I searching for ?

Then I look at the other and start wondering... Who the heck is that ? What does he want in life ?  Whats my connection with them ?... and so on.

Conclusion : The universe is one. All elements (those we call living and non living) are actively a part of it. In fact the totality of it is the universe itself. Our consciousness isn't just ours alone, locked in this body. It transcends our physical self, even our imaginary self.

In fact, it is the single consciousness (God / Brahman / Om) that is creating, sustaining(creating time) and destroying continuously (seen as work of the trinity). 

This consciousness forms waves and frequencies which make matter and energy possible (scientifically observed under modern science, but always a recognized phenomenon in ancient sciences). 

Its only purpose is to create these numerous frequencies (of creation) and then solving the puzzle to return back to its original state (pure consciousness). This solving of the puzzle by the universe is what we experience in our bodies and minds when we search for meaning in ourselves and others (family, friends, humans and animals alike). 

This makes us the Universe, and the universe becomes me, as a single consciousness tied in the illusion of this body and mind. Meditation, spiritual practices and study, helps us realize our true nature. It clears our minds to make us understand that the Gods to whom we pray, whose idols we make, whose images and stories we love, we ourselves are a part of the same divinity, the figures and stories might change, but the unified consciousness is the same. 

It is the same consciousness that was Krishna, it is the same that is me, it is the same that will be Kalki.

Our "Aatmas" (souls), put together, 
becomes "Paramatma" (singlemost / supreme soul).

"Aham Brahmasmi"

Essence of Kali & Durga - The Fierce Mother Goddesses

Kali is a form of the mother Goddess - "Shakti". Shakti in sanskrit means "energy/power". She is like the nuclear reactor(with immense energy) which becomes unstable, on irking by evil forces, turning herself into a nuclear bomb. She does this when terrible situations anger her a lot, typically the demons and the bad elements which threaten creation.

The Vedic Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, who are the phenomenon of creation, time period / lifespan and destruction respectively, have their abiding source of power. This power is feminine. The phenomenon cannot manifest without the power and the power is in turn guided by the phenomenon into the formation of this creation. "Aadi-Shakti"(eternal energy) is the consort of Brahma as "Saraswati"(Goddess of Knowledge), of Vishnu as "Lakshmi"(Goddess of Prosperity) and of Shiva as "Parvati"(Goddess of Strength). 

Parvati also called "Shakti" is also mostly generally referred to as the consort of Shiva, and their union - "ArdhaNareeshwara" (half male-half female form of Shiva-Shakti) is the secret of all creation.They both entwine to form the web of creation, Shiva being the pool of consciousness(the end of all forms) and Shakti being the energy which gives consciousness the medium to create. Which is why she is called Mother. The energy of creation that she is, "Shakti" flows consciously through every particle and is the life force of every being - living or dead. She is the life force of the humans, the ghosts, plants, animals, angels and demons. The whole of creation is her child. She is the nurturer and also the punisher when her child is in danger.

Many forms of Shakti in different
situations & aspects, centre one being Durga,
2 topleft corner ones are forms of  Kaali.
There are still many more forms and Avataars.

HER VARIOUS FORMS : 
Maa Durga, Maa Kaali, Annapurna, and many more.

Maa is kind, benevolent, loving and truly the ultimate mother. She cares and nurtures. In most of her forms, Shakti is in a benevolent state. But when her own creations - the demons, "Asuras", evil spirits, etc go upto the level of destroying nature, killing innocent beings, and creating havoc, she comes into the angry protective mother form. She manifests into "Durga" ("Durg" meaning fortress/ boundary/ protection). Durga is shown as all powerful, skilled in martial arts and with her sheer strength and courage she kills the devils and protects the good people. Till now she is courageous, poised and angry. This can be seen in the story of "Mahishasura" who was a demon who could disguise himself as a buffalo. He was creating havoc. He had got a boon that no man but only a woman could kill him, which he thought was impossible as women aren't as strong enough. 
In his ego he destroyed villages, settlements and entire tribes. His cruel ways were limited by Shakti who transformed into Durga and showed the demon that power and energy itself are feminine in nature. The same energy can become life giving or life taking.

When Evil does not stop at that, and demonic activity continues to anger her even more, Shakti loses it totally. She becomes Raw. She loses her poise. She becomes like the tigress who wants to protect her cubs. She transforms into Kali, the fierce one and does not even try to defeat the demons. Instead she just massacres all of them. She becomes the term - Madness and Wrath in the true sense. She loses her touch of femininity and poise, and becomes only the mad angry Mother taking revenge for her murdered babies and punishing evil. She goes around wild, breathing anger, severing heads of demons and wearing a garland of their skulls and skirt of their chopped hands. It seems like she herself has become a mad demon in nature, but only for a good cause. There are many stories of Kaali, but a famous one is the arrival of this demon called "RaktBeej"(meaning blood-seed). This demon had terrifying powers. The Angels and warriors tried to fight him, but his one drop of blood which fell on the ground would give birth to another demon like him. He could cut his own arm and sprinkle the drops of blood around to create 100's of Raktbeejas like him. This way he went on killing and destroying. When Mother's patience ended, she burst up in massive anger taking the form of Kaali. She wanted blood. She leaped and flung her weapon like a hurricane cutting up all the Raktbeejas, but they wud keep growing more and more as soon as their blood touched the ground. In her fierce madness, mother Kaali opened her mouth wide like a giant and started sucking all the blood that came out of these demons with such a force, that no drop of Raktbeej's blood ever touched the ground. Once all the demons were dead, Kaali was still angry, could not control her wrath, as she is the form of pure wrath. She continued to kill all other evil demons as well, in her madness, to which Shiva and other Gods got worried that she would destroy the meaning of life (good vs evil struggle) if she kills the entire species of demons in her anger. This would harm the balance of life as every creation has an intended purpose of it existing.

Shiva laid himself as a corpse to stop Kali

So Shiva laid himself down as a corpse in the way of Kali who was madly walking over them searching for any demons alive. As soon as her feet touched Shiva's body, which is considered super disrespectful, she got a shock, her tounge stuck out in shame and she realized that she is also a poised Parvati, the wife of Shiva. The anger receded, and she got back to her old form of "Parvati".

Why is Kali so fierce?
We see the essence of Kali in nature everywhere. Try troubling new born cubs or pups, surely their mother won't spare you. The mother of a newborn human baby, if someone tries to kill her baby, she takes the form of Durga first trying her best to protect her child, and sometimes she could even become Kaali, take up weapons, knowing no shame, fight to kill. The mother in this form is so full of love & emotions for her child that she will fight anyone even till her own death to protect her child. This is the true essence of motherhood. She doesnt care about dangers, society, and her feminine poise. She only thinks of attacking anyone who comes close to her child, like an animal.


Why is Kaali naked ?
We see naked images and sculptures of all Gods/godesses in ancient Indian historical sites and art. Clothing was more of an ornamentation back then. Mostly it was worn to segregate people in work, like a jersey is used. 

Shame was seen in a bad task, not a bare body.
(Sculpture of a Goddess)

Painting of a queen.
The servant has cloth but no jewels.
Clothing was a way of  tagging & ornamentation back in time.
(Ajanta cave paintings, India)

Another example of ancient attitudes to nudity
visible in the sculpture

Modern art forms of the same Goddesses,
now covered up, shows the ways of our narrow minded society,
which considers bare bodies shameful & lustful.

So for example, all the queens servant wore a white robe, and the kings guards wore a red head gear. Shame because of a bare body, wasn't existent in people's minds, as is seen in the ancient art. This is also seen in all other art forms from Greek to Egyptian to Meopotamian.

We see this culture even today among the tribals anywhere in the world, who live away from the society, in nature's goodness, knowing no shame. Look at their simple faces. it shows that they are much more pure and logical in their thinking. They respect man, woman and nature equally and do not lust after bare skin which is something every human is born with. Cloth is only used for protection and utility.

The free and open minded attitudes of tribals all around the world, which are remnants of civilizations.
Some form of rigid and vulgar mindset took away this innocence from the world.
In each photo you can see men and women together.

But still why is Kali not even adorned with jewels and ornamentation like other feminine forms shown above? Why is her hair flowing wild? Why doesn't she behave demurely and gracefully like women do? That's because only when she quits her poise of a woman, will she be immune to all fear. The shame of a person is the biggest drawback in a fight. If we feel shameful in a fight because our clothes got torn at the wrong places, or for other reasons, and our opponent starts making fun, our strength, our confidence and will to fight is greatly reduced. And knowing the demons, they would definitely try all possible ways, to bring disgrace to a female warrior(who is also a graceful married wife of Shiva), which is why she gives up all her grace in the beginning itself and transforms into a mad animal like being trying to protect her babies; ie us.

Why is Kaali also benevolent?
Kaali is realized as an eternal truth of Shakti - the feminine power of the cosmos. She runs through our very bodies and mind. She is seen as benevolent to those whom she is protecting. It is very obvious that if someone is fighting madly for a cause, like soldiers who madly and bravely fight for their motherland, not knowing fear of death, they must be extremely loving towards their country, ie. the subject whom they are protecting. The Indian revolutionaries who sacrificed themselves at young ages for the love of their country, people still tell tales of their mad love for their motherland (the subject). Thus if Kaali or even Durga for that matter, is fierce against elements who are harming the creation, including us, it would mean that she must also madly love us. We are her babies whom she loves in the same raw, unpoised, feminine way.

'Ramkrishna Paramhansa' and wife 'Sarada Devi'
(19th cent - in white clothes), considered to be God
incarnate themselves, are one of the greatest loving
devotees of Maa Kali. Many miracles have been 

witnessed around them in their lives. Their teachings have 

touched many lives & their ashram has a vast following today.

Kaali is invoked to protect from evil spirits, evil intentions and negative feelings. She is invoked in particular rituals for various purposes as she brings in the immense raw power of Shakti, which is sometimes difficult to handle. 

Many exorcists often use her mantras and rituals to ward off evil spirits and sometimes even to gain power to control the spirits or to do black magic. However stories and accounts, and even wizards and exorcists themselves have always told us that whenever any of these powers given by her, which are tremendous, are misused, Kaali punishes and even those punishments are tremendous, usually leading to death of the practitioner.

She is the fierce but also the simple minded mother who wants no Tantra wizardry to impress her, but only pure love and thus would prefer a loving devotee over the wisest Tantra wizards. That is the essence of the largely mistaken Maa Kali- the protector, the master of Tantra, the controller of spirits, the destroyer, the fierce mother, the most loving, the most benevolent, the maddest, the kindest...

She makes me feel secure.
She is Pure Wrath... and Pure Love.

TAGS : Hinduism, Hindu, Vedic, om, India, Veda, ancient, natural, Brahma, Hindusthaan, Idol, worship, Philosophy, avataar, body, consciousness, devotee, devotion, existence, hanuman, idol, images, learning, love, meditation, mind, moksha, religious, shiva, soul, tribals, vedas, vishnu, you, Diversity, Harmony, Kaali, Kali, One, Polytheism, Unity, Unity in Diversity, belief, brain, communal, communities, competition, demon, dessert, education, experiment, eyes, food, forest, goddess, happy, indigenous, karma, lakshman, lakshmi, laws, living, loving, me, nirvana, ornament, love, our, pantheism, parvati, people, powers, prosperous, ram, ravan, rebirth, reincarnation, religare, religion, sage, saint, saraswati, save, search, shakti, share, sita, society, soul, searching, still, trinity, us, we, world, worship

Pantheism , Idol worship and Polytheism in Hinduism– Why, What & How come?

  

Pantheism is the belief that God manifests in everything , Idol Worship is worshipping of God through images and idols, and Polytheism is the worship of many different deities in the name of God.

Vedic culture has a very sponge like nature and is all incorporating. What it doesn’t incorporate is “Adharma”(unrighteous conduct). So, as long as one walks on the path of “Dharma”(right conduct, right deeds), it doesn’t matter what their beliefs are. The person will attain bliss and blessings sooner or later. The base philosophy is “Unity in Diversity”. A link to it : http://omcultr.blogspot.in/2012/08/hinduism-vedic-culture-basic.html

Pantheism:

The Supreme Personality of Godhead (Om / Brahmaand) is formless, its not a person or a deity, its not male or female; it is actually the source of everything, actually even that would be incorrect, IT IS everything, and it is the only one that exists.  Actually the opposite is the proper way to describe it. Existence(all that exists) is the One.

So you see God in everything that you find helpful and blissful; in nature’s processes, the flow of rivers, the land on which food grows, the cow which gives you wholesome milk, the trees that give you fruits, etc.

 

In India, you could notice it still, that sometimes when a boy breaks a tree’s branch in sport, or kicks a stray dog for fun, their mother would usually come out of the house, scolding the child, telling them it hurts the tree and dog too. She asks her son, how would it feel if someone breaks your finger or kicks you while you are sitting? She tells her son, that everything in nature has God in it, so respect it, don’t hurt it, take only what you need, but never forget to respect it. Since childhood, the mentality to vandalize, hurt and harm is taken out with this kind of teaching. Compassion and tolerance are the values that emerge as a result. That’s Pantheism.

   

Idol Worship :

Once I came across a story which I should tell you. 

A great Indian philosopher – Swami Vivekananda(Swamiji), was once travelling the whole world to know more about people’s cultures and beliefs across the world. One day, he was crossing a kingdom. The king had heard of this great philosopher from India, and wanted to ask him a few questions, so he invited him to his palace. But the king wasn’t inquisitive it seems, rather he wanted to mock at the beliefs of those he called the hindus.

While the king was posing and a painter was making his portrait, he asked Swami Vivekananda to join him. He asked him laughing it out; “Why is it that I see all these Hindus worshipping idols and pictures, sometimes which they make at home out of clay or stone. How could Hindus be so stupid to believe that their Gods reside in them"? Swamiji smiled and got up. He looked at the king who was posing for a painting of his to be put up on the wall. Then he looked at other portraits on the wall. He went to the last one and asked the king; "Who is this"? The king replied proudly, "its my father, the king of this land before me". Immediately Swamiji spit on the picture. Seeing this, the king got furious, drew his sword out and charged towards Swamiji, but something stopped him suddenly. He saw that Swamiji wasn’t afraid; instead he was smiling, and asked the king "why are you so furious"? The king replied; “I was only asking you a simple question, but you had to insult the royal line. He is my father and the respected former king, how dare you disrespect him? How could you spit on him"? Swamiji quickly replied in the form of a question; "How could you be so stupid to think that I disrespected your father. I just happened to spit on a painting, this isn't your father, neither does he reside inside it, he is already dead. Then why are you so angry"? The king calmed down and understood what Swamiji was trying to teach him.

Swamiji meant that worship is actually and only done from our souls, its our method of paying respect to someone; it is our emotion that counts and is called worship. Without the emotion of the worshipper, the worshipped will have no meaning. The idol / image is there to hold our concentration and create relation, and to keep reminding us of virtues, significance and teachings of that personality; just like the pictures of our loved ones do. Frankly, if anyone does what Swamiji did, to my mother’s photograph; I would definitely get very angry, and not because the photo is destroyed, but because spitting signifies that they don’t respect my emotions, the respect I give to her. Am I not an idol/ image worshiper then? Seriously, do I not know that my actual mother isn’t there in the photograph?

In such cases, people wouldn’t like to call it worship, they’ll call it giving respect, but aren’t they the same thing? Can you worship a personality unless you respect them? Can you respect them unless you know about their deeds, their significance, their stories and what they did for humanity, or how they bless us always? To me, worship is like - respect X infinity.

People use an idol or an image mostly, because one in a million humans may have a strong enough divine vision since birth(like saints and sages, like Buddha) to feel the presence of divinity in the universe (in themselves, in the surroundings, etc). Most of us need visual imagery and points of reference to be able to connect to and feel, to thank and complain, to love and respect, to obey and to abide by. Like seeing a photograph reconnects you to that feeling you had with your loved ones, the memories of what they told you. Sometimes you cry and even talk to the pictures. Isn’t that amazing. Those who can surpass this stage and can imagine that supreme consciousness, are the ones we call enlightened.

Try this exercise yourself. Try and visualize consciousness, which you feel all the time through your emotions, 6^th sense, values, virtue, love, compassion, making choices, thoughts, dreams, etc. Try to visualize this Consciousness of yours. Energy can be visualized thru beams of light or sparks, etc, any matter is the easiest to visualize, space can be imagined by possibly blanking out the mind for a moment.

How will you imagine consciousness? Don’t imagine anything visual, coz that would be creating an image.

Goodness cannot be drawn on paper. Yes you can show various drawings which remind of goodness (like people hugging, like a drawing of Jesus Christ, etc), which remind us of goodness, but all these are representations of the feeling of goodness. Goodness is consciousness at work You can't imagine it yet you feel it all the time, explain it, understand it since birth. The same way people represent the this consciousness / goodness through various figurines and idols according to their stories.

Important Note: Try to search for these 3 words in Google images.

1. Matter   2. Energy    3. Conciousness

You'll notice that all sorts of projections and scientific and reflective images of the first two can be found, but when you type the third word, it opens a lot of art and drawings.

This is the essence of Idol Worship.

Polytheism :

Sometimes the question is, where do I find God ?

Vedic teachings indicate that you can’t physically go to a place to find God. Since God is collective consciousness which has transformed into this great illusion called the universe. Thus the life giving waters are divine(so Supreme God in the form of Deity of Water- “Varun Dev”), the food providing land is divine(So Supreme God in the form of Mother Goddess of Earth- “Prithvi Maa ”),, animals are divine(“Gou Mata”, “Nagadev”), and many other forms. You find God everywhere? In fact “Everywhere” itself is a part of God, the only consciousness. 

 

Worshiping all Gods isn't mandatory. The core focus is always on the emotion of worship. Whether you worship a lower deity or a higher deity or Supreme God, or don’t worship any deity at all, but just do good work (good “Karma”), it will all be good.

Vedas are not mandatory, but reflective in its teachings. If you seek the help of a spiritual Guru to understand this knowledge, or any learning for that matter, you could worship your Guru (which basically means to show respect, as we have discussed earlier). You could worship your parents. You could worship all of creation as one entity or as separate entities, whatever you feel comfortable with. Only, when you will be comfortable with your worship, will it be from your heart (for example you feel like swaying and tapping only when you love the music). So generally, people like to worship a particular deity according to their own fondness, favourite story of the deity, or clear understanding of the deity.  Sometimes they worship many deities, sometimes “Param Brahm” or “Om”. Since all these deities are One, it doesn’t matter even if there are thousands of idols or none. Understand that its the emotion and devotion in the worship that matters. That emotion in worship is consciousness itself, in other words, God. Since you are an inseparable part of this universe and woven into this fabric of Divinity itself, your true devotion and good deeds spread and communicate, reciprocate, and spread positive energy (good values & virtues/ happiness) in this divine cosmos, starting from your self, your home, then your neighborhood, country, and then the world; the kind that is required for sustenance of balanced life and a harmonious society.

That, is the true essence of Polytheism.

Fans of Michael Jackson would love him, respect him, hear no bad words about him, support him, listen to his statements or philosophy (on music/entertainment/world peace) and say… “MJ is The God of Pop, I can dance to his music”, rock enthusiasts would say - “Elvis is The God of Rock, his music makes me rock”. Suddenly your Indian friend says – “Lata Mangeshkar is the Goddess of Indian classical music, I only like that.” Does this sound familiar? Different people, different favourites, same emotion of respect towards music and harmony, unified emotion of the endeavor to learn. What is the result? The world is filled with various kinds of good music, for different people, all the time. You can learn other's ways of music, enjoy it if it excites you or not, if it doesn't. But I really haven't heard any musician fight with another musician over who's music is better.

Now, could we say, that polytheism is in our very nature?

Have thoughtful bright days always

Thank You

Saurabh Dey (OMCULTR)