The teachings of Vedanta tell us Tat Tvam Asi. You are That.
You are That what? What is That? Often the word That, or Tat, is translated as brahman. You are that brahman from which this entire world of duality has come. This understanding while true, without being further expanded might lead one to neglect an investigation into the world of duality. Thus although in the beginning of the teachings we negate all of duality as ‘not That,’ in the end we have to see all duality as indeed That. The being of duality is itself brahman.
And in order to understand this properly we bring in Ishvara, for brahman is said to be without attributes, while at first blush duality seems to be composed of nothing but attributes. Water is wet, fire is hot, earth is dense, the wind moves, even space, while being all pervasive, can be juxtaposed to those things which it is not.
Another translation and explanation of the great statement Tat Tvam Asi, and one which my teacher and her guru Swami Dayananda use is, You are Ishvara, or You are the Whole. If we say this, then we have brought in and included duality in the equation.
One of the first things I ever heard Swami Dayanandaji say was, “Vedanta swallows everything, and then it gives it back to you. And when it gives it back to you, it is entirely different.”
At the time I heard this, I didn’t really understand what Swamji meant, but I felt that it was a very important statement.
We can negate all changing phenomena as ‘not That,’ but then we are left with two things. We are left with brahman, and everything else which we have negated. If the teachings tell us, ‘advaita,’ nondual, then we have to put brahman and duality back together and see that they are one.
In order to do this, nothing can be left out. All those things which have been negated as ‘not That’ have to be seen as Ishvara alone, Ishvara whose very being is brahman.
On a personal level it is very important to do this because it is on the personal level in particular that we may tend to reject certain things as standing apart from Ishvara.
Thus, from the personal level, we might ask ourselves, what are my hurts, my pains, my negativities, my ‘bad’ actions, my pApa-s (the negative results of my actions), what are they? Where do I put them? Are they some type of discarded left over? Some type of something which is neither Ishvara or brahman? If advaita is the truth, then can anything, no matter how negative it appears, be left out?
No, nothing can be left out, and it is here that Swami Dayanandaji helps us beautifully to understand where to place all of those things, especially those personal things which bother us and which we have rejected. Where do those things belong, and to whom?
They belong to Ishvara alone. They are part and parcel of Ishvara. They are part of his infinitely complex and logical order. Those things which go against dharma may cause pain, but they are not outside of the laws of Ishvara who manifests as infinite order.
These things themselves part of Ishavara’s order. And Ishvara’s order is entirely logical. This creation is intelligently put together and constructed. As we come to understand and appreciate this, at the same time as we strive towards performing dharmic actions and activities, we come to understand that there are reasons for the things we did, for the way we thought, for the way we reacted, because nothing is outside of Ishvara’s order.
If we banish all so-called ‘bad’ things as being not Ishvara, we risk adopting a type of western spiritual thinking. Such thinking goes along the lines that there exists an intrinsic evil which stands apart from an intrinsic good. One, the bad, belongs to the Devil; and the other, the good, belongs to God. In making such a distinction our minds have ‘set heaven and earth infinitely apart.’
If we do this, and banish certain parts of ourselves as bad and therefore ‘not God,’ then we have effectively split ourselves in two, and embraced a type of disassociative and unhealthy thinking.
If we don’t recognize every single thing as part of Ishvara’s order, then those things we’ve labeled and rejected as ‘bad’ will become mental obstacles for us and stand in the way of our gain of stability in self-knowledge.
I have often heard Swami Dayanandaji say, 'One needs to settle the account with Ishvara.' How do we do that? By understanding that everyone has a background, including me, and given the circumstances of one’s life, one could not have behaved differently. That behavior was part of Ishvara’s order. Granted the results may have been negative, but they were still an outcome of his order.
Whatever has happened cannot stand apart from Ishavara’s order, for nothing stands apart from the order. Furthermore, we come to understand that if someone did this or that bad thing to me, well that person had a background also, and given the circumstances of that person’s life he or she could not have behaved differently.
If we can view things from this standpoint, it gives us a certain amount of space and objectivity. If we can see all circumstances as part of the order, then we place everything, even negative personal circumstances, inside the order, which means that we have a much greater ability to view such things objectively, as we would view a mountain, a forest, or a passing cloud. In doing this we bring in all those hurt parts of ourselves and allow them to heal in the appreciation and recognition that they too are part of Ishvara’s order. My guilts, my hurts, my omissions and comissions, (why didn't I do that, why did I do that?), as well as the ommissions and comissions of others, all these are part of the order.
In Swami Dayananda's own words: "Now there is no alienation, there is total surrender and trust in Ishvara who is both mother and father, the material and efficient cause of everything. All that is here is Ishvara. We have to discover that, and to discover that, nothing can be left out."
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Finally we come to understand and appreciate as Swamiji famously says, “Some religions say there is one God. We say there is only God.”
And who is that God? It is Ishvara whose being is brahman. And that Ishvara You Are. You are the whole. Tat Tvam Asi.