Verse after verse, the Atma Bodha of Sri Adi Sankaracharya channelises the mind gently with an imperceptible speed and pressure to realise the self. Many methods are used as teaching aid to make us arrive at this understanding and one of the main methods is the brilliant use of similes.
In the 48th verse, the Acharya reiterates that the whole world of moving names and forms positioned on the earth and expanding into a cosmic web of a uniform universe all around it is nothing but I, the self.
The direct meaning for the Sanskrit word atma is I or me. In common parlance, when we say, “I am going”, we refer to the body. The reality is the real I never goes or comes, because it cannot. Why can it not move? the simple reason is that it is everywhere. All that we see around us is pervaded by the atma, the self, or to put it very briefly in one word, I.
How is this possible? I see a room, I see a cot, I see the fan, I see a window and a garden outside, I see and hear birds chirping. I see the blue sky. I see people walking around here and there. I see vehicles moving. I smell the wet soil. I taste many delicacies. I feel the cold and heat of the atmospheric air.
What do you mean by saying that everything in this world is nothing other than me? Are the cot, fan, room, smell, birds, sky, people, vehicles or the different temperatures me? That sounds crazy, but it is not. In this example, the objects are plural and different, but the subject I see, I hear, I taste, I smell and I feel have five different experiences. The subject of all the five is the same I.
This is what is meant when it is said that I alone am in everything in this whole world and there is none or nothing else other than me.The words of the Upanishads are not known to our gross material understanding. They are intuitive revelations experienced by the great masters. It is not something studied from a book, but it is a knowledge that is revealed from within in moments of inspiration. When this understanding of the truth happens, every moment becomes a celebration. Somebody may shout: I realise, I alone am.
The master gives a beautiful example: In a pot, every part is made of clay. Clay has become the entire pot. In the same way, only I—the self—has become this whole world. One who has realised this truth sees his or her own self in everything.