There are not one or two, but thousands of scriptural texts that reiterate the Maha Vakyas or the great sentences. What is a great sentence? You are strong. It is not a great sentence. ‘God is great’ is not a great sentence.
'God is great and that God is You’ is a great sentence. All the scriptures cry out at the top of their voice this very sentence that ‘God is You and You are God'. You are not different, says Sri Adi Sankaracharya in the Vivekachoodamani.
We now come to almost near the middle part of the Vivekachoodamani. Verses 250 to 253 talk about the
right attitude for meditation. Now the truth is known, that God is you. Knowledge is not enough. How does it become experience? Meditation is the answer.The first step is to discard.
Even while cleaning up your cupboard or your home, it is best to begin by discarding what you don’t need. Here we are in the process of cleaning up the mind to prepare it for meditation. So much has been said by great masters in scriptural texts that you are not the body. Just take that for granted and make that your first understanding, “I am not this body.” This way the first untruth is ruled out.
Once this is done, that’s it. The knowledge of “I am the self, like the sky,” is established beyond any doubt. The first step is to remove the associative thought connecting the self and the body, which you have accepted over a period of time from your birth.After dissociating, do what? You can meditate upon the thought, ‘I am Brahman’, with a pure mind. That is enough for you to know your own undivided self.
You see a whole table of dinnerware set in mud pots, cups, jugs, plates, spoons and other cutlery. The mind grasps the image in one go with all the differences. However, on analysis it can realise that it is looking different and has different names, but is made up of one mud alone. In the same way through the eyes, the mind sees the entire universe of names and forms which all look different, but are constituted of the one factor called existence.
So, therefore, realise that you are that existence which is completely calm, pure, non-dual biggest ever thing in this universe called Brahman that is supreme. Many examples are taken and cited to drive home this truth alone over and over again, because understanding this is such a subtle process that it is not something we get by just listening to it once!
(The writer is Sevika, Chinmaya Mission in Coimbatore and can be contacted at sharanya.chaitanya@chinmayamission.com)