Sri Tandavaraya Swami
Master:
There is the mahavakya 'That thou art'. The verb 'art' in it establishes the identity of the pronouns 'That' and 'thou' in their ultimate meaning. I shall explain how it does so. Hear me. Just as the ether though single is fourfold as the wide expanse, the ether in the clouds, the ether in the pot and the reflection in water, so chit (consciousness), which is single, is called the all pervading brahman, Ishwara, the Self and the jiva. In the mahavakya referred to, the word 'That' stands for almighty Ishwara and 'thou' stands for the jiva. But ultimately they both mean brahman, who is free from maya, and the inner Self who is free from limitations. They are now mutually bound like butter in boiled milk. Just as the milk is churned and the butter separated, so also you should realize the Self and thus stand apart.
The way to get rid of the trappings is to kill the present idea that I am the body, which is only a corpse after all, for it a mere assemblage of the five elements. Nor can you be the breath which moves through the nostrils like the blasts of air blown by bellows. It is simply a function of rajoguna. Can the Self be the intellect or the mind which stand to each other in the relation of agent and instrument? These two sheaths are only modes of satva guna. Let not the unedifying bliss of deep sleep be mistaken for the Self, for it is only a mode of tamoguna.
Know 'thou' as the Self, to be sat,chit, ananda, the even, unchanging single, eternal and all-pervading Witness and rid yourself of the trap of the five sheaths which are of an oppsite nature - false, insentient, painful etc.
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