One Minus One = Paramatman

Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj 

To try to know is Ignorance. Eyes are there but they cannot see themselves. When the Self is consicous of himself by his own sense, it is Self-luminance. It is of the nature of Self-experience. One who tries to know is in Ignorance. The Self is not an object of knowledge, as it is He who knows all things. All things are objects of "His Knowledge." Whatever there is to be known, is known by Him. Whatever is knows is called the object. That which cannot be known by any objects remains objectless. He is presiding over all. He is the first and primordial eye. Ge is the eye which sees all, which nobody or nothing in the world can shut. he is always awake. He does not forget. He is the sun who knows all. The sun is called Surya in Sanskrit, which also has the meaning that  "He is endless, limitless, and all-pervading." Knowledge is t\here without thought. It is fully pervading everywhere whether thoughts are present or not. It knows the emergence of thought, and if thought is not there, Knowledge remains.

It is foolish to try to see the sun with the light from a torch (flashlight). It is similarly foolish to try to see the "Sun of Knowledge with the torch of the mind and intellect. That Knowledge is "Pure Spotless Knowledge." But that is not "True Knowledge," it is not Reality. It is thought, or the focus of attention (vrutti). All people say that one day we will have to die, but nobody knows what "dying" is. You should die once in such a way that you will not have to die again. The Knowledge that is the fourth body, the "Turya State" (SatChitAnanda), is not "Pure Knowledge." It means that "you" remain. The Turya State is duality. Turya ends, it is not permanent, but Brahman does not end. Turya is Time, and Time implies ending. To end, is the nature of Time. Brahman has no end. Brahman alone is real. This is the "Pure Knowledge ." The Mahavakya is the "Great Statement," the "Ultimate Statement." It has a good meaning and it is truly great in itself. The great statement "Aham Brahmasmi" means "I am Brahman." Its utterance itself is very high, but you have to pursue its meaning, its experience. Mere repetition of  "I am Brahman" does not break the spell of Illusion. The meaning of the statement is not grasped by any other means except through the teaching of the Sadguru.

One who does not think at all is but a beast. He does not care to become acquainted with and understand the life that he is living, so he is the fool. It is useless if a man performs great feats of bravery in the world but does not know himself. It is just like a blind man going for a tour around the world, When one knows first hand his own life and gets experience in it, only then has he fruitfully used his life. To meditate on the great spiritual statement "I am Brahman" is an indication of wisdom. To gain oneself, by oneself, is like deducting one from one. What remains in the equation "one minus one" is the Supreme Self, Paramatman, who is without name and form. We have to die completely and yet remain, without dying. This is a rare state of wisdom. It is "Real Knowledge" when one meets "one's Self." All ties (bondages) are broken suddenly. Finally, when we think very keenly about it, it is revealed that this experience comes into being of its own accord. In Vedanta to know that the root of all the moving and unmoving creation is One, is called "Absolute Knowledge." There, all the various arguments are gone.

When we search into ourselves there is omniscience. We meet ourselves through fine perceptive thinking. Once you have gained the insight everything is only Brahman even though you may call it by any other name. Then you may call a snake as a snake, and a scorpion as a scorpion, but you know that it is only Brahman. When the observe gets "True Experience," The job is oever. When both the "field of knowledge," and the "knower of the field" are gone, only the Supreme Reality, the "Parama Purusha," remains. It is experiencing without the expriencer or the observer. You may perceive that the outward focus is turning back into itself. The evident meaning and the hidden meaning are both gone. Even the slight notion of saying, "I am someone," or "something" is also gone. A lamp in a painting does not dispel the darkness. For that, a real lamp must be lit. When the notion that "I Am" is gone, the complete withdrawal into "Oneself" is what remains. The notion that "I am a limited being," is a concept, a limited notion. It is but the narrow conceptual focus of Consciousness. "I Am" is a conceptual state. When it is dropped, only Brahman, the "Absolute," remains.