The Self in All Things — Aham Brahmasmi
The Teaching
In the beginning, this universe was Brahman alone, and it knew only itself, thinking: “I am Brahman.” Therefore it became the All. Whoever among the gods became awakened to this also became that All; the same was true among sages, the same among humans.
Seeing this, the seer Vamadeva understood: “I was Manu and the sun.” And even now whoever knows “I am Brahman” becomes this All.
Now if a person worships another deity thinking “he is one and I am another,” that person does not know. Just as many animals serve a human, so too each person serves the gods when they remain in ignorance of their true nature.
Commentary
Aham Brahmasmi, I am Brahman, is the second of the four Mahavakyas. Where Chandogya’s Tat Tvam Asi is addressed to the student (you are that), Brihadaranyaka’s formulation is the first-person realization: I am Brahman.
The remarkable final lines, that it is not pleasing to the gods that humans should know this, echo the Gnostic insight that institutional powers have an interest in keeping human beings from recognizing their divine nature.
John’s Gospel makes the same point: ‘the world did not recognize him.’ The Logos/Brahman/Tao is everywhere present and everywhere unrecognized by those who have been taught to look everywhere except within.
Themes
Connections 11
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Christianity while these teachings took shape. Christians lived in Kerala from early centuries, but exchange of ideas begins only with the Jesuits: Akbar’s court debates (from 1580), Roberto de Nobili writing on Hindu doctrine in Tamil (from 1606), then Wilkins’s English Gita (1785), the Upanishads in Latin (1801–02) and Vivekananda (1893). All long after either’s formative teachings.
Unsure
Hippolytus (c. 225) reports Brahmin doctrine alongside the Gnostic schools he attacks. Indian influence on Gnosticism is argued.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Taoism while these teachings took shape.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hermeticism and Hinduism while these teachings took shape.
Unsure
Plotinus hoped to learn Indian philosophy (Porphyry, Life 3). Indian influence on him is argued.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Judaism while these teachings took shape.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Christianity while these teachings took shape. Christians lived in Kerala from early centuries, but exchange of ideas begins only with the Jesuits: Akbar’s court debates (from 1580), Roberto de Nobili writing on Hindu doctrine in Tamil (from 1606), then Wilkins’s English Gita (1785), the Upanishads in Latin (1801–02) and Vivekananda (1893). All long after either’s formative teachings.
Travelled
The Kybalion (1908) is generally attributed to William Walker Atkinson, who also wrote on yoga as ‘Yogi Ramacharaka’.
Arose apart
No known line from Hinduism to this scientific work.
Unsure
Hippolytus (c. 225) reports Brahmin doctrine alongside the Gnostic schools he attacks. Indian influence on Gnosticism is argued.