“Tat Twam Asi” – “Thou Art That” – “That You are”

I would call it the Egg story. What you see in the title picture is pigeon eggs and a pair of pigeons. This is the fourth pair of pigeons with their set of eggs. Till now this corner space, the maternity ward of pigeons, is one of the corner of a balcony in our apartment. This maternity ward has a decent success rate this season. So far 5 baby pigeons from 6 eggs. One egg is futile.

The talk of the town in pigeon colony would be like that our apartment is safe. The feeling is that of happiness. Cannot define it. It needs to be felt. Initially there was a tussle as they kept dirtying the balcony, but now I have got used to it.

The internal battle I had to overcome was, should I allow the pigeons to settle so that they could lay eggs & keep dirtying the balcony. Should I clean it up all in one go and throw away the eggs. The world would not know away. Anyway it does not matter etc.

But something in me kept saying it does matter. This is that journey of “Tat Twam Asi” explained with the egg story?

Every life has a purpose, human life, bird life, reptile life, any life. Human life due to its evolution over thousands of years is the most superior form of life. We have superior cognition capabilities and ability to think & act (rationally & equally irrationally).

The finest distinctive word comes from Sanskrit. That is “Bodh” meaning “Awareness”. Any one has the possibility to become Buddha. Only he has to master the art of living with awareness. Being Buddha like is status of mind and equivalent action.

We all are living our journey of life & so am I. We are all at certain level of index like “Mental Health Index”, “Physical Health Index”, “Wealth Index” etc. These can be measured.

One index which is sublime and is of deep personal interest to me is “Spiritual index”. Very difficult to measure, it can be lived and felt. Outcome is “Happiness Index” which can again be lived and felt. According to me a key question we are trying to answer constantly is “What is right? – the morality question” the tussle between faith and logic, emanating from heart and the mind.

Question like should I pray daily, why, how? Does it help? Another example, seeing a poor person on the street should I help? Options are give him some money, some food, or say to oneself why is he begging, he must work hard, may be even curse & move on. Even superstitions like my mom always fed me with curd and sugar on the day of exam. No eggs on the day of the exam, it’s inauspicious. When I asked her why she did so, the best I answer I got, her mom said and did so.

It was not a convincing answer. I was in state of constant battle with myself. This made me a hunter. It lead me to reading of books on most –ism’s, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, Islam.

Everybody had some perspective and answers but no holistic answer, so I kept hunting. I was like a miner mining for that big shining diamond. The “aha” moment.

That moment came when I started reading translations of Upanishad.

The Upanishads (Sanskrit ???????) are ancient Sanskrit texts of spiritual teaching and ideas of Hinduism. They are the part of the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, the Vedas, that deal with meditation, philosophy, and spiritual knowledge; other parts of the Vedas deal with mantras, benedictions, rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices. It is from 6th century BC (pre Buddhist era).

The Upanishads are commonly referred to as Vedānta. Vedanta has been interpreted as the "last chapters, parts of the Veda and alternatively as object, the highest purpose of the Veda". The concepts of Brahman (ultimate reality) and ātman (soul, self) are central ideas in all of the Upanishads, and "know that you are the ātman" is their thematic focus.

It is fundamentally answering the basic question “Who am I”. The answer is “Tat Twam Asi” i.e. “That you are”.

And what is that?

Tat Tvam Asi (Devnagari: ?????????, Vedic: tát túvam ási), a Sanskrit phrase, translated variously as "Thou art that," (That thou art, That art thou, You are that, or That you are, or You're it) is one of the Mahavakyas (Grand Pronouncements) in Vedantic Sanatana Dharma. It originally occurs in the Channdogya Upanishad 6.8.7, in the dialogue between Uddalaka and his son Svetaketu; it appears at the end of a section, and is repeated at the end of the subsequent sections as a refrain.

The meaning of this saying is that the Self - in its original, pure, primordial state - is wholly or partially identifiable or identical with the Ultimate Reality that is the ground and origin of all phenomena.

Major Vedantic schools offer different interpretations of the phrase:

• Advaita - absolute equality of 'tat', the Ultimate Reality, Brahman, and 'tvam', the Self, Atman.
• Suddhaadvaita - oneness in "essence" between 'tat' and individual self; but 'tat' is the whole and self is a part.
• Vishishtadvaita - identity of individual self as a part of the whole which is 'tat', Brahman
• Dvaitadvaita - equal non-difference and difference between the individual self as a part of the whole which is 'tat'.
• Achintya Bheda Abheda - inconceivable oneness and difference between individual self as a part of the whole which is 'tat'.
• Akshar Purushottam Upasana - oneness of the individual self, Atman, with Aksharbrahman, while worshipping Purushottam (God) as a supreme and separate entity.

This happened as every Sage born experienced life and put this or her understanding of his self. They reached the same conclusion.

One fact was understanding, the other was living it. Having understood that I am like everyone else was very relieving. Oneness, no difference. It is that feeling of inconceivable oneness with that whole was wonderful. That I am in union with every life form.

In that zone of thinking everybody is equal, that there is not difference, no bias. It was a wonderful feeling.

However for quite some time my action was not in line with the thought & that created conflict. So I had to align and I had to flow. When the first set of pigeons came, they pooped a lot, the place was messy, but it required some training of that mind. I had to accept that a pigeon has life and that they are also equal and I need to coexist with them. It was a big mindset change.

Initial days were messy. Eventually got used to cleaning the balcony on a daily basis without disturbing them. The journey has been immensely rewarding so far. Saw the entire journey. Hatching to feeding of the baby pigeons to baby steps to final flight.

Then the next set arrived and the journey continues. The joyful moment is that my 6 year old kiddo loves it. He says good job papa.

It is joyful & wonderful. You might want to experience it.

Experience “Tat Twam Asi”. That You Are. We are all equal, that Ultimate Reality. The Brahman. It makes you flow, a zone of no conflict.