[Advaita-l] Aham brahmasmi

[Michael Shepherd]

Well, technically it's a pronominal suffix, like 'atman-' can be a
pronominal prefix. It's there in Vedic. It can be used in two ways : as in
'The king cut himself while shaving' or 'The king himself joined in the
battle'. One is directing one's actions to oneself; the other is emphatic.

But I think we get the point : if you think of yourself first, you're
Brahman; if you think of Brahman first -- that's you !

Incidentally 'asmi' is still found in Romanian in this form.. Romanians
alleged to be migrating Indian gipsies in origin...

Michael

-----Original Message-----
From: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
[mailto:advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org]On Behalf Of
sivasenani at yahoo.com
Sent: 08 December 2009 14:55
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Aham brahmasmi


'Myself' is an extraneous term, not found in the mahavakya. Asmi is exactly
the equivalent of 'am' in 'I am Brahman' and 'is' in 'Brahman is I'.

------Original Message------
From: Jaldhar H. Vyas
Sender: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
ReplyTo: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
Sent: 8 Dec 2009 7:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Aham brahmasmi

On Tue, 8 Dec 2009, Michael Shepherd wrote:

> It's best to take this statement -- which means literally 'I am Brahman,
> myself'

It is not as idiomatic in English but adding "myself" is more literal.  It
is a reflexive verb.  The sentence is not just saying "I am Brahman" but
also "Brahman is I"

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
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