[Advaita-l] WHAT AM "I"

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Akilesh ji,

I hear you and I am in harmony with your view. I too had said the same
thing though it might have appeared something else to you. Thanks.

Regards.
Sudhanshu.

On Fri 7 Jun, 2019, 19:14 Akilesh Ayyar, <ayyar at akilesh.com> wrote:

> Sudhanshuji,
>
> When you say the word "I," you have immediately created a distinction, a
> separation, a boundary. All such distinctions are in fact absolutely
> non-existent.
>
> The only utterable, thinkable "I" is the one which is the wrong I. The
> "right I" is not thinkable -- so unthinkable that even to call it
> unthinkable is wrong, because it is not an "it" with qualities like
> unthinkability. Even to call it the "right I" is wrong.
>
> Another way of saying the same thing is that all words are ultimately
> meaningless. This is why the truest verbal definition of Brahman is just
> neti, neti.
>
> All this is why in Ribhu Gita you find passages like the following:
>
>
> *The existence as “this is,” “I am,” or “the world is,” *the faulty
> notions about one’s own inner faculties,
> the actions of one’s inner faculties,
> any kind of misconception such as one’s own life,
> one’s own death,
> one’s own birth,
> “there is an Isvara,” [god]
> “I am the jiva,” [embodied individual]
> or “the world is,”
> the substance of delusion,
> the substance of greatness,
> the substance of thought,
> “full of the world,”
> whatever is shown by the scriptures,
> whatever is expressed in the Veda-s,
> the exhortation “It is One,”
> talk of duality,
> any mis­apprehension that “I am Siva,”
> the misapprehension that “I am Brahma,”
> the misapprehension that “I am Vishnu,”
> the misunder­standing that the world exists,
> the misunderstanding that some little difference exists,
> the misunderstanding that some little duality exists,
> the certitude that “all is,”
> the certitude that “all is not,”
> the certitude that “all is Brahman,”
> the universe of one’s own con­templation,
> the manifest universe of one’s own recollection,
> the phenomenal universe of the nature of sorrow and
> the manifold universe of the nature of joy,
> the phenomenal universe of “duality and nonduality,” and
> the manifold universe of “reality and unreality,”
> the phenomenal world of wakefulness, and, likewise,
> the manifold world of dreams,
> the phenomenon of the knowledge of the deep sleep state or the phenomenon
> of the knowledge of the “fourth state,”
> the phenomenal world of Vedic knowledge,
> the manifold world of scriptural knowledge,
> the phenomenal world of sinful thoughts or the manifold world of differing
> merits,
> the phenomenal world of the nature of knowledge,
> the manifold world of the knowledge of the attributeless,
> the phenomenal world of qualities or absence thereof,
> the determination of defects and nondefects,
> the investigation into reality and unreality,
> the investi­gation into the mobile and the immobile,
> the “true conviction that the Self is one,”
> the concept that the Self is important,
> the certitude that the phenomenal world is nonexistent and that all is
> Brahman,
> statements that the “differences aris­ing out of duality and nonduality
> exist not, exist not,”
> the certitude that the world is, indeed, unreal and all is Brahman,
> the ideas of cause and effect, and the unsettling due to multiple
> differences—
>
>
> *renouncing and throwing away thus and all that give various mantra-s, be
> steadfastly established in yourself forever.*
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 7, 2019 at 9:25 AM Sudhanshu Shekhar <sudhanshu.iitk at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Akhilesh ji,
>>
>> Can you please elaborate upon // In a very important sense, the I is
>> precisely what is absolutely non-existent, as non-existent as the horn of a
>> hare//.
>>
>> Regards.
>> Sudhanshu.
>>
>> On Fri 7 Jun, 2019, 18:43 Akilesh Ayyar, <ayyar at akilesh.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Namaste,
>>>
>>> But my point is that technically, Brahman is beyond I and not-I, is
>>> beyond is and is not, and is beyond something and nothing. In a very
>>> important sense, the I is precisely what is absolutely non-existent, as
>>> non-existent as the horn of a hare. In the end, nothing can be said that is
>>> true, and so one must fall silent. It is that living silence which is the
>>> real teaching of Vedanta.
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jun 7, 2019 at 3:05 AM Sudhanshu Shekhar <
>>> sudhanshu.iitk at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hari Om,
>>>>
>>>> "I am something" just means that it is not that I am nothing. I am not
>>>> horn of hare.. this is what is meant by "I am something".
>>>>
>>>> What I said abot I is what silence is. It is nothing which can be
>>>> conceived of. And yet it is. That silence is not horn of hare. And that
>>>> silence cannot be conceived of.
>>>>
>>>> Sudhanshu.
>>>>
>>>> On Fri 7 Jun, 2019, 12:29 Akilesh Ayyar via Advaita-l, <
>>>> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Namaste,
>>>>>
>>>>> "Thus, a complete description of I is as follows: I am something. And
>>>>> I am
>>>>> not that which I can even think about."
>>>>>
>>>>> Not quite. To say "I am something" is also a thought with all the
>>>>> accompanying limitations. Thus the only complete description is
>>>>> silence.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, Jun 7, 2019 at 2:28 AM Sudhanshu Shekhar via Advaita-l <
>>>>> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> > Hari Om,
>>>>> >
>>>>> > I am something. I am not nothing. And I am not that which I can see,
>>>>> hear,
>>>>> > smell, touch, taste, feel, decide, or identify with. I am not that
>>>>> which I
>>>>> > can think or visualize.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > This is a complete description of myself.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Any word of Shruti which appears to describe "I" positively is
>>>>> nothing but
>>>>> > negation alone. "I" cannot be described positively. So words like
>>>>> Satyam,
>>>>> > Jnanam, Anantam etc are not positive but negative description alone.
>>>>> For
>>>>> > eg, I am jnanam. So let us not think that Shruti indicates me as
>>>>> some sort
>>>>> > of "light of awareness" or "consciousness" etc. But She is merely
>>>>> saying
>>>>> > that I am not jada.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Thus, a complete description of I is as follows: I am something. And
>>>>> I am
>>>>> > not that which I can even think about.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Regards,
>>>>> > Sudhanshu.
>>>>> >
>>>>> >
>>>>> >
>>>>> > On Fri 7 Jun, 2019, 09:55 Belavadi Shankar via Advaita-l, <
>>>>> > advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>>>>> >
>>>>> > > Please read Ashtawakra Samhita.
>>>>> > >
>>>>> > > On Fri, Jun 7, 2019 at 7:53 AM sreenivasa murthy via Advaita-l <
>>>>> > > advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>>>>> > >
>>>>> > > > Dear friends,WHAT AM " I "? This  is  the  question
>>>>> > > > which will be in the mind of
>>>>> > > > a sincere student  of  Vedanta.The  answer  for  the  above
>>>>> vital
>>>>> > > > question  is :
>>>>> > > > The  uncreated , unborn,  light of  awareness  is what  I  am.
>>>>> > > >
>>>>> > > > That is  the basis  substratum,  andcontainer  of  all
>>>>> experiences.
>>>>> > > >
>>>>> > > > Theworld, senses, body,  mind,  waking, dreaming,  sleeping,
>>>>> > > >
>>>>> > > > knowledge,  lack of  knowledge,  consciousness,
>>>>> > > >
>>>>> > > > unconsciousness– whatever  can  be framed  as  some
>>>>> > > >
>>>>> > > > kind  of experience—these  are  allappearances  in  this
>>>>> > > >
>>>>> > > > changeless  reality of  my  being.
>>>>> > > >
>>>>> > > > I  am prior  to  those things  and  yet  Icontain  them  all.
>>>>> > > >
>>>>> > > > No  experience is  separate  and apart  from  what I  am.
>>>>> > > >
>>>>> > > > UNQUOTE.
>>>>> > > > Is it  not  the message  of  the  Upanishads?
>>>>> > > > Allof  us should  cognize  this within  ourselves  by   ourselves
>>>>> > > > so that we can be krutArthas.
>>>>> > > >  Withrespectful namaskars,SreenivasaMurthy.
>>>>> > > >
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>>>>