Tat Twam Asi!
Hello all,
Namaste! Today we are going to discuss a very deep subject and how we can interpret it. I myself am not fully aware of it to discuss it deeply and extensively. But why not give it a try and see how it goes. If we can find some gems out of this analysis, why not. But again, the subject we are tackling today is very deep and there can be a million ways it can be interpreted. Let us start.
Last week, we discussed how Mohini and Shiva became the parents of Ayyappa and how he grew up in Panthalam in Kerala and later had a shrine made for him in the Western Ghats called 'Sabarimala'. Now let us think about Ayyappa. Who were his parents? One parent was Mohini who in other words is Vishnu-Maya, a form of Durga and the other parent was Shiva who was the Yogi incarnate.
We all know that Vishnu-Maya or Durga can be considered as the feminine creative energy or the divine feminine and Shiva can be considered the masculine energy or divine masculine. Ayyappa, who is their son is known as a 'Poorna Swaroopa'. Now we all know what the word 'Swaroopa' (of course it is the name of this blog) means; it is 'Authentic Self'. Now 'Poorna' means complete or full. So Poorna Swaroopa is 'complete authentic Self '. What does this mean? It means in Ayyappa the divine feminine and the divine masculine are in equal parts and they are situated in perfect balance and because of this balance he is perfect, authentic and complete. If the archetypal energies are not balanced, one can overtake the other and then chaos ensues.
Divine feminine, as well as masculine, are the archetypal energies; feminine, being the creative energy of creating, nurturing and growing and masculine is the energy of conquering, winning and competition. Now remember we discussed last week, Ayyappa went to the forest to get Tiger's milk for his mother, which is the feminine energy of nurture, love and compassion. He was so loving to his mother, his love for her drove him to the forest to get the Tiger's milk so that she can be cured. Later he came back on a Tigress, which shows the conquering energy of the divine masculine. It is active, aggressive and conquering. So he had to fight the Tigress, show his power, tame the beast and bring it home so that the divine feminine could do its part. This shows both these energies exist in him in perfect balance. So what does Ayyappa teach us with this?
Perfect Balance: If we assimilate his energy, we can bring both our energies also into perfect balance in our body. We already discussed the archetypes, of divine feminine and masculine. Both these archetypal energies exist in each of us as well. Now let us take a scenario where the divine feminine is dominant in a person, what will happen if he or she is Ayyappa? He/She will be so loving to his/her mother but will be weak mentally to go to the forest by himself/herself to get the Tiger's milk.
Here the Tiger's milk can be used metaphorically as making a name for oneself in the World. The forest can be thought of as the world with its chaos, problems, and complications. To go to that world and conquer it, we need the help of the divine masculine, who has the power, drive, and ambition. But a person having more of divine feminine will find it difficult to get the Tiger's milk of power, name, and fame.
Now let us consider the framework of divine masculine being more dominant in a person and less of divine feminine. He/She may not feel enough love to go to the World to get the Tiger's milk for oneself, one's family or one's world. Even if he/she went on his/her own accord, he/she will not have enough love and compassion to bring the Tiger's milk to the mother. Bringing the milk back to the mother can be thought of as working for one's own family, country, people or the world. That person will use the milk just for himself, which as previously discussed is considered Selfish from the point of the divine. So what do we really need?
We need to have perfect balance of divine feminine and masculine energies in our body, so that we have the love and compassion for ourselves and our mother (or our family), to go into the World, make a name for ourselves, get the Tiger's milk, come back home victorious on the Tiger itself (metaphor for the World applauding us and our efforts) and share our Tiger's milk or the results of our efforts with the mother, which is the family, greater community and the world itself. So isn't it beautiful to have the divine feminine and masculine in perfect balance in ourselves? Let Ayyappa guide us to have that perfect balance in our every day life.
Chin Mudra: Now as you all have seen in the picture of Ayyappa, he keeps his right hand as a mudra called 'Chin Mudra', with the thumb and the fore-finger joined and the other three fingers pointing out. This is known as a Yogic mudra, which is considered very good for wisdom and peace.
Yoga, apart what does this symbol really mean? Let us consider that the thumb is the Universal Self or the Brahman or Paramatma (we will discuss this concept in another post soon) or the Universal source. Remember, the opposable thumb is a must for many of the activities we do with our hand. If the thumb is not there, then many of our activities with our hand become very difficult. This can be thought metaphorically as, without the Universal wisdom or thumb, we as a fore-finger can do only so much. Now the fore-finger can be called 'Jeevatma' or our own Self or the inner voice we have within ourselves. We need Jeevatma to function as a human being in our materialistic existence.
But the thumb and fore-finger are later joined to show that the Jeevatma has to be joined with Paramatma or Brahman, to get the full force of wisdom or peace. Then the fore-finger and the thumb becomes a circle where energy flows from one to the other constantly, showing there is a constant flow of energy to the Jeevatma from the Paramatma and vice-versa. Now think of a circle, it has no rough edges, all the surface is smooth, which shows that energy has to flow back and forth effortlessly as if constantly through a circle. But do we have an attitude of a circle in continuous touch with the divine? Many times, No! We with our rough edges of ego, anger, pride, fear and all other low vibration emotions, block the smooth flow of energy back and forth.
If we take the other fingers, say middle finger as ego, ring finger as illusion or 'Maya' and the small finger as our 'Karma' and they are extended away from the hand, showing we should remove them from our being, to have the Jeevatma joined with the Paramatma. This is the basic tenet of 'Sanatana Dharma', where we work in conjunction with the Supreme soul and we are never asked to work in a vacuum or think we don't have any power or no one is on our side. Paramatma is always on our side and near us, observing all our actions, as the 'Silent Observer'.
Now, look how Ayyappa is sitting in his Yoga pose, Arddha Asana. To be in this pose we need the ultimate concentration, of sitting in that pose with the feet touching the ground fully and balanced otherwise, we will topple down. So this shows it is not enough to have the Chinmudra and the underlying wisdom and peace, but we also should have the ultimate focus to maintain that inner wisdom and peace, otherwise, the Maya or the 'Grand Illusion' is so strong, it can topple us over. Remember how Shiva, the Yogi incarnate himself fell prey to Vishnu-Maya?
Tat Twam Asi: Finally Ayyappa's ultimate teaching is 'Tat Twam Asi', which is kept as a Sanskrit phrase in front of every Ayyappa temple. What does it mean? Tat (तत ) means That, Twam (त्वम् ) is You and Asi (असि) is Being. What does that mean? It fully means, 'You are that' or 'Thou art that'. It means you don't have to go around in search of Parabrahma or reality or God. Just realize that you are already that Brahman itself. So what does it really signify?
Remember, all of us have a soul, that is pure, eternal and immortal. Water cannot wet it, fire cannot burn it, wind cannot disperse it and it is pure, original and eternal. But it is not enough to consider the soul as standing in a vacuum but to know that it is the ultimate reality or Brahman itself, that has taken the form of a soul and sitting eternally, immortally and peacefully inside every one of us.
So the 'Tat Twam Asi' tries to remind us the fact we have forgotten once we have taken birth in a human form. It tries to gently nudge us to the fact that we ourselves are Brahman and we don't have to go searching around looking for a separate God and we just have to embrace the concept of our Soul or the Ultimate reality fully in ourselves as the inner voice and start functioning from that point of power within ourselves.
There is also a view point in Vedic philosophy that the human birth is a blessing we get due to our good Karmas (Karma theory, for another post). Here we are not saying that an animal birth or a plant birth is in any way less or inferior. But it is a blessing because, only in a human form, we can take a previous incident, reflect on it, contemplate on it and take a more apt decision for ourselves. In the form of a cat or a dog, we just live in the moment. we don't contemplate or reflect on our previous experiences and take the best decision for ourselves going forward. This does not mean to live in the past or dream about the future. But the best way to live will be to take the knowledge we get from the experiences we already had, contemplate on it deeply, then collect the pearls of wisdom we get to live fully in the moment realizing the fact that we are given enormous power in the form of 'Tat Twam Asi- You yourself is the Brahman' or the true reality and live from a point of fully embracing this fact, powerfully, intentionally and authentically!
Now something for fun! Ayyappa is in the yogic posture in deep contemplation. What is he contemplating? He has already taught us 'Tat Twam Asi', so he himself knows it, so no need to contemplate on it. Then what is he reflecting on? Let us think. What does Ayyappa has that is something unique? All dads have wives in the traditional family. But Ayyappa has a very non-traditional family. His Mom, Mohini herself has a wife,who is Mahalakshmi. Now Ayyappa is deeply contemplating what to call his mother's wife. It is a peculiar dilemma isn't it? Any names you can suggest to Ayyappa to call Mahalakshmi?
Of course, these are a few of my interpretations and as previously mentioned, there can be another thousands as well.
I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday! 😉
Next week: Diwali-Significance of the lamp!
Note: Images taken from Wikimedia Commons, in the Public domain of the U.S.A.
Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".
All rights reserved to the author (SwaroopaStargazer) and SwaroopaBlog.
To my Blog readers: As all of you know, the European Union has passed laws regarding the collection of user data. This is just to inform all my EU blog readers, I use Google Analytics, which Google provides, to look at from where readers are reading my blogs. I also use Specific feeds for their service for subscription. I don't collect or intend to collect user data to sell or provide to third-party applications. Regards,
SwaroopaBlog.
Disclaimer: This is a personal blog. The opinions and viewpoints shared here are that of the author/owner only. Even though the author/owner will try to research well before posting the information, the author/owner of this blog does not make any portrayal of the accuracy or correctness of the content on this blog or the links provided. The author/owner will not be liable for any omissions or inaccuracies occurred. The author/owner will not be liable for any damages or losses due to the use or display of this blog. These terms and conditions can change at any time. This blog is purely for informational purposes only.
©SwaroopaStargazer and Swaroopa, 2017.
Namaste! Today we are going to discuss a very deep subject and how we can interpret it. I myself am not fully aware of it to discuss it deeply and extensively. But why not give it a try and see how it goes. If we can find some gems out of this analysis, why not. But again, the subject we are tackling today is very deep and there can be a million ways it can be interpreted. Let us start.
Last week, we discussed how Mohini and Shiva became the parents of Ayyappa and how he grew up in Panthalam in Kerala and later had a shrine made for him in the Western Ghats called 'Sabarimala'. Now let us think about Ayyappa. Who were his parents? One parent was Mohini who in other words is Vishnu-Maya, a form of Durga and the other parent was Shiva who was the Yogi incarnate.
We all know that Vishnu-Maya or Durga can be considered as the feminine creative energy or the divine feminine and Shiva can be considered the masculine energy or divine masculine. Ayyappa, who is their son is known as a 'Poorna Swaroopa'. Now we all know what the word 'Swaroopa' (of course it is the name of this blog) means; it is 'Authentic Self'. Now 'Poorna' means complete or full. So Poorna Swaroopa is 'complete authentic Self '. What does this mean? It means in Ayyappa the divine feminine and the divine masculine are in equal parts and they are situated in perfect balance and because of this balance he is perfect, authentic and complete. If the archetypal energies are not balanced, one can overtake the other and then chaos ensues.
Divine feminine, as well as masculine, are the archetypal energies; feminine, being the creative energy of creating, nurturing and growing and masculine is the energy of conquering, winning and competition. Now remember we discussed last week, Ayyappa went to the forest to get Tiger's milk for his mother, which is the feminine energy of nurture, love and compassion. He was so loving to his mother, his love for her drove him to the forest to get the Tiger's milk so that she can be cured. Later he came back on a Tigress, which shows the conquering energy of the divine masculine. It is active, aggressive and conquering. So he had to fight the Tigress, show his power, tame the beast and bring it home so that the divine feminine could do its part. This shows both these energies exist in him in perfect balance. So what does Ayyappa teach us with this?
 |
| Ayyappa By Abhilash Pattathil (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Perfect Balance: If we assimilate his energy, we can bring both our energies also into perfect balance in our body. We already discussed the archetypes, of divine feminine and masculine. Both these archetypal energies exist in each of us as well. Now let us take a scenario where the divine feminine is dominant in a person, what will happen if he or she is Ayyappa? He/She will be so loving to his/her mother but will be weak mentally to go to the forest by himself/herself to get the Tiger's milk.
Here the Tiger's milk can be used metaphorically as making a name for oneself in the World. The forest can be thought of as the world with its chaos, problems, and complications. To go to that world and conquer it, we need the help of the divine masculine, who has the power, drive, and ambition. But a person having more of divine feminine will find it difficult to get the Tiger's milk of power, name, and fame.
Now let us consider the framework of divine masculine being more dominant in a person and less of divine feminine. He/She may not feel enough love to go to the World to get the Tiger's milk for oneself, one's family or one's world. Even if he/she went on his/her own accord, he/she will not have enough love and compassion to bring the Tiger's milk to the mother. Bringing the milk back to the mother can be thought of as working for one's own family, country, people or the world. That person will use the milk just for himself, which as previously discussed is considered Selfish from the point of the divine. So what do we really need?
We need to have perfect balance of divine feminine and masculine energies in our body, so that we have the love and compassion for ourselves and our mother (or our family), to go into the World, make a name for ourselves, get the Tiger's milk, come back home victorious on the Tiger itself (metaphor for the World applauding us and our efforts) and share our Tiger's milk or the results of our efforts with the mother, which is the family, greater community and the world itself. So isn't it beautiful to have the divine feminine and masculine in perfect balance in ourselves? Let Ayyappa guide us to have that perfect balance in our every day life.
Chin Mudra: Now as you all have seen in the picture of Ayyappa, he keeps his right hand as a mudra called 'Chin Mudra', with the thumb and the fore-finger joined and the other three fingers pointing out. This is known as a Yogic mudra, which is considered very good for wisdom and peace.
Yoga, apart what does this symbol really mean? Let us consider that the thumb is the Universal Self or the Brahman or Paramatma (we will discuss this concept in another post soon) or the Universal source. Remember, the opposable thumb is a must for many of the activities we do with our hand. If the thumb is not there, then many of our activities with our hand become very difficult. This can be thought metaphorically as, without the Universal wisdom or thumb, we as a fore-finger can do only so much. Now the fore-finger can be called 'Jeevatma' or our own Self or the inner voice we have within ourselves. We need Jeevatma to function as a human being in our materialistic existence.
But the thumb and fore-finger are later joined to show that the Jeevatma has to be joined with Paramatma or Brahman, to get the full force of wisdom or peace. Then the fore-finger and the thumb becomes a circle where energy flows from one to the other constantly, showing there is a constant flow of energy to the Jeevatma from the Paramatma and vice-versa. Now think of a circle, it has no rough edges, all the surface is smooth, which shows that energy has to flow back and forth effortlessly as if constantly through a circle. But do we have an attitude of a circle in continuous touch with the divine? Many times, No! We with our rough edges of ego, anger, pride, fear and all other low vibration emotions, block the smooth flow of energy back and forth.
If we take the other fingers, say middle finger as ego, ring finger as illusion or 'Maya' and the small finger as our 'Karma' and they are extended away from the hand, showing we should remove them from our being, to have the Jeevatma joined with the Paramatma. This is the basic tenet of 'Sanatana Dharma', where we work in conjunction with the Supreme soul and we are never asked to work in a vacuum or think we don't have any power or no one is on our side. Paramatma is always on our side and near us, observing all our actions, as the 'Silent Observer'.
Now, look how Ayyappa is sitting in his Yoga pose, Arddha Asana. To be in this pose we need the ultimate concentration, of sitting in that pose with the feet touching the ground fully and balanced otherwise, we will topple down. So this shows it is not enough to have the Chinmudra and the underlying wisdom and peace, but we also should have the ultimate focus to maintain that inner wisdom and peace, otherwise, the Maya or the 'Grand Illusion' is so strong, it can topple us over. Remember how Shiva, the Yogi incarnate himself fell prey to Vishnu-Maya?
Tat Twam Asi: Finally Ayyappa's ultimate teaching is 'Tat Twam Asi', which is kept as a Sanskrit phrase in front of every Ayyappa temple. What does it mean? Tat (तत ) means That, Twam (त्वम् ) is You and Asi (असि) is Being. What does that mean? It fully means, 'You are that' or 'Thou art that'. It means you don't have to go around in search of Parabrahma or reality or God. Just realize that you are already that Brahman itself. So what does it really signify?
Remember, all of us have a soul, that is pure, eternal and immortal. Water cannot wet it, fire cannot burn it, wind cannot disperse it and it is pure, original and eternal. But it is not enough to consider the soul as standing in a vacuum but to know that it is the ultimate reality or Brahman itself, that has taken the form of a soul and sitting eternally, immortally and peacefully inside every one of us.
So the 'Tat Twam Asi' tries to remind us the fact we have forgotten once we have taken birth in a human form. It tries to gently nudge us to the fact that we ourselves are Brahman and we don't have to go searching around looking for a separate God and we just have to embrace the concept of our Soul or the Ultimate reality fully in ourselves as the inner voice and start functioning from that point of power within ourselves.
 | |
| The symbol of Brahman, Aum on Sahasrara chakra The yellow Aum -By Ms Sarah Welch (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Sahasrara chakra (Violet) - By Morgan Phoenix (Own work) |
There is also a view point in Vedic philosophy that the human birth is a blessing we get due to our good Karmas (Karma theory, for another post). Here we are not saying that an animal birth or a plant birth is in any way less or inferior. But it is a blessing because, only in a human form, we can take a previous incident, reflect on it, contemplate on it and take a more apt decision for ourselves. In the form of a cat or a dog, we just live in the moment. we don't contemplate or reflect on our previous experiences and take the best decision for ourselves going forward. This does not mean to live in the past or dream about the future. But the best way to live will be to take the knowledge we get from the experiences we already had, contemplate on it deeply, then collect the pearls of wisdom we get to live fully in the moment realizing the fact that we are given enormous power in the form of 'Tat Twam Asi- You yourself is the Brahman' or the true reality and live from a point of fully embracing this fact, powerfully, intentionally and authentically!
Now something for fun! Ayyappa is in the yogic posture in deep contemplation. What is he contemplating? He has already taught us 'Tat Twam Asi', so he himself knows it, so no need to contemplate on it. Then what is he reflecting on? Let us think. What does Ayyappa has that is something unique? All dads have wives in the traditional family. But Ayyappa has a very non-traditional family. His Mom, Mohini herself has a wife,who is Mahalakshmi. Now Ayyappa is deeply contemplating what to call his mother's wife. It is a peculiar dilemma isn't it? Any names you can suggest to Ayyappa to call Mahalakshmi?
Of course, these are a few of my interpretations and as previously mentioned, there can be another thousands as well.
I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday! 😉
Next week: Diwali-Significance of the lamp!
Note: Images taken from Wikimedia Commons, in the Public domain of the U.S.A.
Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".
All rights reserved to the author (SwaroopaStargazer) and SwaroopaBlog.
To my Blog readers: As all of you know, the European Union has passed laws regarding the collection of user data. This is just to inform all my EU blog readers, I use Google Analytics, which Google provides, to look at from where readers are reading my blogs. I also use Specific feeds for their service for subscription. I don't collect or intend to collect user data to sell or provide to third-party applications. Regards,
SwaroopaBlog.
Disclaimer: This is a personal blog. The opinions and viewpoints shared here are that of the author/owner only. Even though the author/owner will try to research well before posting the information, the author/owner of this blog does not make any portrayal of the accuracy or correctness of the content on this blog or the links provided. The author/owner will not be liable for any omissions or inaccuracies occurred. The author/owner will not be liable for any damages or losses due to the use or display of this blog. These terms and conditions can change at any time. This blog is purely for informational purposes only.
©SwaroopaStargazer and Swaroopa, 2017.
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