Making you believe or are you that itself?

Now, to be honest, this hasn’t really been a great day for me - for too many technical problems, office problems and lots more. But, I am not sure why this part of me says that all these problems happening to me aren’t that important or nerve-wracking as they appear, and certainly not that important for me to write an entire blog about them. 

Right now, what I can focus on is one of the core teachings of Advaita Vedanta that says that all of the power that you believe in, or all the supernatural phenomena happening around you is nothing but you. In Sanskrit, that’s colloquially called “Tvat tam asi” or that thou art which means you are That.  

You are existence, conscious, bliss itself and that you do not need to seek any validation from outside. Initially, when I began reading up about Vedanta, I found out that this might seem superficial, but when you do get into the process, you can perhaps identify yourself as the one, powerful being. 

Talking of beliefs, while I don’t have any problem whatsoever with observing fasts in the name of God, visiting temples thereby asking for something in return, but I’d also like to say that when you realise that you are bowing down before someone and believe that miracles do happen, you operate from an area of faith. 

The advocates of Advaita Vedanta hold the belief that to realise your utmost inner divinity, you wouldn’t have to sneak anywhere outside. You just got to sit calmly, relax and realise that it’s you in which the entire universe lies. Also, while you are said to believe in a particular form of worship, more than the miracles that happen, a lot of it is based on beliefs too.

So, the proponents and the believers of the Advaita school of thought believe that one can ask a hundred questions and have a thousand doubts about Advaita and the philosophical school would have answers to all of that, as in conventional religion one needs to operate from an area of belief.

From this juncture, we can safely say that all the concepts being propounded in Advaita can be proven. The experts also believe that you gain a clear understanding as and when you go through the process yourself, you do realise that it ain’t that difficult and that you perhaps got it covered. 

Now, people from this school of thought say that there’s no concept in here that you do have to believe, in fact, you are that itself. 

Image by Jared Rice on Unsplash