That thou art

Here a doubt is raised: the jīva has the sense of 'I' and knows but little; Īśvara is without the sense of 'I' and knows all. From the great saying 'That thou art,' how can the two be known as one, when each is held by qualities opposed to the other? If this is asked, the answer is no. The one identified with the gross and subtle bodies is the spoken sense of the word 'thou.' The pure consciousness, freed of all conditioning, full in the depth of samādhi, is the aimed-at sense of the word 'thou.' Īśvara, marked by all-knowing and the rest, is the spoken sense of the word 'that.' Consciousness alone, without any conditioning, is the aimed-at sense of the word 'that.' So, in their being as consciousness, nothing stands in the way of the oneness of jīva and Īśvara.

An objection may be raised: the jīva has ego and knows only a little, while Īśvara is egoless and all-knowing. Since the two carry opposite qualities, how can the great saying 'That thou art' (tat tvam asi) teach their oneness? The answer is that it can. The literal sense of the word 'thou' (tvam) is the one who identifies with the gross and subtle bodies. The intended sense of 'thou' is the pure consciousness, free of all conditioning, realized in samādhi. The literal sense of the word 'that' (tat) is Īśvara, marked by all-knowingness and the like. The intended sense of 'that' is pure consciousness, without any conditioning. So, taken as pure consciousness, there is no obstacle to the oneness of jīva and Īśvara.