UNDERSTANDING THOU ART THAT

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

70. UNDERSTANDING THOU ART THAT
When the Upanishads address you and declare: Thou art That, you should be very clear in
your mind what the term Thou implies. Then alone, when this is grasped with clarity and subtle
receptivity, can you truly and immediately understand what That connotes and how this
relationship of oneness, or being the same as, is possible.
If you think that by the vocative term Thou, the Upanishads mean you who are listening
with your ears and trying to understand with your mind and grasp with your intellect, then the very
purpose of the declaration is thwarted. Because, if to you the term Thou still seems to mean a
physical entity, that means that you are still identifying yourself with the body, mind and intellect.

And as long as you are still in that state of understanding yourself, in that state of consciousness, the
Upanishads have failed in their mission, for they are not referring to this thou.
When the Upanishads say Thou, they are not using human language but are trying to convey
to you a divine experience. They are neither using Sanskrit, English, Hindi nor any other language.
They are declaring an experience which is imponderable, beyond the knowing of the mind or the
grasping of the intelligence: yato vacho nivartante aprapya manasa saha (whence all speech turns
back with the mind, not reaching It).
So, if instead of trying to understand the term Thou upon that level—where mind and
speech could not enter, they came back unable to comprehend It—you persist in taking it to mean a
physical and psychological level, then the inner implication of Thou has not yet dawned upon you.
They are not saying that Mr. or Mrs. So and So is Brahman. That is an absurdity. There is a saying in
Hindi which means that what you are understanding and what they mean are as different as the earth
and the sky.
Therefore, you first have to understand what this Thou is that they are referring to when they
declare that Thou art That. They are not referring to the seen you, the name and form you. They are
referring to the unseen you. They are not referring to anything whatsoever that is seen; they are
referring to you as the hidden, unknown seer of all things seen, the knower of all things known. In
that dimension, Thou, the hidden seer of all things seen, art That, that which alone prevails.
That verily is your source, your alpha and omega, your be-all and end-all—You, the unseen.
You, who may know the world, but the whole world can never know You. Even your father and
mother cannot know You unless they themselves have already understood the true meaning of the
terms Thou and That.
Therefore, the need of long study, the need of sitting at the feet of a knower of Brahman and
listening to what he has to say about Brahman, about maya, about yourself and about your
interrelationship. When he expounds on whether maya really exists or does not exist and your
relationship to Brahman—day after day, over months and years—then you must reflect: “Guruji
says I am not this gross body and mind. What does he mean? Then, who am I?” You must listen,
reflect and meditate.
They say Rome was not built in a day. God is not understood, realised, even in one lifetime,
what to speak of a day. Yet they say He can be realised within a twinkling of an eye; it takes no time.
How can we reconcile these statements?
If a dry match is struck against a rough surface it will immediately burst into flame. Try
doing that with a toothpick on a cake of soap. You can go on striking it all your life and nothing will
come because the toothpick does not contain the crucial factor. On the other hand, consider the
amount of work and the number of steps that go into the manufacture of a match head. And then it
has to be struck against a suitable surface.
Thus, when the interior of a seeker is ready, fully prepared through years of study, listening
to the truth and reflecting and pondering over what has been studied and listened to, then,

ultimately, when the Upanishads declare to you Thou art That, you know perfectly well exactly
what is implied, what is meant by Thou. You understand that it does not mean this I which you are
using in common parlance upon the field of outer worldly activity, but it means the real I, distinct
from the three bodies, transcending the five sheaths and not experiencing or undergoing any
experience of the changing states of consciousness of waking, dream and sleep.
“I am the unchanging fourth state of consciousness, calmly witnessing the ever-recurring
cycle of waking, dreaming and sleep. I am watching; I am experiencing. I am neither awake, nor
dreaming, nor sleeping, because I have never slept in order to be awake. Eternally, I have been what
I am. I am that I AM. Wakefulness is my name. Awareness is my name.”
It is this meaning that the Upanishads are trying to address. Therefore, it is easy, simple. At
the same time it is not easy, not simple. It depends upon how much you have worked upon yourself
in order to gradually cleanse and refine your consciousness, raise it from its normal physical,
psychological level and keep it upon a supra-physical, supra-psychological spiritual level, divine
level—a divine level where inwardly you have climbed Jacob’s ladder and fixed yourself in the
Kingdom of Heaven that is within you. Then this heavenly utterance which introduces you to
yourself will be grasped and understood. When the word That is understood, then only can its
relationship to the word Thou also be grasped.
Therefore, they say that it is the subtlest of all subtle things. You must make your
consciousness attain this subtlety. If it is still involved in dualities, in likes and dislikes, joy and
grief, and identification with the body, how can that level be attained? You may fancy, you may
fondly think, but a fancy is a fancy only, a fond thought is a fond thought only. This is not a child’s
play or a child’s game.
One sage said that grasping this truth is like chewing on steel peanuts and digesting them. It
is not a little thing. Therefore, there is a need for humility, for clarity of thought, for clearly
understanding what this truth is and where you stand. Then, humbly, with patience, diligence and
fortitude try to move towards it and keep on moving, moving, moving. Make your life this slow
movement— minute by minute, hour by hour, day after day—never changing direction, never
changing your objective, never allowing anything to divert you this way or that from moving
towards that centre and living in and for that great centre with every breath, every thought.
This is sadhana, this is spiritual life, this is yoga abhyasa, this is meditation—dwelling on
it, contemplating it. Therefore, meditation is every minute, all twenty-four hours of the day. It is not
only when you are alone in your meditation room. Meditation is throughout the day and night, even
when you are working or serving or in a crowd. If the meditation stops, your sadhana has stopped,
your progress has stopped.
You may be alone inside your meditation room, but in thought you may be in the middle of
the world. Therefore, this is not play; it is not an ordinary thing. It requires humility and a clear
understanding of your real identity. Then a positing of the question of Thou is not ridiculous. How
can this thou be That? It is not this thou that is meant. It is something that is inside this thou that is
meant when they used the term Thou.

Therefore let us fully understand. Let us first assess our present state and see where we are.
Then, let us do all that is needful to reach where we ought to be if we want to understand Reality, if
we want to grasp the Truth!